5 Best Tailwind Tribes for Etsy Shops | Etsy Shop Tips
As an Etsy shop owner, Pinterest has been my number one source of traffic asides from what comes from Etsy itself. Facebook & Instagram are great, but Pinterest is one of the only social media platforms that continually drives customers who are ready to shop right to my online store! My conversions are better, and I can also look at what my customers are also shopping for, which helps me define my target market even better AND I keep all that information in mind when I’m designing new collections in the spring and fall. When Pinterest was new to me, I tried a free trial of Tailwind, and learned SO MUCH about how to (successfully) drive traffic to my shop. In the year that I’ve been using it, it has changed so much and they’ve added a ton of new features like their Tailwind Tribes. If you are a shop owner looking to increase traffic to your shop, definitely read on for my favourite things about Tailwind Tribes and my Top 5 Tailwind Tribes for Etsy Shops! If you already use Tailwind and just want to get to the list – Click Here!
Ok, so first you will want to make sure you have a Pinterest Business Account. This isn’t like Facebook and Instagram where they tricked you into converted and then your engagement tanked, trust me! You’ll want to switch to a business account so you get all of the analytics that will really help you, and you can promote your pins, but you don’t have to in order to be seen. Remember, Pinterest isn’t your typical social media platform, it’s a search engine! It’s up to you to make sure your products are on the search engine! If you are looking for detailed info on how to convert your account or start a new business account, here’s a little post I wrote that explains exactly how to do that!
Also, in case you are still doubting on why you should even bother with Pinterest, here are a few things to consider:
- Millennials use Pinterest as much as Instagram.
- 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest.
- 93% of active pinners said they use Pinterest to plan for purchases and 87% said they’ve purchased something because of Pinterest.
As a very basic rundown of Tailwind, it is a scheduling tool that allows you to front load all of your pins for the month at the beginning of every month. I typically do it over two days, but many people I know do it all in one. Tailwind will tell you what your most popular pins and boards are, so they make it really easy for you to decide what you should pin. I need that to stay on track so it really works for me. People new to Pinterest are often overwhelmed when they hear that experts recommend you pin 20-25 pins per day when getting started. I immediately hear people ask “how in the world do I do that, I would be on Pinterest all the time!”
The answer is, find a system that works for you. My favourite type of social media is the kind I can set-and-forget, and so this is why Tailwind works for me. But you don’t need to use it if you create a system that works for you! Maybe that means starting with 5 pins per day, maybe that means researching other scheduling programs (although if you do this, please, please make sure they are Pinterest approved programs, so you aren’t breaking any rules!), but I do recommend at least trying the free Tailwind trial for a month, if only to take their tutorials and learn more about Pinterest and how to use it to your advantage!
Ok, now that I’ve talked your ear off about my favourite tool ever, here’s a explanation about Tailwind Tribes!
Pinterest recommends that at least half of your pins are other people’s pins. I.e. Don’t just open a business Pinterest account and ONLY pin your products or your blog posts. In order to create a favourable board, Pinterest wants you to create beautiful reference boards for all the things that you love. Like a resource, for others (that also just so happens to have a few of your products mixed in as well). This means you don’t have to create and pin 20 – 25 of your own things each day, you get to mix and match. Except sometimes, this gets hard too.
So they created Tailwind Tribes which act similar to group boards, except they are so much better! When you pin to a group board, your pin quickly gets lost in the mix of hundreds of other people adding to that same board. When you pin to a Tribe, you are putting your pins into a pool that you know all of your other tribe mates are pulling from. Let’s take the Etsy Mini Mall Tribe for example, most of the people in this board either love Etsy and their products, or is an Etsy seller themselves and the people who are a part of the tribe are also looking to pin 20 – 25 pins per day. If you have beautiful handmade products and add your pins to this board, you are actually making it easier for them to check off their 20 – 25 pins per day. AND you get insane exposure.
When they first launched this feature, I joined a bajillion tribes. So many, in fact that a) it started to get overwhelming and b) I quickly figured out some groups (ok many groups) were duds. If a group has a low number of users, and low engagement, you are wasting your time pinning to them. If you join active groups, and your products fit well with the theme of the tribe, it really pays off! So, I wanted to save many of your the work that I had to go through, and share 5 of my favourite Tailwind Tribes for Etsy Shops that will help magnify your reach through these awesome communities. Another bonus: you don’t have to be a member of Tailwind to use Tailwind Tribes. Woo Hoo!
So without further ado, here are my favourite Tailwind Tribes for Etsy shops – and if you hop on over to join them, you’ll probably see me in there posting about once a month! If you do join any of them, don’t be afraid to reach out and say hello to leave a comment on this post to let me know which one you joined! I’ll make sure to include your pins in my next monthly batch to help us all get a little bit further in the shoptime hustle!!
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