Not feeling creative today? Need a new blog post and can’t think of anything to write about? Starting to feel like blogging isn’t really for you if you can’t come up with ideas? What if I could teach you how to use Pinterest to brainstorm content instead of using it to escape writing that blog post?
We’ve all been there. We’ve ALL had (or are currently having) that struggle. Days or even weeks when we feel like there’s nothing new to say. How can I write anything original? It’s already been written before.
This post was originally written in July of 2019. But with the recent changes in Pinterest, I wanted to update it so it’s accurate to how Pinterest works today.
Is This Stealing?
You might be thinking that taking an idea from someone else and writing about it is stealing. It’s not. UNLESS you take their post and copy the whole thing. Then it’s stealing. But if you take their idea and write your own original content from that idea, that’s not stealing. It’s building. Being influenced by. It’s doing something that great writers throughout history have done.
Think about it. If there wasn’t the Illiad and the Odessey, would there be The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? If there wasn’t The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, then we wouldn’t have Wicked.
In the book, Steal This Plot, authors William and June Noble speak about how the plot is what the story is centered around. There are millions of stories out there that revolve around The Quest, but they are not the same. The Illiad is different from Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is different from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. But each story revolves around a journey that the heroine/hero must take…just like Finding Nemo!
The same is true of content because it’s your experience and your worldview that will help to form your next blog post. If you’re a budget blogger and you see that someone has written about using Excel to create a budget and even shared it as a download, does it mean that you can’t do the same thing?
Of course not. Because your experience with a budget, what it looks like and how and why you use it are going to be completely different from someone else’s experience. Don’t be afraid to put that out there just because someone else wrote a similar post.
Using Pinterest
The first Pin that caught my eye when I opened my Pinterest home feed was one about not needing a niche. It caught my eye because I recently wrote a post asking if I had a niche-less blog. My Pins, the things that I’m interested in, write about, and those things I Pin created the algorithm that put the Pin about not needing a niche at the top of my page.
So you might find some blog post ideas just by looking at your Pinterest feed but don’t stop there. We’re going to be looking specifically at:
- Keyword Search
- More Like This
Keyword Search. In a keyword search, we’re going to use Pinterest’s search bar to find topics to work from. Below is a search that I did using the words “content creation.”
As you can see, the top searches include content creation for Ideas, Instagram, Social Media, Photography, Tips, and others. From here, I could jump off on any of the search topics and start brainstorming ideas.
For instance, if I take the second item Instagram, I might brainstorm ideas such as how to create Instagram posts, how to use Instagram hashtag searches to determine the best content to post or most searched for content to post.
How about a content calendar for Instagram or how to create a consistent flow of Instagram content through weekly and monthly planning. How to use hashtags to get your content seen. Or even a list of social media content ideas to use across Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.
The brainstorming ideas are endless, limited only by the amount of time you want to spend on this step. Once you finish brainstorming ideas you can pick one or more that you’d like to use or even combine ideas for a longer post.
More Like This: What if you wanted to ensure that the topic you were writing about was one that people were really interested in? Then it’s time to look at actual Pins and then see what shows up underneath them as “more like this.”
With the Instagram pins, I see one that sounds interesting–a calendar of Instagram post ideas that includes a different one for each day of the month. That Pin tells me that people are busy and need help coming up with their own content ideas. It also tells me that people appreciate calendars because they are easier to use than reading a full blog post.
From there it’s a jumping-off point on how to create my own calendar. Perhaps I’ll do a series of calendars on the content to create each month of the year, complete with hashtags to use. Or create one calendar that people can use to grow their Instagram audience or a challenge of different posts to capture each day.
Putting It Into Action
The next time you are struggling to come up with content ideas for your blog posts, try this Pinterest prescription.
- Type your subject or keywords into the Pinterest search bar.
- See what topics Pinterest shows as the top searches.
- Pick one or two of the topics that interest you.
- Set a timer for 15 minutes and start brainstorming ideas for one of the topics.
- Repeat step 4 for the other topic.
- Now go back to Pinterest and select one of the topics to see what Pins show up.
- Click on a Pin that interests you, but don’t click through. Instead, look at all the PIns below it, the ones under More Like This.
- Pick another Pin that interests you.
- Set a timer for 15 minutes and start brainstorming ideas from this subject.
- Now, go back to the ideas that you brainstormed from steps 4 and 5, combine them with the ideas from step 9 and see if you have topics that you want to write about or topics that you can combine to create longer posts.
- Make a list of future blog post ideas.
Once you have all of your ideas that you want to write future posts about, set them aside for another day. If you absolutely must create a post today for your blog then pick one of the smaller/shorter topics to use.
Save the rest for a future epic blog post day when you can sit down and create blog posts…or at least the outlines…from all of your ideas. We’ll visit how that looks in a future post.
In the meantime, how did your Pinterest brainstorming session go? Were you able to come up with multiple ideas for future blog posts?
If you’d like to learn more about content planning, then I highly recommend the Blog Content Planner by Elena O. Peters. She is the blogger behind Making Midlife Matter and Elena O Peters. If you want to know the tricks that help her make $5000 plus per month, then you should start there.
Excellent post – good ideas to follow up for anyone stuck for ideas. There were obviously lots of us who fell into that ‘nicheless anxiety’ thing as so many of us have spontaneously written about it. Great minds think alike! I do love Pinterest but I don’t have time to use it as much as I would like. Thanks for the info.
I love Pinterest and get a lot of ideas out of it…especially recipes that I had to my husband to make. But I also get blog post ideas as well.
Hi Jennifer, I find I do not usually think about Pinterest as a resource, until someone mentioned to me they use it for travel insights. I found it fun to look up information for our last two larger adventures, Iceland and New Zealand. I consider myself a very new blogger. An interesting post:)
I do love looking through Pinterest to find recipes for my husband to make. I also find a lot of cocktails to try. 🙂 I keep a bucket list of places to go but for the last few years, our vacations had all been targeted around Florida while we were deciding to move here and checking out different areas. Now that we’re here, I guess I’ll start going through my travel board and finding a new location to try! Pinterest is a pretty scrapbook that will give you lots of ideas on different subjects.
I’ve only used Pinterest when thinking about decorating, crafting projects, or inspirational quotes… not blog content or even travel ideas. Thanks for expanding my thinking!!
When I first started with Pinterest all I was interested in was food and travel. Over the years, many bloggers before me have opened my eyes to its full potential for promoting our blogs within it.
I’ve tried this approach before but never found it particularly inspired me. I find that my Pinterest feed sometimes has a quote or a pin to another post in it that sets my brain ticking. So I guess I use Pinterest but with a slightly different method! I’m a real Pinterest lover and I’m thinking I must start utilizing it more for promoting my blog – rather than randomly hoping for the best.
Thanks for linking up with us at MLSTL and I’ve shared on my SM 🙂
I share all of your blog posts on Pinterest! Most people see Pinterest as another search engine because they can look up what they want and be linked to hundreds of different ideas.
Great ideas! I have used Pinterest when I was teaching to come with ideas to expand lesson plans. I found there was some great lesson ideas that others had used and developed and were gracious to share.
It’s amazing what you can find on Pinterest. Thanks for stopping by.
Great tips! I am just learning the ropes in Pinterest! Thank you for sharing what works for you in generating new ideas and content. Cheers! Sharing on SM
I’m glad you stopped by, Barbie. Pinterest is a lot of fun but it’s also great to get ideas and to showcase your own work.
Great post – and a timely one. I use pinterest for travel research and locations that I’m using in my novels, but am looking to make more of it so this has come at the best time. #MLSTL
Pinterest is great for all sorts of things…travel, food, exercise. I love that you’re using it for inspiration for your novels, too.
I often forget about using Pinterest this way, and now I have a reason to go back in and see what inspires me! Thanks Jennifer I’ve pinned this for #mlstl
I’m glad I’ve inspired you, Deb. That is one of my main goals on this blog…inspiration.
I never know what to expect on your blog–always unique, creative, interesting. Like this one!
I have so much more to learn with Pinterest, it never ends. That said, isn’t there a quote about how the average artist borrows, but the great artist steals? (Something like that).
Wonderful info. I love using Pinterest and it’s my biggest social media traffic source. I’m going to experiment with your steps.
I love using Pinterest as a jumping off point for fresh ideas with the kiddos as well!!!
What a genius idea!! I still love Pinterest so much. Had never thought of searching content ideas!! I find that after linking up for different series with blogger buddies, I rarely write content about retirement, which was the idea behind my blog in the beginning. Would like to get back to my own ideas a little more.
Never thought of Pinterest as a resource for ideas! I’ve never quite figured out how I can get it to work for my blog traffic, but this makes it useful in another way! 🙂