Are you spending hours on Pinterest and just not seeing the results? Even though it feels like you might be doing everything right, there are actually some things that are a complete waste. In today’s post, we’re going to cover all the Pinterest tasks that are not worth your time and what to do instead that makes a difference.

My name is Heather Ferris. I run a Pinterest education company and boutique agency where I help clients and students to craft Pinterest marketing strategies for themselves. I’ve been doing this now for 10 years. 

We’re going to cover why you should stop:

• Repinning old pins
• Deleting anything 
• Using group boards
• Pinning one pin too much
• Focusing on follower count

Plus I’ll share what I highly recommend you do instead. So let’s get to it!

Stop repinning old pins to every board

Okay, so wasteful Pinterest tasks number one is repinning old pins to different boards. This is basically just making copies of pins to new boards. Unless you really have a lot of data to back up repinning in your Pinterest marketing strategy, I don’t recommend it. 

I personally have not been doing this for years and I don’t do it for my clients, and we see more often better results creating fresh pins. I have seen a few cases where really viral pins that have been copied (repinned) a few times, keep growing. But they’ve been very evergreen and were high traffic generators years ago. 

Now what I would rather you focus your effort and energy on creating new optimized content that’s very quality. New content is more likely to take off rather than an old one that didn’t have much traction.

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Data is unclear with re-pins

Even if you do have some great old pins that may have been copied and still work well, it is really difficult to chase down which exact repin on which board got the results. Because the way that Pinterest shows you data is it’s lumped all together for your one pin image across all the variations. The stats are ambiguous when it comes to copied pins. 

So, you don’t need to be repinning these pins to every single little board on your profile hoping it will keep climbing. Instead, as I mentioned, focus on creating fresh pins for that URL and disseminating those out to all of the different boards. 

Yes, pins have longer term traction compared to social media. Your pins can run high in the feeds for months and possibly years. Google can index them and they have traction for a long time, like blog posts. Just don’t only rely on old pins that performed well. 

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Stop deleting pins, you lose the long game

The second of Pinterest tasks that you can ignore or stop doing is deleting pins. Why are you deleting pins? What sense does it make to delete pins? All that work and effort is wasted if you do.

The way that Pinterest works is that they will always index your content from the start. Then even if it seems like it’s not working, Pinterest will still serve them out over time. As long as people are searching for those things (even during down time periods) and engaging with your content overall, they’re still circulating.

Given that you are claiming your domain, you are pinning content within community guidelines, you’re not spamming, your account is overall in good health, there’s no major reason for deleting pins.

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Stop deleting boards, content can re-trend

On the same line of deleting, there’s no reason to delete boards. If you have hundreds of boards on your profile and you just don’t want them there anymore. Do this:

1. Look at your board analytics.
2. Verify that it’s not getting any impressions, engagement, outbound clicks.  
3. Confirm it’s content no longer aligned with your business.
4. Archive the board.

You don’t even need to delete them. Because if something happens and you want to resurrect that board, if it’s been after seven days, it’s gone forever. If you see a shift in trends or your niche and you move back to that previous direction, you’ll want the content you’ve already made.

I’m really against deleting anything. I would rather move everything to a secret board and archive it and just have it away from the regular view of my profile.

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Stop chasing group boards, there’s no benefit

Okay, moving on: chasing group boards. We’re not doing that anymore, don’t include it in your Pinterest tasks. There are plenty of boards and methods that you can use to find and join them. People can make group boards where you don’t even need to request to be on them anymore.

But honestly, I would really rather you focus your time and effort on crafting your own board strategy. Group boards are not optimized for your content. They’re closer to spam piles than anything. They originally helped groups kinda “piggy-back” off each other way back in the beginning, but that’s not the case now.

Board strategies are underrated

Rather, focus on crafting a great board strategy, with the strongest best fit keywords, for the topics that you create content on, or sell products for. Not a lot of Pinterest marketers teach board strategies, but I’ve seen it help myself and my clients. 

You have the option to create boards for more curation these days, because Pinterest is supporting that more and more. Which is more ideal and quality than group boards. 

For example, I don’t create a lot of content on how to blog, but my friend Jana does. We often do YouTube lives together. And it compliments my marketing content. I’ve been pinning her pins to that board of mine because I know she’s a reputable source. 

So, you can even do some curation of boards where you may have gaps in content that you want to fill. Make sure what you’re curating appears optimized and not just randomly pinned up somewhere. 

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Stop pinning one pin to every board

Stop pinning to every board possible. Don’t include this in your Pinterest tasks. Similar to re-pinning old pins, this is duplicating new pins everywhere. Just stop. It does not improve your odds; it’s more like creating spammy pins. In fact, I would rather you flip that on its head, and instead, create a series of pins that go to a series of matching boards.

Let’s say you create a pin about a recipe that’s like chicken soup and you use a crock pot in one variation of this recipe, but you also can use an instant pot, a skillet, and a Dutch oven over the campfire if you wanted to.

That’s four different board topics that you could put that one recipe on. But the pin specific to say the campsite, likely can’t go on every board. The relevancy for the pins needs to match the board or Pinterest can’t properly categorize it in the algorithm. 

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Stop obsessing over follower count

Okay, the last of the Pinterest tasks that you can stop doing is focusing on your follower count. I cannot tell you how many times I get this question. Just ignore it. People on Pinterest do not need to follow you in order to see your content, find your content, and be served your content.

We have multiple places the algorithm is working for you to serve your content up when the time is right. So, focus less on followers and focus more on creating high quality content that people want to engage with. The algorithm will kick in for recommendations and start serving more of your content to them in the home feed and the related feeds.

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Pinterest tasks that ARE worth your time

All right, let’s look at Pinterest tasks that are worth your time on Pinterest. We’ll touch on all of these.

1. Using your Pinterest data.
2. Always be creating new pins.
3. Doing proper keyword research.
4. Experimenting with different pin formats.
5. Have fun without drowning in your strategy.

Using your Pinterest analytics data

Looking at your data is worth your time. Looking at your analytics data for all of the filters available to you is worth your time. Use it. You could even use my chatbot, the PinBot. Download all your Pinterest data and ask the bot to analyze it for you, or to do a data audit for you.

You can feed it your data from all of the different filters. Ask questions about the data, and it will make suggestions to you based on what’s in your own reports. I designed it this way really strategically. So if you’re confused about what you’re looking at, the Pin Bot is a great tool to help you with your analytics. Look at the following:

• Pin impressions
• Pin saves
• Outbound clicks
• Top performing pins
• Top performing boards
• Highest engaging topics

You can start to deduce information from this data in order to improve your overall strategy. Remember that trends fluctuate, and seasonal pieces of content that people are not ready for right now, can still catch their attention.

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Always be creating new pins

Always create new pins. This, of all Pinterest tasks, is always worth your time. If you are paying for a scheduling tool like Tailwind, and using Canva to design your pins, you have no excuse in creating bulk sets of content and getting scheduled really, really fast.

Not only does Tailwind offer you Ghost Writer, so you can create content really quickly, but the new integration allows you to export your content to Tailwind from Canva in seconds. There’s no more downloading and uploading and all of that jazz. 

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Doing proper keyword research

The next thing that is worth your time is finding keywords, specifically finding keyword trends related to your topics. If you do not fit inside the trends bubble, use the search bar, or the ads manager, to find new keyword opportunities and start using them consistently.

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Experimenting with different pin formats

The next thing that is worth your time is experimenting with pin formats. You do not need to only make pins that have text overlays that are blog style. You’ve got options.

• Infographics
• Carousels
• Video pins
• Animated pins

Test around with different formats for your content to see what really connects with your audience and drives that engagement. You’re not forever married to one type or style of pin, have variety and see what works best for your audience.

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Have fun with your Pinterest strategy

The last tip that is worth your time is to, honestly, just have fun. Have fun with your Pinterest marketing strategy and pin creating. Because if you’re not and it feels like drudgery to you, then chances are you’re not going to get the results you want because you hate doing it.

If there is something that you hate doing, are you actually going to sit down and do it? I hate doing bookkeeping. Before doing Pinterest marketing, I was an accountant. I was a bookkeeper. I delay all of my bookkeeping, because I hate doing it. If this is not your gig, then you can always try to find someone to help you, but that’s not the first thing that I would tell you to do.

Start by being curious and find how to have fun with it. Lower your expectations of what the outcome should be on the platform and just start publishing, testing things out. I want you to feel encouraged. Stop wasting your time on busy work and start putting your effort and your time into things that work.

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Final thoughts on Pinterest tasks not worth your time

When you stop wasting time on Pinterest tasks not worth your time and focus on strategy, data, and fresh content, everything shifts. You move from guessing to guiding your efforts with purpose, and Pinterest starts to become a reliable, steady source of traffic and growth instead of a time drain.  

With consistent testing and creativity, the platform begins to work for you. Engagement builds, visibility expands, and your results compound. By keeping your approach strategic and enjoyable, you’ll create a Pinterest presence that’s both effective and sustainable.

Come join Pin Profit Academy to learn more about all the complete Pinterest processes and systems your business needs to have in place. Plus enjoy direct access and help from me. See you inside!

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