Pinterest Story Pins: Best Practices to Leveraging Story Pins on Pinterest

Every so often, Pinterest, just like any other platform, launches new features for users to keep them engaged. The newest feature on Pinterest that is still in early access mode is Story Pins. This new content format coming out of the visual search engine is the fun new way for you to engage your audience in app. This is your guide to best practices to using Pinterest Story Pins for growth.

If you have access to Story Pins but aren’t making use of them yet – you’re missing out on a huge opportunity!

In this blog post, you will discover how to create and use Pinterest Story Pins to grow your audience, increase engagement and boost your conversion rates. Now let’s dive into how to use Story Pins.

What are Story Pins?

Story Pins, where ideas are turned into stories…

Story Pins are what Pinterest is calling in-app native content, and they allow creators to share a mixture of videos and / or images in a multi-page format – including using the Pinterest camera to record videos and publish directly to Pinterest. With a strong focus on visual storytelling in app, Story Pins are a great way for you to share your ideas in an interactive format.

As a new feature available on Pinterest that is still in the initial stages (or beta), Story Pins are heavily preferred by Pinterest and are being pushed out extensively across the platform, not just in the home feed but also in other parts of the Pinterest platform. More importantly, Pinterest is showing your Story Pins not just to your followers, but also to new people who might be interested in your content. This content format is highly engaging so we are also seeing Story Pins being distributed quickly across the platform.

Another thing to love about Story Pins is also what sets them apart from similar formats on other social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. While stories on other platforms are designed to disappear after a while, Story Pins can be saved to boards for later, and are discoverable over time. Once Story Pins becomes accessible to everyone, we will see Story Pins indexed and shown in search results (which is very exciting).

What’s Great About Story Pins on Pinterest?

Pinterest – A place not just to be inspired, but a platform where people can inspire others!

Pinterest has positioned Story Pins as a means for creators to share their passion, creativity and ideas with their audience in a way that is actionable and engaging. As a result, people who are using the Story Pins feature on Pinterest are having increased levels of visibility, engagement and are seeing an uptick in all their key metrics and statistics.

During a time when a lot of people have been struggling with significant algorithm changes on Pinterest, Story Pins are a wonderful way to engage with your audience on Pinterest. 

Story Pins WORK

Case in point – my own Pinterest Account. I only recently got access to Story Pins and started playing around with it. I created a simple Story Pin in Canva and posted it. 

And get this – within 12 hrs, the Story Pin had garnered over 30,000 impressions, over 300 close ups and 27 saves! And not just that, I saw an uptick of engagement across other key numbers – saves, followers and outbound links to my website. That same Story Pin now has over 211,000 views – 116 saves and over 2500 engagements.

And it’s not just one example. One of my clients is seeing the highest conversion (direct product sales) on the days that we put out fresh high quality Story Pins. More and more, I am hearing how Story Pins are having a positive impact across conversion metrics – not just impressions and engagement in app.

It’s almost impossible to get that kind of visibility and reach ordinarily on most social media platforms, but it’s something I am seeing consistently. Visibility and impressions go up tremendously when you’re using Story Pins!

In addition to that, other existing content on Pinterest is also getting traction because of Story Pins, and it’s a great way to get more followers (people who want to sign up to see ALL my Pins? YES madam). Because of how Story Pins are designed – to share quick tips, a how-to tutorial, a fitness routine – they create instant value in the platform for people. And if they like your content, they’re going to want to follow you for more inspiration, support and on-going delivery of your new, fresh content.

By getting creative with your Story Pins, you can get people to take concrete actions that can help grow your business – it’s not just about getting a huge number of likes!

How to Make a Story Pin: A Step-by-Step Guide

1. Log into your Pinterest Business Account. You must have a Business account to be able to get access to Story Pins. If you do not have early access to Story Pins, you can go here to request access.
2. Once you have access, go to Create and click on Create Story Pin. This brings you to the Pinterest Story Builder where you can create your story.
3. You can add up to 20 images or videos that you want to use in your Story Pin. Remember this is a multi page canvas for your Stories. I recommend that you try to create at least 5+ stories to really add value.

Keep in mind Story Pin specs that Pinterest recommends: 20MB for images, and 100MB for videos, and an aspect ratio of 9:16 for the best results. [Check out the full list of specifications for Story Pins.]. If your video content is too long, you can consider uploading it as a Video Pin instead.

4. Pick a layout that makes your Story pop, and add a background if you like. You can also add text overlays and other fun additions to your Story Pin to make it more engaging and interactive at this stage. The great thing with Story Pins is that you can add text within Pinterest itself, or you can use your own templates in Canva, which makes it so easy to have content that really catches people’s attention. Canva is an approved partner so you can create assets there but also know you can create your Story Pins in app.
5. Consider adding text overlay for clarity (keep it simple), audio if it makes sense and music to make a more dynamic Story. I absolutely love Video content and find that Pinterest users love it too!
6. The next stage of creating your Story Pin is where you get to choose a theme (Recipe, Crafts+DIY or Blank List), set a difficulty level (Easy to Expert), and include any supplies viewers may need to follow along. Remember to include what people need to know to be able to take action – do the craft, wear the outfit or execute the business strategy.
7. After that, it’s time to give your Story Pin a keyword rich title, pick a relevant Board to Pin it to, and add Tags. These Tagged Topics are especially important as they help Pinterest index your content and they tell Pinterest how to distribute it. You can add up to 10 topics to your Story Pin to reach people looking for your content. This helps Pinterest to understand how to distribute your content to the platform.
8. Hit Publish and you’re done!  Your Story Pin is out in the Pinterest world to generate visibility and draw your audience to you! Watch the magic of Story pins unfold for your very own niche or industry.

Looking for some Pinterest Story Pin Ideas? Pinterest has curated some of their favorite Story Pins to inspire and motivate you to get started with creating your own Story Pins!

The truth is, with Story Pins, the only limitation is your own ideas and creativity! Keep reading for some of my tips on how you can jump aboard the Story Pin ship.

Repurpose with Purpose

Start using Story Pins in creative ways to increase visibility and gain traction overall for your account. But before you get overwhelmed by having to create entirely new content for Story Pins, let me remind you that you can repurpose with purpose.

Are you making fun little TikTok videos? Spending time on Instagram Reels? Love Instagram Stories? Doing cute videos for Snapchat? All of this content that you’re creating on other platforms can easily be repurposed into Pinterest Story Pins! Do remember, that it is best to take your content – remove logos from elsewhere and edit then upload to Pinterest. We know that single use content is a hard act BUT just remember, repurpose with purpose. Think about your audience and what’s going to result in the best experience.

Think of Story Pins as multi-page canvases for your ideas. The more pages you have, the more fun they are. Be original and get creative – Story Pins on Pinterest are just another avenue to showcase your talents, your passions and create value for your audience. Remember, it isn’t about your products – it’s about the creative ways you can share how amazing they are – how they help and solve problems. We don’t want to see 5 versions of your products – we want to see them styled, how to use them and tell us a story.

Pro Tip: Use videos first! They’re attention-grabbing, and you can add text to improve searchability and to captivate people who have their sound off. Text is also great for creating accessible content. Full frame video will perform much better and looks much nicer in the feed.

Start Using Story Pins A.S.A.P!

Story Pins are really about reaching a new audience – and let’s face it, which business owner doesn’t want that? With Story Pins, Pinterest is already pushing our content out to this new audience. And as business owners, we need to take advantage of that. It’s a new novel way to engage your audience.

Focus on educating your audience in a short time – quick wins – giving them something helpful right there in the moment, instead of asking them to leave the platform. Help them solve a problem or show them how to do something. Anything that is helpful or useful in some way is great. And at the end, include a powerful Call to Action (CTA) to get people to take the next step, whether it’s to follow you, or leaving a comment, a reaction, ask them to let you know if they tried your tip. Ensure that your CTA is valuable, doesn’t ask them to leave or and doesn’t tease them to get the rest of the story elsewhere.

It really is that simple.

Wondering how to get Story Pins for your Pinterest Business Account?

As of April 2021, Story Pins are only available to selected creators with a Pinterest Business Account in a handful of countries, including the US, UK, Canada and Australia and some European countries but worldwide rollout is happening! Pinterest is also adopting a gradual roll-out approach to Story Pins, so it may be some time before you have access. Definitely keep checking out when they will be available to you.

Thankfully, Pinterest is more than just Story Pins! If you are looking for ways to take your Pinterest game to the next level, hop onto my email list to gain access to my regular tips and strategies for using Pinterest marketing to grow your business and create more freedom in your business.