Pinterest scheduling is essential to manage your account and grow your traffic.
Today we look at, and compare, 3 of the most common options to plan your Pinterest Content. I hope to help you find the right strategy for you:
Tailwind vs BoardBooster vs Manual
We'll have a look at ease of use, functionalities, scheduling options, cost, ... and I will suggest how to use them for maximum results.
Let's have a look:
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UPDATE 2021 -
Since entering on the stock exchange, Pinterest has completely changed strategy.
They want to keep users on their platform and not send them on our blogs.
They are moving away from being a search engine to being just another social media platform.
The following article was not updated following that change, since I consider Pinterest is not worth the time anymore, not bringing much traffic.
Pinterest Scheduling
Once you start being serious about Pinterest Marketing and growing your traffic from Pinterest, Scheduling becomes essential. It can help you put in place your Pinterest Strategy (learn the essential elements of a Pinterest Strategy)
You need to plan ahead to make sure you input regular interactions with Pinterest.
Even if you pin manually, you can't just go freestyle.
To get results, you need structure and plan ahead
Your schedule should cover:
Today we are comparing 3 options
TAILWIND vs BOARDBOOSTER vs MANUAL PINNING SCHEDULING
Boardbooster has not shut down as they did not get the status of approved partner.
Other potential schedulers can be used, but they are not as specialized. They are listed in my article about Pinterest Tools.
Overall - Tailwind vs BoardBooster vs Manual
Before we go into details in the pros and cons of each approach, here is an overview of the comparison between the 3, a snapshot of my personal opinion for each approach:
Biggest Complaints for each Pinterest Scheduler
Well, as you see they don't really work the same way.
On the Internet you will find Advocates for all 3 options telling you how this is better because of this or that.
The fact is they all have pros and cons, and you need to find the best solution for your use of Pinterest.
Here are the biggest complaints I hear in regards to the 2 online schedulers:
TAILWIND
It creates new pins instead of repinning
This is true. Tailwind is an approved partner of Pinterest, and their approved channel from Pinterest does not allow for repins. So for each pins shared through Tailwind, a new pin is created and the repin counter on the original one will not increase.
They discuss this point in this article.
Since people report great progress once they start using Tailwind, I would tend to say that their explanation is right. It is not so much of a drawback since it sends signal to the algorithm that this article is popular and people pin directly from it.
BOARDBOOSTER
It is not an approved partner
The list of Pinterest approved partners can be found here.
For the moment it does not seem to have a big impact. People report good results with BoardBooster. You just have to be aware that, one day, your reach may drop for this reason.
Details - BoardBooster vs Tailwind vs Manual
EASE OF USE
TAILWIND
PROS
- Easy user interface for creation of schedule, pin management, and shuffling of Pins
- Great extensions of all browsers allowing direct scheduling from the Internet
- Scheduling one by one or bulk scheduling - many options to save time!
- Online chat function in case of difficulties
- Easy switch between accounts
- Possibility to add collaborators
CONS
- All the tabs can feel overwhelming at the beginning
BOARDBOOSTER
PROS
- Set and forget - once you have established your secret boards and schedule, Boardbooster does it all, you work from Pinterest
- Easy to set up looping function - saves a lot of time
CONS
- Older-looking interface
- Another way of thinking - needs a little bit of time to get the hang of it (but not that hard)
- Creates a lot of duplicate secret boards in your account, so when you pin directly it takes time to find your boards - some might not like the messy look
- No management of multiple accounts
MANUAL PINNING
PROS
- Work directly in Pinterest, no new tool to learn
- Can organize yourself the way you want to
CONS
- Need to be very organized with your excel or paper table to manage articles / pins / Boards in order to know when you have already pinned
- No management of multiple accounts within Pinterest
SCHEDULE FUNCTIONNALITIES
TAILWIND
PROS
- Suggested best times to pin based on account
- Visual, easy to update
- Variability possible from one day to the other
- Can lock content to be sure it is published at specific moment
- Intervals when scheduling to avoid adding in a row to you boards
CONS
- Always suggests new times --> tempts you to pin more
- Not enough flexibility to create scheduling rules (e.g. once a day per group boards)
BOARDBOOSTER
PROS
- 3 types of scheduling - Direct content from secret board, campaigns on group boards and looping - great flexibility in the way you schedule
- Suggested best times to pin
CONS
- You plan a schedule, but nothing appears in BoardBooster, no visibility of pin queue or pinning threads
- No possibility to shuffle
- less flexibility for day by day changes
MANUAL PINNING
PROS
- You can schedule whatever way you want - totally flexible
CONS
- Nothing is automatic, you have to create all by hand inside a table
EXTRAS
TAILWIND
- ANALYTICS - Tailwind offers a lot of great data - statistics on your pins but best of all statistics on the engagement level of your boards
- BOARD LISTS - Grouping your boards inside lists to save time when scheduling
- SHUFFLE - function allowing you to bulk schedule and yet not pin the same pin twice in a row
- TRIBES - Integration with the powerful Tribes created by Tailwind where you join a group of like-minded pinners and share each others pins
- LOOPING - Tailwind is working on a proposal
- Cross publishing on FB and Twitter and Integration with Instagram
BOARDBOOSTER
- LOOPING - this is the main feature that attracts Pinterest users. It allows you to automatically repin your own content to the same board to fresh views
- PIN MOVER - allows you to bulk move pins to another board based on criteria (extra cost)
- PIN DOCTOR - check all you boards to fix the common problems with pins (URL issue, no description, link to irrelevant content, image issues...) (extra cost)
- GROUP MANAGER - for the owners of Group Boards to help monitor pins and contributors
MANUAL PINNING
None 🙁
COST
TAILWIND
Main plan for single user is a 9.99$ a month (less if you buy annually).
PROS
- Unlimited pins - good for advanced, and to feel free to pin
- Access to statistics
- Board engagement data
CONS
- No bulk price for several accounts
- Adding a collaborator is like adding a new account
- Statistics over 7 day period only
BOARDBOOSTER
Many different plans per number of pins per month:
The first plan is at 5$ per month for 500 pins (which means 16 pins per day)
PROS
- Smaller plan to start with
- Some analytics
CONS
- Per number of pins - harder to manage and control
- Once you add your looping, campaings and schedule, you will need to 10$ plan for 1000 pins per month
- Many extras not included in price
MANUAL PINNING
FREE!!!!!!!!!!
Recommended Pinterest Scheduling Strategy
If I had to choose between Tailwind and BoardBooster, I would pick Tailwind by far. I love the interface and the way to add pins to the queue and shuffle.
But I think the best approach is actually to use a combination:
Beginner Pinterest Stragegy
1. Use Tailwind to:
- Schedule repins of your new pins into other boards
- Schedule pins from others
3. Use Manual Pinning to:
- Add you new articles to the most specific board
Pinterest Stragegy for users with lots of content
1. Use Tailwind to:
- Schedule repins of your new pins into other boards
- Schedule pins from others
- Reschedule popular pins
2. Use Manual Pinning to:
- Add your new articles to the most specific board
- Repin directly the pins that brings the most traffic (found from Google Analytics, not from Pinterest or Tailwind - sometimes pins from others are the most powerful)
And when I go on holidays, only step 3 does not get done...
But remember the ESSENTIAL
SCHEDULING without the BASICS in place = NO RESULT
Scheduling is fantastic. I love my Tailwind account because I save a lot of time with it.
However, if you ignore the rest of your Pinterest Strategy, no amount of scheduling will help you grow your traffic.
It is ESSENTIAL to have the basis in place for scheduling to help. I mean:
- Providing content adapted to Pinterest Users' expectations
- Designing Fantastic Pins (both image and text) created with the user in mind
- Implementing Good Pinterest SEO so that the algorithm knows to show your pins to the right Pinterest users
If you need help learning all that and are looking for a step-by-step, check out the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche Course
Time to get scheduling!
