Let's Talk Pinterest Institutional Knowledge
Why That Person Who Started Last Tuesday Shouldn’t Be Your Guru
I have been using Pinterest since 2012 long.
Like:
Mason jar wedding long
Chevron background long
Chronological feed long
And let me tell you… I have SEEN SOME THINGS.
This post is me emptying my Pinterest brain into one place so that when someone starts Pinterest, publishes one perfect pin, refreshes analytics every 17 minutes, and spirals… I can gently say:
“Sweet pea, Pinterest is a long game. Let’s go make more content.”
The Early Era: Followers + Chronological Feeds
Back in the day, Pinterest worked like this:
Your followers saw pins in chronological order
Timing mattered A LOT
More followers = more visibility
So what did we do?
We posted the SAME PIN
Every.
Single.
Day.
At “optimal” times.
Because we assumed:
More people were on Pinterest after work
So that must be when to post
I have boards with HUNDREDS of the same pin on them.
And now when some brand-new Pinterest gamoke tells people to delete old pins “that aren’t working”?
I want to hand her a juice box and say:
“No ma’am. Some of those pins will resurrect themselves in 7–8 years.”
I regularly see pins that are 7–8 years old start working again.
No, I haven’t seen a 2012 zombie rise.
But 2018? Oh yes.
Pinterest remembers!
The Great Swap: Non-Linear Feeds
Then Pinterest flipped the table.
Chronological feeds? Gone.
Cue the hand wringing.
“How will anyone see our pins if we can’t post them 400 times?!”
Around this time, Tailwind introduced SmartLoop.
Set it.
Forget it.
Rotate pins forever.
And I LOVED that idea.
In theory? Delightful.
In practice?
We eventually learned that endlessly rotating tired old content isn’t the best experience for users - or for Pinterest.
This was also the co-occurrence era.
Repin an old successful pin.
Then post a new related pin.
Try to “hook” them together in the algorithm.
Exhausting.
I did not participate.
Because if I have to engineer a ritual to summon Pinterest spirits… I’m out!
The Fresh Pin Era (2015–2018)
This was the MIND-BLOWING season.
Through conversations between Tailwind and Pinterest, we learned about “fresh pins.”
And suddenly everything made sense.
Pinterest ranked:
New URL + new pin = BEST
Old URL + new pin = good
Repinning = meh
If you had told 2012 me that repinning would die?
I would have called you CRAZY pants.
But it did.
This is also when we realized:
Keyword-rich board titles matter
Dumping every first pin onto a general blog board might not be ideal
Boards carry authority
And let’s talk about boards.
They’re not sexy.
Pins get the glamour.
But big, aged boards with authority? They help pins rank faster.
The spammers never built strong boards because they were in and out.
Old pinners?
We built board authority over YEARS.
And yes, sometimes that “general blog board” everyone says doesn’t work?
Works just fine when it’s seasoned!
The Current Era (And The Contaminated Water Phase)
Let’s be honest.
The recent era has been… messy.
When Google rolled out its HCU update, many creators lost traffic and pivoted to Pinterest overnight.
Some got quick wins.
Declared themselves experts.
Dropped misinformation everywhere.
Then left.
The water is still murky from that.
One person who stuck around and actually learned the platform was Tony Hill, who created an incredible Pinterest keyword research tool. Finally, we can see keyword data like we used to for Google.
Speaking of keywords…
Old-school pinners knew about annotations.
If you logged out of Pinterest, you could see hidden keywords Pinterest appended to pins for context.
Sometimes helpful:
“Chicken recipes”
Sometimes weird:
“Diane’s Favorites”
(Thanks, Diane’s mom.)
We learned it back in the day from an old Pinterest witch (not really, it was just Debbie…:) We shared it behind the scenes, in our classes or on our accounts but it never hit the mainstream info until…
Fresh Pins Now (With Common Sense, Please)
Recent Tailwind research showed:
New URL + new pin = strongest
New pin for old post = about 65% as effective
Which is GREAT news.
But I am NOT a fan of:
Changing text color
Shrinking dimensions
Calling that “fresh”
If you’re going to make a new pin?
Make it aligned with what’s working on your account right now.
Style evolves.
User expectations evolve.
Pinterest evolves.
Effort matters!
I have a great (affordable) course about how to make pins fast… if you struggle with that maybe check it out!
Here’s The Hard Truth
Pinterest is not:
5 pins a day
2 blog posts a week
A magic formula
There are NO universal rules.
I have two Pinterest accounts.
Same creator.
Similar content.
They behave COMPLETELY differently.
What works on my big seasoned account could get a brand-new account flagged.
You cannot copy-paste someone else’s exact strategy.
You have to:
Make a lot of content
Make a lot of pins
Look backward
See what works on YOUR account
That’s institutional knowledge.
My Personal Gripe: The Freeway Sign Users
Some creators treat Pinterest like a freeway billboard.
They:
Post their blog link
Pin only their content
Never engage
Never save other pins
Pinterest is a platform.
Not a traffic faucet.
I genuinely believe one reason Pinterest is less finicky with my accounts is that I:
Pin my content
Pin other real content
Use it like a human
Pinterest can tell the difference.
The Big Picture
Most pins do not succeed in a day.
Most online traction takes:
6–9 months
Sometimes longer
Most skills take:
6–9 YEARS to master
So taking advice from someone who discovered Pinterest three months ago and is currently yelling in all caps about “THE ONE SECRET”?
Probably not it.
Pinterest institutional knowledge is:
Pattern recognition
Emotional regulation
Long-term thinking
Strategic patience
It’s not sexy.
But it builds sustainable traffic.
Your Turn!
Have you been on Pinterest long enough to see the cycles?
Reply and tell me which era you started in!