Pinfluence: The Complete Guide to Marketing Your Business with Pinterest

Chapter 8

The Care and Feeding of Pinterest Followers

We’ve already discussed the basics of connecting with other Pinterest users in Chapter 5. But how can you begin to deeply connect with your followers and fans on Pinterest in a way that inspires fanatical loyalty in them? That’s what this chapter is all about.

The key to taking care of your followers on Pinterest is leveraging what Tara Hunt refers to as “whuffie.” Hunt explains in her book The Whuffie Factor:

Whuffie is the residual outcome—the currency—of your reputation. You lose or gain it based on positive or negative actions, your contributions to the community, and what people think of you. The measure of your whuffie is weighted according to your interactions with communities and individuals. So, for example, [my whuffie is higher] in my own neighborhood, where I have built a strong reputation for being helpful, than when I travel to another neighborhood where nobody knows me.

It’s important to keep in mind when using Pinterest that you’re building social currency as you publish content and interact with other users. You need to strike a constant balance between promoting your own material and publishing good resources, links, and images.

Picture your whuffie as a bank account: You need to make lots of deposits so that you have some currency to pull from when you need to make a withdrawal. If all you do is make withdrawal after withdrawal, you’re going to run out of currency fast.

Companies and brands on Pinterest who ...