It’s hard to not get sucked into the pretty pin rabbit hole that is Pinterest. If you’re already using Pinterest for business, consider the different ways you use it.

For example, many businesses use Pinterest to sell products, drive website traffic, blog promotion, and messaging to influencers. It’s also an efficient research tool, and it’s this research aspect that keep me coming back.

When I’m looking for ideas, for either a personal or business project, I can rest assured that I will find some content on Pinterest. Even when Googling for general info, there is a good chance that the first images to appear in the search engine results are pins on Pinterest.

One of the lesser talked about features of Pinterest happens to be one of my favorite ways to utilize this platform. I’m talking about secret Pinterest boards!

Pinterest launched secret boards years ago, and I’m still loving this magical feature.

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3 Ways to Use Secret Pinterest Boards

There are many ways to use secret Pinterest boards. If you’re not taking advantage of the secret option, I encourage you to give it another look.

First things first:

What is the difference between a public board and a secret board?

A public board is your typical board that everyone can see. The pins show up in newsfeeds, people can follow the board, and pins can be repinned.

In contrast, if you create a secret board, only you (and anyone you invite) can see those secret boards. When you save a pin to a secret board, it won’t show up anywhere else on Pinterest.  When a board is secret, you followers cannot see the board or pins on the board. The pins do not show anywhere else on Pinterest.

In case you haven’t created a board in while, the screenshots below will show you how to create a secret board. When you’re creating a board, simply flip the Secret toggle to make it a secret board. You can make a secret board public (or vice versa) from the board’s Edit page as well.

 

Now that you know how to make your board secret, here are 3 ways businesses can use this feature to get more mileage from Pinterest. By the way, I use each of the suggested ideas.

 

Number 1: Create a Secret Pinterest Board for Blog Content Curation

As you scroll through your Pinterest feed, do you collect articles with the intention of using them in a future blog post? If you’re already pinning, why not use Pinterest as a tool for content curation?

One way to do this is to create a secret board, and pin content for future blog posts. You can even create multiple secret boards to correlate with your main blog categories. This is especially useful for curating infographics and industry stats! Then, when you’re at a loss for ideas, you have content ideas already curated in Pinterest. And yes, I do have a secret “Future Blog Post Ideas” board 🙂

Number 2: Take Your Time and Curate a Full, New Board

Pinterest is all about glam. When you’re using Pinterest the last thing you want to launch is a bare board. To combat this, the next time you get a braingasm and decide to create a new board, keep the new board as a secret board until you can curate enough content to fill out the board. This way, you won’t have to worry about someone clicking a half empty board with 3 pins. Using a secret Pinterest board will allow you to keep your pretty Pinterest profile robust and in tact.

This tip also comes in handy when you’re new to Pinterest. After you set up a new profile, you typically want to start pinning right away. However, it’s easier to take the time to curate full, organized boards. Keep your new boards on your new Pinterest profile as “secret” until you get a full board created with at least 10-15 pins. Then, you can make the board public. When someone visits your new profile, you’ll look less like a newbie and more like a polished pinning pro!  Rinse and repeat, at least for your first few boards.

Yes, I use this suggestion as well. This tip also useful to prevent you from creating a bunch of boards with only 3 pins. When you take the time to curate a board, you can figure out whether it should actually be a stand alone board, or a section of a another board.

Number 3: Create a Wish List for Your Rebranding Project

A third way you can use secret boards on Pinterest is for your own “wish my brand looked like this” kinds of pins.  C’mon, don’t act like I’m the only one that oooh’s and ahhhh’s over websites and cool brands!

For example, as you browse articles and blogs you may find logos you really like, or websites that look pretty snazzy. Alot of times we think we’ll remember these logos and brands when it’s time for a brand makeover. However, due to the sheer amount of logos and websites we’re exposed to on a regular basis, it’s almost impossible to remember everything we like. Why not pin them for future reference?

It’s these kinds of resources that we want to curate, but we don’t necessarily want other people to see them. Enter the beauty of secret Pinterest boards! Pin these brand inspirations for your future projects. You can even call your board “I wish my website looked like this” or something similar. Only your eyes will see it!

When you’re due for a brand makeover you will already have a curated board full of colors, styles and themes that you can refer to. Or you can invite your designer to access the board as you discuss your brand makeover. As a designer of all sorts of visual elements, I have found this to be super helpful to understand a client’s desired aesthetic. I will just go ahead and say thank you in advance for saving your designer time and a few headaches.

 

As you can tell, there are many uses for secret Pinterest boards. Hopefully I have convinced you to start using them as part of your online curation efforts!

 

Ciao,
MissKemya

Do you make use of secret Pinterest boards? What other ways could you use this cool Pinterest function?