Using Instagram and Pinterest together can be an incredible marketing strategy for your blog or online business plan!
But what are the differences between Pinterest vs Instagram?
While these two platforms are different in many ways, they share a strong similarity in the importance of visuals.
Designing Pinterest pins and Instagram stories and posts requires similar creative thinking.Â
However, while the purpose of Pinterest is to direct viewers to your blog or website and “continue the conversation” elsewhere, Instagram aims to create engagement within the platform.
Like Pinterest, you can comment on photos but linking to your blog is only possible in your bio and IG stories.Â
Keep reading to learn how you can grow your blog by maximizing your presence on both platforms simultaneously.
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links and I may earn a commission if you use them. This comes at no additional cost to you and all recommendations are based on my experience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Pinterest vs Instagram: Marketing Tips for Business
Understanding how to bring Instagram to Pinterest and Pinterest to Instagram can help you skyrocket your online business – it’s how I’ve been growing mine for the past few years!
Like other bloggers, I’m present on most social media platforms but am laser focused on the two up for discussion today.
Since my blogging business is centred around blogging and social media growth with a minor in photography and design, Pinterest and Instagram felt like the best fits for me.Â
Additionally, finding success early on with Instagram is also what led me to become a blogger – in just 28 days, I was able to grow my new account to 1,000 followers by sharing tips and tricks for saving and making money with moms living in Vancouver, British Columbia.Â
This Pinterest vs Instagram: Marketing Tips for Business Guide will break down the following topics:
- comparing the statistics you should know for Instagram vs Pinterest for business
- how to use these two platforms together to promote your blog, services, e-commerce business, or small shop
- ideas for how to bring Instagram to Pinterest
- ideas for how to bring Pinterest to Instagram
- the differences between how to grow on each platform
- a comparison of tips for how to engage on each platform
- optimizing your blog for your IG and Pinterest followers
- adding social icons and feeds to your blog
So, let’s get started and learn how to combine these popular social media platforms for the biggest impact.
Social Media Use Statistics
Before we learn more on Pinterest vs Instagram marketing tips for business and how to take full advantage of both social networks, let’s get a better understanding of who our audience is on each platform.
We’ll start with Instagram statistics for business and end with the related stats you need to know for Pinterest.
Instagram Statistics for Business
- 1 billion monthly active users
- 500 million people use IG stories daily
- 80% of users follow a business
- 35% of adults say they use Instagram – 30% of men & 39% of women
- 64% of 18-29 year olds use IG
- 40% of 30-49 year olds also use this platform
- 42% of adults with an income over $75,000 use IG – same goes for those who earn $30,000-$49,000 a year!
- On average, the best time to post on is between 9 – 11am EST
- Users spend about 53 minutes a day on the platform
- 60% of users say they discover new products
Pinterest Statistics for Business
- 291 million monthly active users
- Over 2 million daily active users pin products
- 93% of active users have used it for purchasing decisions
- 29% of adults say they use the platform – 16% of men & 41% of women
- 34% of 18-29 year olds use this platform
- 34% of 30-49 year olds also use it!
- 50% of active users have an income over $50,000 – 40% of users have a household income of over $100,000!
- On average, the best time to post at is between 8 to 11pm EST
- Users spend about 14.2 minutes a day on the platform
- 70% of active users say they discover new products
Interestingly, 47% of those who use Pinterest also use Instagram. Thus, utilizing both platforms will help your existing audience keep up to date with your latest updates in addition to reaching an audience you may have otherwise never met.
Bring Pinterest to Instagram
There are a few ways that you can connect your two favourite social media platforms via IG.
Instagram Stories:
My absolute favourite way to use Instagram stories is for promoting Pinterest items including:
- New pins
- New boards
- Group boards
- Design & Photo Editing Tutorials
Use Canva story templates or create your own to showcase what’s happening on your Pinterest profile.
Blogging Landing Page for IG:
Create an Instagram landing page on your blog and use this link in your IG bio – consider naming your page after your Instagram handle.
So, for example, my IG landing page reads:
nikkiblogs.com/nikkislivarich
Is your Instagram account under the same name as your blog? No problem! You could also name it something like:
nikkiblogs.com/instagram-welcome
In your landing page, be sure to include a few of the following:
- Your Instagram/Pinterest/a recent photo of yourself
- A link to your Pinterest profile
- A link to your most popular Pinterest board(s)
- Your Pinterest feed
- Two or three of your most popular pins
- Links or buttons for your most popular blog posts
As with the rest of my blog, I’ve kept my landing page straight forward and lightweight in order to minimize loading times.
Optimizing images, CSS, and Javascript are among the ways I’ve managed to achieve GTMetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights Desktop scores of 92% and 95%, respectively 😉
*More on how page speed affects SEO coming soon!
Instagram Posts:
Cross-Platform Items
Post your favourite inspirational quotes, your slogan, or other items that would work cross-platform – and always be sure to include your blog’s name or URL in each newly created item. As a former victim of pin theft, I can tell you that this goes a long way when it comes to reporting thieves.Â
Instagram posts are also great way to release teasers for new infographics – be sure to reformat them with Canva for optimal dimensions.
Reference Pinterest in Your Post Caption
Share details about an upcoming blog post – let your Instagram followers know that Pinterest followers will be the first to see it launch. Then, redirect your audience to your Pinterest profile via Instagram stories, as mentioned above 😉
Bring Instagram to Pinterest
Pinterest for Instagram has even more opportunities for gathering and sharing ideas than Pinterest to Instagram! We’ll talk about a few of the most useful ways you can utilize them below.
Instagram Ideas & Design Elements:
Using Pinterest, the world’s most powerful visual search engine, can help you discover the following fantastic Instagram resources:
- Highlight cover icons
- Photo ideas – check out my Instagram picture ideas board for inspiration!
- Feed themes
- Bio quotes
- Caption ideas
- Instagram hacks like spacing
- Ideas for stories, marketing, etc.!
Pin from Instagram:
Learning how to pin Instagram posts is a very simple and effective means of sharing new content on Pinterest – it’s difficult to be present on all forms of social media all the time and cross-posting content has saved me hours in addition to bringing me new clients cross-platform.Â
When pinning content from Instagram, consider changing the link of your post to that of your blog – at the end of the day, this is where we want our readers to spend the most time anyway, right?
How to Grow on Instagram
Increase Your Reach
To give yourself the best chance of getting seen on Instagram every time you post, utilize this IG checklist that features seven things all top performing posts have in common – items include things like popular hashtags and even those for days of the week.
Visuals Matter
Since Instagram is a visual platform, just like Pinterest, you also need to make sure that you consistently create and post only high quality content and maintain a gorgeous Instagram feed aesthetic.Â
There are popular apps for Instagram that help you schedule, edit photos, and plan your feed in advance like Preview.
Post at the Right Times
My absolute favourite scheduler for both Instagram and Pinterest is Tailwind!
This powerful app allows you to:
- schedule Instagram Posts
- view Profile Performance
- analyze Instagram post(s) performance
- access to the Instagram Hashtag Finder that provides trending relevant hashtags catered to your posts
- auto post hashtags to your first comment!
- save top-performing hashtags lists
How to Grow on Pinterest
Be Consistent
Like Instagram, growing on Pinterest requires dedication – you need to be active at least once a day and should optimize your profile in order to encourage users to follow you.
Be Visible
Research keywords relevant to your niche and use them in your profile, pins, board descriptions, and board cover images!
Keywords on Pinterest are equivalent to hashtags on Instagram, think of them as social media platform specific SEO.Â
Use the Tailwind Pinterest Scheduler
As mentioned above, my favourite Instagram and Pinterest scheduler is Tailwind. For Pinterest, this powerful app lets you:
- schedule Pinterest pins
- promote new and old content in Tailwind tribes
- monitor Profile Performance
- view Board Insights
- view Website Insights
How to Optimize Your Blog for Instagram
Use Your IG Visuals
Include photos you’ve posted to IG within your blog posts – you can see an example of how to embed Instagram posts in this article on popular Instagram props.
People love to learn by doing and showing your followers a glimpse of your personality will not only build confidence but also extend your branding – your photography style is unique to you, after all.Â
Display your Instagram Feed
Get the Smash Balloon Instagram Feed plugin to display your IG feed on your blog. After all, your Instagram followers were attracted to your content here first and made the effort to continue their relationship with you outside of this social network.
With the Instagram Feed plugin, you can customize everything from:
- how many Photos you’d like to appear in your feed
- how many Columns you’d like to show your photos in
- your feed layout: choose from: Grid, Carousel, Masonry, or Highlight
- whether you want to include a Load More button
- add a Follow button
- show comments and likes
- display more than one Instagram account’s feed
- and more!
I love this plugin and purchased Instagram Feed Pro for my blog – this includes added customization options (like changing my Follow button to match my branding with the black base appearance and pink hover effect) plus excellent troubleshooting support.
How to Optimize Your Blog for Pinterest
Create at least One Pin per Post
Manually insert pins in all of your blog posts.
Or, get the Tasty Pins Plugin like I did!
WP Tasty
The powerful little plugin allows you to hide pins within your posts, select which items you’ll allow to be pinned from your blog, as well as having sections for both alt text and Pinterest Text. Phew, no need to choose one or the other ever again!
Simply upload your Pins to your Media Library and enter your:
- Pinterest Text
- Pinterest Repin ID
- Alt Text
- and more
within the Attachment Details section of that specific pin.
Display Your Pinterest Feed in Your Sidebar or Footer
Use the Pinterest Widget builder to embed a Board or your Profile into your Footer, Header, or Sidebar.
- Select either Board or Profile
- Visit your Pinterest profile and copy either this URL or that of one of your top performing Boards
- Under Pinterest board/user URL, paste your selected URL
- From Size, select Square, Sidebar, or Header
- Copy and paste the code from below your Preview into the area you have chosen – i.e. for your Sidebar, hover over Appearance in your WordPress dashboard and select Widgets
- Choose Custom HTML from the Available Widgets menu
- Paste the code you copied earlier into your new Widget
Your new widget will look like this.
Include a link to your Pinterest account in Social icons.
We’ll learn how to do this using the tutorial for Simple Social Icons below.
How to Add Social Media Icons to a WordPress Blog
To start adding social media icons on your WordPress blog, you’ll want to download a plugin like Simple Social Icons by StudioPress – I use this lightweight plugin in both my Sidebar and Main Menu.
How to Use Simple Social Icons
- Go to your WordPress dashboard and hover over Plugins to select Add New
- In the Search plugins tab at the far right corner, enter Simple Social Icons
- Click Install Now
- Once installed, click Activate
- In your WordPress dashboard, However over Appearance and select Widgets
- Under Available Widgets, click Simple Social Icons and choose where you’d like to display your new social buttons
- Scroll back up to the top of your screen and click on the Area you selected
- Find Simple Social Icons and click on this tab
- Be sure that Open links in new window is selected in order to keep visitors on your blog
- Choose your Icon Size, Icon Border Radius, Border Width, and Alignment – for instance, I’ve selected an Icon Size of 30 px and Align Center for my Sidebar social icons
- Choose your Icon Color, Icon Hover Color, Background Color, and Background Hover Color – in my case, the icons I selected are white with a black background and have a hover color of black with a pink background to match my branding
- Now, enter each of your social network’s URI’s as they appear in your search bar: i.e. For my Pinterest URI, I would add https://www.pinterest.ca/nikkislivarich/
- Want to include your email? Simply enter your address in the Email URI field – no mailto: URL required
- Don’t forget to click Save once you’re finished!
So, there you have it – an introduction to Pinterest vs Instagram: marketing tips for business and the statistics you need to know to understand your general audience on both platforms.Â
In summary, we compared Pinterest vs Instagram statistics:
- at 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram offers more than three times as many potential individuals to get your content in front of
- Instagram stories alone have over 500 million daily active users – compared to 2 million active daily pinners
- 93% of Pinterest users utilize this platform for purchasing decisions compared to 80% of IG users that follow a business
- 35% of adults use Instagram vs the 29% who use Instagram – 39% and 41% respectively, of which are women
- 64% of 18 to 29 years use Instagram compared to 34% of those on Pinterest
- Â 40% of 30-49 year olds user Instagram compared to 34% on Pinterest
- 40% of Pinterest users have a household income of over 100k whereas 42% of adults with an income over 75k use Instagram
- The average best time to post on Instagram is in the mornings (9 – 11am EST) vs the best time to post on Pinterest is in the evenings (8 to 11pm EST)
- Individuals spend about 53 minutes a day on Instagram daily vs only just over 14 minutes a day on Pinterest
- 70% of Pinterest users and 60% of IG users discover new products on these respective platforms
in addition to discovering:Â
- how to bring Instagram to Pinterest
- how to bring Pinterest to Instagram
- a comparison on how to grow on each platform
- a review of tips for how to engage on both platforms
- how to optimize your blog for your Instagram & Pinterest followers
- how to add social icons and feeds to your blog
How will you use Pinterest for Instagram and vice versa?
What type of cross-promotions do you currently do? Share your favourite methods for promoting your content and other social media profiles in the comments below!
Great tips! And I LOVED that you mentioned the Tasty Plugin – Pinterest and SEO don’t always work together and the Tasty Plugin allows you to write Pinterest descriptions without compromising your alt text. So both Google and Pinterest are happy 🙂
Is there a class I can take for this??!!!