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Pinterest group boards can be challenging to join, but grow your site’s reach exponentially! This guide tells you exactly how to find and join quality group boards.

Pinterest group boards are an essential element to success as a blogger on Pinterest, because they can multiply your reach exponentially. Group boards allow you to pin more of your pins, more often, and get them in front of far more people – for free!

Even though I only have a bit over 2,000 followers on Pinterest, my reach through group boards is over 4 million! And because of this, I currently have 1.2 million people engaging with my pins on a monthly basis. I am on over 200 group boards currently, and I pin to them using an automated scheduler. But getting on this many group boards was not easy, especially at the beginning. (P.S., feel free to follow me on Pinterest!)

Just a heads up: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. As always, all opinions are entirely my own. Thanks for supporting me!

What are Pinterest Group Boards?

Pinterest group boards are boards that have been started by one pinner who then decided to invite other pinners to also pin to their board. Usually only the person who started the board can invite new contributors. Only approved contributors can add pins to a group board.

Group board owners usually establish rules for the board. These rules typically specify things like: how many pins can contributors add to the board each day? And, what kinds of content can contributors share to the board? These rules are stated at the top of the group board page.

Once you become a group board contributor, you need to make sure to follow the rules of the board. Otherwise, you risk getting removed by the owner. If you get removed you will no longer be able to contribute to the board. I use a Google Sheet to keep track of all the group boards I’m on and the rules for each one.

Here is an example from one of the group boards I personally own:

You can see that the title of the board is Paleo Recipes, and below that I have outlined what kinds of pins the board holds, as well as rules for contributors. You can see that 10 people are currently contributing to the board, and the first picture is mine, indicating that I am the board owner.

Here’s Why Pinterest Group Boards Are a Total Game-Changer:

Pinterest group boards are extremely helpful, because when you pin to them your pins are seen not only by your followers and network, but they’re also seen by followers of the other contributors and their networks! The more group boards you’re pinning to, the bigger your reach. It’s basically a huge upgrade of free advertising for your site. In addition, you can pin the same pin to multiple group boards without it being spammy.

Where to Find Pinterest Group Boards

There are two main ways I find quality Pinterest group boards to apply to:

1. PinGroupie

PinGroupie is a site that has a database of most Pinterest group boards, given they’re over a certain size. PinGroupie is totally free to use. It allows you to search group boards by category and keywords. Then you can sort the group boards by the number of pins on the board, number of collaborators, number of followers, or number of repins.

2. Other Bloggers’ Pinterest Profiles

Find successful bloggers who are doing well on Pinterest, and who blog about similar content to yours. Then look to see what group boards they are on. You will find some bloggers (like me) who are on 100+ group boards! These people’s profiles are an excellent resource for you. I keep a running list in Evernote of links to group boards to apply to in the future, as well as bloggers’ Pinterest accounts who are on group boards that I want to check out.

Which Pinterest Group Boards Are Worth Joining?

This is obvious, but let me say it anyway: pinning to 50 group boards does you NO good if you don’t get any clicks or repins from them!

Some group boards have terrible engagement; others have amazing engagement. So how do you know which group boards have good engagement before you take the time to apply? This is a really good question. I’ve been on group boards with 200,000+ followers that never got me a single repin or click! A lot of this process is trial and error. Unless you know someone on the board who tells you it’s a good one, there’s no way until you join to know what kind of engagement the board gets.

However. There are things to look for that may give you an idea of whether it’s likely to be a “good” or “bad” group board:

• Usually boards with hundreds of contributors don’t perform well. The best boards tend to be those with fewer contributors and lots of followers.
• Don’t necessarily assume boards with more followers are always better. Sometimes boards with just a few thousand followers still perform well. But not always.
• Boards with really successful bloggers on them are more likely to be better performing boards.
• In my experience, boards with a more specific topic do better than broader boards. (For example, boards that allow bloggers to pin anything and everything usually don’t perform well for me.)
• Brand new group boards also usually don’t perform very well in my experience, unless they were started by someone who has a lot of followers.

How Do I Check How A Group Board Is Performing After I’ve Joined?

Pinterest doesn’t make this easy. Pinterest doesn’t even make it easy to see how many repins your own pins get in general! But here’s how I check this.

Tailwind Reports

I use a tool called Tailwind to automate my pinning. Tailwind allows you to schedule out your pins ahead of time so that you don’t have to pin manually each day. Tailwind will tell you the best times for you to pin, and help you keep track of how often you should be sharing your pins.

Tailwind gives amazing insights into which group boards are performing well, and which ones aren’t.

You can sign up for Tailwind using this link for a free trial that allows you to schedule 100 pins for free! The trial allows you to see if it’s a good fit for you before you have to pay a thing.

Tailwind Board Insights: Virality Score

If you have a Tailwind account you can go to Insights > Board Insights, then click “Repins/Pin” under Virality Score. This will sort all the boards you’re on by their performance. You want to be on boards that get a high number of repins for every pin that’s shared to the board.

When you click to sort by Repins/Pin, the boards that get the most repins per pin will be at the top, and the boards at the end will be the boards that get the fewest repins per pin.

The group boards you want to be pinning to often are the ones with a high number of repins per pin, because the likelihood of your pin getting shared on that board is better!

What Is a Good Virality Score?

Generally, I pin to boards with at least a 0.3 virality score (or average repin rate), but that’s really quite low. If the average repin rate is lower than that, I often leave the board. But leaving the board does risk missing out on the board’s rate improving over time, especially if it’s a new board, so keep that in mind.

The highest average repin rate I’ve seen is 45! But that is outrageously high, and most boards won’t have a repin rate higher than 10. When you join a new group board and see that it’s repin rate is higher than 5, celebrate, because you may have found a good one!

How to Join Pinterest Group Boards

Now I’m going to share my actual strategy for applying and getting accepted to Pinterest group boards. I’ll break it to you early: it’s not a quick or easy process. I’m now on over 200 Pinterest group boards, but I have spent hours upon hours strategically applying to them in mass quantities.

Don’t wait until you have lots of content.

First, you don’t necessarily have to have a lot of your own content yet when you start applying to group boards. Having original content will make it easier, but I got on a lot of quality group boards before I even launched my blog. This was really useful, because that way I had ways to share my content from the start. You should be pinning the same types of content that you are going to blog about.

Have realistic expectations.

When you’re just getting started with Pinterest, spend hours (I spent full days) applying to group boards. I recommend using Evernote to keep track of the boards you apply to, with a link to the board, the name of the board owner (if you could find it), the email address or method of contact you used, and the date you contacted them.

I’ll be real. Especially when you’re starting out, you will probably never hear back from most of the people you reach out to. They have real lives; they’re busy. And a lot of board owners are hesitant to add new contributors, because they know having too many contributors can make it perform more poorly.

So be persistent. Apply for a lot. And the reason I suggest keeping track of which boards you applied to and when is so that you can follow up a month later with a second email, asking to join again. Sometimes that second time asking gives them the boost to check out your site and see how great you are, then add you to the board!

Best Methods for Contacting Pinterest Group Board Owners

There are three primary ways to request to join a group board.

1. Send a personalized email.

This is the #1 best way to get accepted to a group board. First, go to the Pinterest profile of the board owner. Again, this will be the first picture on the group board’s page. If the board owner has a website, go to the site and look for a contact section. If they list an email address, use it. If they don’t, use their contact form.

If you can’t find a contact section on their site, try searching “contact” in a search bar. If there still isn’t one, check the Privacy Policy or Terms of Use to see if they have a contact method listed there (legally you’re supposed to).

If the board owner doesn’t have contact information or doesn’t have a website, try one of these other two methods.

2. Comment on one of the owner’s recent pins.

First try to find a pin by the owner of the board on the group board you want to join. If you can’t find any of their pins on the board, go to their profile and comment on one of their recent pins there, even if it’s not on the group board. Tag them in the comment so that they get a notification by using @theirusername. You can find their username at the end of their Pinterest profile URL. For example, my username would be @uncommonlywell.

3. Send a Pinterest message.

On the profile of the board owner, you will see a button that says, “Message” in the upper-right.

How to Write Your Request to Join a Pinterest Group Board

Always include these elements in your request, whether by email, commenting, or Pinterest message:

• Tell which board you want to join. (Obviously! But I have seen so many people neglect to do this.)
• Tell them you’re following them on Pinterest. (And make sure you actually are.)
• Tell them you will follow board rules.
• Give them the email address you use for your Pinterest account, as well as a link to your blog or website.
• Bonus: Address them by their name, if you can find it! It adds a personal and intentional touch.
• Even better: Say something genuine about how you discovered their blog or what you love about it.

If you enter your email below, I will for free send you the exact email message template I use when sending out requests to join group boards! I’ve edited and re-edited my template, and now I get accepted to more group boards than ever. It has a few blanks for you to fill in with your name, the name of the group board, etc. Using a template like this makes sending out requests way faster!

Do you have any questions? I’d love to help! Leave a comment or send me a message.

You may also be interested in my post, How to Get Followers on Pinterest.

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