So, I’m sure you’re here because you’ve heard that Pinterest wants us to start creating a lot more “fresh pins”, yes? You are not alone! There are a LOT of questions swirling around out there about this, like “What does ‘fresh pins’ even MEAN?” and “How the heck am I supposed to keep all these pins organized?” Maybe you’re feeling a little bit of “How do I make ‘fresh pins’ all the time?”, “How often do I need to create fresh pins?”, or “Where do I pin them?” Wherever you are, you’re among friends. We’re all learning the newness together. :)

I definitely do not have ALL the answers and am learning with you too, but whenever Pinterest announces any changes, it sends people for a bit of a loop. So, here are 5 simple tips to answer some of the most basic questions surrounding fresh pins and how to use them in your Pinterest strategy.

1. Know what “fresh pins” are.

Fresh pins are “images that have never been on Pinterest before” (quote from Alisa from Tailwind). So, IMAGES that have never been on Pinterest before is specifically referring to the actual image, photo, or picture. Only changing the description, title, or color of your text overlay is NOT creating a fresh pin. A “fresh pin” needs to have a NEW IMAGE. You can use the same image and zoom in on different areas of the photo if they appear different enough. You can choose to use completely different photos that represent the same concept or you can use the same photo with very different perspectives or focal points. As long as the image appears to be a new, unique image, that would be considered a “fresh pin”. See the few ideas of examples below.

So, WHY do we need fresh pins now? As Pinterest watched how people interacted with pins on the platform, they noticed that more pinners tended to engage with new images that lead to more recent, new content as opposed to their interactions with pins that lead to older content. So, the short answer is, because people engage with fresh pins more often than with older pins.

2. Use a few different templates to create your pins.

Creating and using templates to create your pins is a great way to make pin creation quick and efficient. Since a fresh pin is an image that has never been on Pinterest before, that means that the text in your pins can stay as similar (or be as different) as you want it to be. I would recommend creating a few templates to use in order to add a little variety to your pin looks and potentially connect with more pinners. You can play around with the placement and style of your text overlay, the focus of your photos, the size of your photos, and the wording of your text. Just remember that ONLY changing the text does not create a fresh pin.

3. Pin your fresh content to 5-10 RELEVANT boards.

As far as where to pin these fresh pins, you should pin the very first fresh pin for any blog post or resource to YOUR MOST RELEVANT BOARD. I would recommend creating boards that are specific to and directly relevant to your content as well. So, for example, if your blog post is about a kindergarten math strategy, create and pin the first fresh pin to a “Kindergarten Math Activities” board or something like that instead of just “Math Activities”. This way, Pinterest is more sure of what content this pin leads to and can show it to more people who are usually interested in similar pins.

4. Keep track of the pins for your content.

It’s more important than ever to keep track of your content and which blog posts and digital resources need fresh pins. I suggest starting by logging all your blog posts and digital resources using a tool like AirTable. I’ve also heard that Monday and Trello are helpful tools as well! You can always use GoogleSheets as well, but I do love AirTable because photos can be added by just dragging and dropping. Each column can also be customized for the kind of information that column will hold, such as images, dates, links, etc.

The picture below shows how I organize my blog posts and digital resources using AirTable. I’ve simply created columns to drop the images that I’m currently circulating on Pinterest and the ones that I would like to circulate the next time the post or resource needs to be marketed for. For seasonal content, you will probably one need to create a few pins once a year. For evergreen content, I would suggest creating fresh pins once per quarter. If you’re pinning your fresh pins to 5-10 boards using an interval of 10-20 days, these pins will most likely circulate for 3-6 months. So, the amount of fresh pins you’ll need to create will depend on when your pins stop circulating and when it is relevant for them to start rotating again.

5. Know that RECENCY is becoming more important than RELEVANCY.

This is a tricky tip, but, from all the information I’ve pulled together about these changed, I’ve heard multiple times that RECENCY is going to start holding more weight than relevancy. So, what that means is that the Pinterest algorithm will most likely start to push content that is most recent as opposed to how they’ve been doing it in the past, which has been pushing content that is most relevant to the search.

When relevancy was considered most important, pinners would often see old content pop back up and be popular at certain times, year after year. So, what’s different now is that even though old content may still pop up in pinners’ feeds when they’re searching for that specific topic, the Pinterest algorithm is going to be taking into account the recency of the content much more so than before. Therefore, it’s super important to be creating new content, as WELL as creating fresh pins leading to that content.

There are surely a MILLION more questions floating around out there, but I hope this gives you the most basic information so you can get started using the most updated information in your pinning strategy. Feel free to email or comment with questions! I’m happy to help if I can. :)

Cheering you on!