Tailwind Tribes is now Tailwind Communities. And it's still your little secret for skyrocketing Pinterest reach and traffic to your blog.
In this post I share why you should consider prioritising Tailwind Communities on Pinterest right now.
We'll dive into what they are, how they work and how you can benefit from Tailwind Communities … even if you don't have a big following on Pinterest.
Posts on this blog may contain affiliate links, which means we receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase through a link.
Tailwind is my go-to tool for scheduling content to Pinterest. So it makes sense that products like Tailwind Communities are a big part of my Pinterest toolkit.
Now before I continue, I should point out that Tailwind Communities changed their name (from Tailwind Tribes to Tailwind Communities). The Tailwind Team sought to find a new name that represented the community atmosphere of the product, while being inclusive (and not offensive) to members. So they took advice from their Native, Indigenous, and WOC/POC members to shape a new name – Tailwind Communities.
Note: this blog post is in the process of being updated to the new name so please bear with us.
The good news is that Communities are free to users, unless you choose to upgrade and we will discuss that below. I have been a proud partner of Tailwind for years and want to let you know that if you do choose to upgrade to a paid Tailwind plan after reading this post and use one of my links, I may receive a commission at no cost to you.
Introducing Tailwind Communities
Everyone can benefit from Tailwind Communities – whether you are a seasoned pinning machine or you've never touched a Pinterest board in your life.
I've been loving the benefits of Communities for my business and I know a lot of my audience are too. If you have a business and a website, Tailwind Communities is about to be your bestie.
What are Tailwind Communities?
In short, a Community is a group of likeminded marketers who help each other discover great new content all while amplifying the reach of each others' content on Pinterest.
Let's dive in and find out more about Tailwind Communities – the best place to start is by watching this video:
You can jump straight in and get started here!
How do Tailwind Communities work?
Members of a Tailwind Community help each other to discover the best new content for their audience while amplifying the reach of each other's content.
As outlined in the video above, it helps us solve the problems of:
- having a steady stream of great content to share
- reaching your target audience.
The idea is that everyone in the Tailwind Community focuses on aggregating content (a fancy word for banding together to contribute and share content as a group).
So, in summary, each Tailwind Community is Established with a Core Theme or Topic.
- As Community members add great content to the Community, a feed is created for easy review and sharing. This feed is where you will find all of the Community's content.
- Community Members collaborate to ensure there is a continuous stream of hand-curated content.
- All members of Tailwind Communities agree to share content around a central theme or topic.
- The members save time and improve the content quality of their own Pinterest feed and Pinterest reach because they are sharing quality content from the Tailwind Community.
- Members who share content into the Community get exposure to a new highly-relevant audience, and his results in more shares of their own content.
It's a win-win. Members of Tailwind Communities learn to trust the content from other members of the Community and the quality goes up.
How Much Does it Cost?
Tailwind Communities do not require you to be a paid member of the Community to use them – though you do need to open an account with Tailwind (for Pinterest). Great news, hey? It's free to get started and you can upgrade if you like it. However there are a couple of things you should know:
- You can join Tailwind Communities for free. Every free account gets to be a member of 5 Communities and make 30 content submissions per month.
- If you need more than 5 Communities, you can purchase membership to more Tailwind Communities using “Power Ups” . These give you more submissions per month. Power Ups start at $5 per month.
- Tailwind itself is free to trial here or you can upgrade for as little as $10 USD per month to start using the features of Tailwind which includes scheduling of pins (my favourite) and analytics. It's totally worth it.
How do I find the right Tailwind Communities to join?
You can use “Find a Tribe” in the Tailwind Tribes Dashboard. You can choose from (and browse for Tribes in) a number of categories as follows:
Or you can search using any keyword as well – Tailwind will give you a full list of Communities that match your search.
Communities can be set to allow you to join immediately, or some Communities require you to request for approval.
HOT TIP: You can preview the content in the Community (you'll see only the last 10 pins but it's a taste of the pin quality in the group). You'll also see how many members there are, as well as the pin/share/repin ratios.
With “Find a Community' you can kickstart your Pinterest marketing immediately with Tailwind – and get started with Tailwind Communities at no cost.
Tailwind Communities vs Pinterest Group Boards
When it comes to pinning collaboratively, Pinterest Group Boards are the obvious choice for comparison. Only there's one big difference between Group Boards and Tailwind Communities – Community Owners can hold their members accountable to the rules of the Tailwind Communities. And all up, they result in better quality of sharing right now.
The problem with Group Boards is that, despite having guidelines, some members will often share irrelevant content, share affiliate links or promotional content, or dump dozens of pins … but these rules are hard to track and moderate.
I have a group board called Visual Content Creators which is tailored to visual storytelling and visual social platforms. The pinners on the board are mostly cool and adhere to the board rules, but it can be time consuming to moderate.
Tailwind Communities make it super easy to keep members accountable – raising the quality of the content being shared.
With Tailwind Communities, you can see which members are contributing as well as what they are sharing. Admins can remove anyone who is not sharing the content of others or is sharing content that is not relevant to the Community's topic.
You can also make Tailwind Communities open for people to join immediately or have them as “request to join”. It's just much simpler than the group board process.
9 Keys to Getting Pinterest Reach and Results with Communities
It's all about finding the right Communities and sharing the right kind of content. This includes sharing content consistently and sticking to the rules.
Here are 9 Keys to being successful with Tailwind Communities:
#1. Choose your Tailwind Communities Carefully
I truly believe that 5-10 Communities is more than enough to get you started, even on the free account. But, a good rule of thumb to only be in Tailwind Communities that you find a benefit from.
Consider these factors when you choose to join a Tailwind Community:
- Look for Community content that is relevant to your business or niche. Join Communities that drill down to specific niche content.
- Look at the number of members, the number of shares and the number of pins. Is the Community active? Is content getting shared?
- Preview the Community and check out the last few pins being shared. Once you are accepted into a Tailwind Community, take an immediate scroll through the feed to check the quality of content being shared. Is it content that resonates with you?
- Look at the quality of the pin graphics. I'm fussy. I want attractive pins that I would be proud to share. Bad design is a turn off for me.
- Check the source of the pins. Are the members sharing legitimate pins?
If these things all add up… stay in that Community! If they don't add up… leave the Community by clicking on the 3 dots near the name of the Community (where the name is).
HINT: If you are scrolling and scrolling and scrolling through a Community's feed and can't find something to share, then it's a big indication that the Community is not the right fit for you.
#2. Review Your Tailwind Community Memberships
Don't just join a Community and trust that it's the right Tailwind Community for you. Not every Community is active and not every Community brings great results.
So I recommend that you:
- check in every month or so and see what your shares and repins are for that particular Tailwind Community.
- take note of any regular spammers – is it being monitored by the Group Owner? Are people being removed that don't stick to the 1:1 or 2:1 share rules?
- How is the quality of the pins and their descriptions?
- Most importantly… is your content getting shared and re-pinned consistently?
Here's an example of two Tailwind Communities that I tested over an initial period of a week prior to writing this post. I shared the same amount of content into each (around 12 pins) and adhered to the guidelines of each Community to share an equal number of posts from Community members.
The first Community returned a few re-shares and a few re-pins:
This second Community returned almost 10 x the return on re-shares and more than double the re-pins as the first Community:
I would still continue to monitor these Communities as both bring a return in re-shares and re-pins but I will be doubling down on the second Community, as it is showing great potential for sharing my content.
Basically, you need to monitor whether it is worth being in a particular Tailwind Community. Don't be afraid to leave and move on if it isn't.
#3. Set up Pinterest Board Lists in Tailwind
Tailwind allows you to set up groups of Pinterest Boards into “Lists”. This makes it much easier to share content across a series of boards instead of just one at a time. It also makes it easier to share from your Tailwind Communities.
It's a huge time saver. Here's an example of some of my board lists:
Note that Pinterest recommends that you save pins to the most relevant board first, and then to other boards – but no more than 10 boards is recommended.
#4. Only share relevant content.
How can I put this? Don't share your parenting tips from your parenting blog on a board that's all about digital marketing. Just don't.
Look at each of your Tailwind Communities to see what content is being shared, check the Community rules and then only post content that is relevant to that Community. No exceptions. Be a great Community member and post relevant content!
#5 Share quality pins
This takes it a step further than the content you are pinning. This is all about the image itself:
- Make sure you have great images on your website.
- Only share quality pins with easy to read text that adds context.
- Only share tall pins
Trust me, there are a lot of people that share sub-standard images on Pinterest as well as in Tailwind Communities. Sharing well-designed pins will not only lift the quality of the Community, but your pins will get shared a lot more than everyone else's … because they look great and stand out!
HOT TIP: Use a design tool to create your images.
I'm love using Canva right now as I am a Canva Creator for the Canva Marketplace and as such I am creating a LOT of tall pins for my Canva Profile which you can check out here.
Or if you are looking for infographics, check out this post:
Canva has an amazing library of fun stock images, elements, template designs and you can even create Video pins for Pinterest. There are lots of ways to make your pins stand out with Canva.
Other tools for creating great images are Easil, Stencil , and Adobe Spark.
#6 Add quality descriptions
Pinterest is first and foremost a search engine. Make sure you add long, informative descriptions on your pins, preferably containing the keywords you want to be found for.
You can do this by adding alt-text to your images. This is super important as if someone pins from your blog or web page, that alt-text provides the basis of your Pinterest description.
#7 Stick to the rules
Check out the rules of the Tailwind Communities you are a member of, and stick to them. Simple!
A good rule of thumb is to share way more content than you add. I would recommend sharing at least 25% more content than you add, preferably double the content.
It will come back to you – your Community mates will notice you sharing and will share your content in return. Don't dump your content and run, without sharing
#8 Mix up your content.
Don't share the same pins over and over – share a varity of content!
Tailwind Communities also have a cool feature that will alert you if you have shared the content recently when you go to share it. Then you can make a decision about whether it is ok to share it again. Note that this alert will pop up even if you are sharing a fresh (different) image or pin from the same post.
You can still choose to share it again, but I would recommend trusting Tailwind and not sharing it again straight away.
In a fast moving Community with a lot of content it may be ok to repeat the share, but not in a smaller Community where there are not as many pins. I'd recommend waiting at least a month between shares if you can.
HOT TIP: Include more than one tall, shareable image in your posts so you can share them with a different pin – it's also great for pinners as they have more options for sharing too.
#9 Start your own Tailwind Community
Consider starting Tailwind Communities (or Community) of your own. Here are a few tips:
- Don't just start a Community and then leave it. Be prepared to participate, share content and lead the way with your Community.
- Moderation will require checking in on the content quality, removing those people that are persistent spammers and checking for relevant content.
- I would recommend having a rule of 2:1 sharing ratio. 1:1 is the very minimum but I think 2:1 means that members support each other and share content more consistently.
- Delete any poor-quality pins that are not relevant. Delete non tall or portrait-sized pins.
HOT TIP: Tailwind Communities have a message function so you can message your Community members, which is very handy. This could be used in a moderation situation to warn members if they are not sticking to the rules.
Skyrocket your Pinterest Reach – Get Started with Tailwind Communities.
Tailwind Communities are a great way to find great content to share and skyrocket your Pinterest Reach.
The Community feature alone is worth trying a free account for, but I highly recommend you take the full functionality of Tailwind for a spin on a free trial. You'll love it and your Pinterest Reach will love you for it.
Find out more about Tailwind Communities here and get started! (click on Sign Up with Pinterest for your free account with Tailwind). Tailwind is an official Pinterest Partner so you will be in good hands.
Over to You
Have you used Tailwind Communities before to increase your Pinterest Reach? Will you try it?
Donna Moritz
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