Simple Pin Podcast: Simple ways to boost your business using Pinterest

Kate Ahl

The Simple Pin Podcast delivers weekly Pinterest marketing tips, updates, and stories of how business owners are finding success on the platform. Every Wednesday a new show airs to showcase how this powerful platform is helping millions of small business owners acheive their goals of sales and lead gen. Simple Pin Media delivers weekly Pinterest marketing advice using data-driven results. Keep it simple, be authentic, and pin with purpose. Learn more at simplepinmedia.com

  1. 6d ago ·  Bonus

    Kate's Take: Quick thoughts on Pinterest marketing #17 – Creating AI pathways that help save time.

    I've been on a hunt lately. Not for a new strategy. Not for a new platform.  For shortcuts. Real ones. The kind that save you actual time. Without costing you the impact. Let's be honest. Most "shortcuts" in marketing? Just corners getting cut. This isn't that. This is me trying to find where the busywork ends. And the real thinking can start. Here's the specific one I've been chasing. I want a tool. Something that looks at our Pinterest content. And tells me, fast — what's trending up. What's trending down. And what we should make next because of it. Not a vague vibe check.  An actual answer. Here's what that process looks like right now. Without the tool. Someone pulls Pinterest Analytics. Someone pulls Google Analytics. Someone's tracking Pinterest Trends by hand — because there's no public API for it. Then all of that gets stitched into a spreadsheet. Someone writes up what it means. And then, finally — we get to the fun part. Deciding what to create next. That's hours. Every single week. For every account. I've heard whispers of people doing this. Testing it on their own workflow. Their own content. Their own accounts. That's one thing. What I'm trying to figure out — is whether it holds up for client accounts. Multiple accounts. Different niches. Different goals. Different baselines for what "normal" even looks like. And here's my worry. I want to say this part out loud, instead of pretending I've got it solved. Gaps. What happens when the tool doesn't know a 20% dip in saves is totally normal for this account in July? But for that account, in that same month? It's a five-alarm fire. What happens when it flags something as trending, and it's really just noise? A good report doesn't just save you time. It has to be right. Or it's actually worse than doing it by hand — because now you're making decisions off something that looks trustworthy. And isn't. So here's what I'm building toward, behind the scenes. A weekly report. Pulls the analytics. Pulls the performance data. Flags what actually moved in a meaningful way. And hands it to us in something short. Bullet points. Something you can read in under a minute. Not a ten-tab spreadsheet you have to sit and interpret. I don't have it fully solved yet. I'm not going to stand here and tell you I cracked it, and here's the seven-step system. I'm in it right now. That's kind of the point of this take. So here's what I actually want from you. Have you seen anyone doing this well? Not just talking about automating reporting — actually running a tool like this against real accounts. Getting a report they trust. What did it get wrong? Where were the gaps? I want the real version of this story. Not the highlight reel. Because if we get this right — the payoff isn't just saved hours. It's that the time we get back goes straight into the part of this work that actually needs a human. Deciding what to create. Reading the account, not just the data. That's the shortcut worth chasing. Not less work for the sake of less work. Less time on the parts a machine can do accurately. So there's more time for the parts only we can do well. If you've tested something like this — or you're testing it right now — I want to hear about it. If you’re in SPM Insiders, Drop it in the group. Let's compare notes. If not, email me, hello@Simplepinmedia.com That's my take. Talk soon. —------- Here are some helpful links from the podcast: 🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles.  🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple 📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team.  🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos!  Other helpful links: Simple Pin Insiders Simple Pin Shop Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials DM us on Instagram

  2. Aug 26 ·  Bonus

    Kate's Take: Quick thoughts on Pinterest marketing #16 – AI tools that are helpful instead of distracting. (Tailwind’s new MCP server)

    You got the email, you're confused, let's break it down So Tailwind sent out an email about something called an MCP server, and if you read it and thought "what does that even mean," you're not alone. Let's break it down simply. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. Think of it as a translator between AI assistants, like Claude or ChatGPT, and the software you already use. Before this, if you wanted an AI to help with a task, you'd copy information out of one app, paste it into your AI chat, get a response, then copy that back into the other app. Clunky. MCP removes that step. It lets your AI assistant talk directly to Tailwind and actually do things inside it. So now, instead of opening the Tailwind dashboard, you can tell your AI assistant to schedule a Pin, and it happens. That's what the email was announcing. Does this fit into your existing workflow, and is it even necessary? Here's the question I'd actually ask if I got that email. If you're already using Tailwind to schedule, does this save you time? Fair question, because scheduling itself isn't really the bottleneck Tailwind already solves. The real time savings comes from cutting out the handoff between drafting your content and publishing it. Right now your workflow could look like this. You draft your pin copy somewhere, then you go open Tailwind, upload the image, paste in the title and description, pick the board, hit schedule. That's two tools and at least one copy-paste step. With MCP, drafting and scheduling happen in the same conversation. You write the pin copy with your AI, and it just does that last step for you. One less tool, one less switch. But I'll be honest with you. If you're just batch pinning of pre-made images with no copy to write, Tailwind's own scheduler is already fast, and this won't feel meaningfully different. It shines when content creation and scheduling are two separate steps you're doing back to back. This collapses them into one. So is it necessary? No. Is it useful if your workflow already starts with writing? Yes. How to leverage AI for your Pinterest marketing If you're going to use AI for Pinterest at all, the highest value spot isn't the scheduling piece, it's the content piece. Use it to draft pin titles and descriptions, brainstorm keyword variations, repurpose a blog post or podcast episode into pin copy, or review what you already have scheduled and catch gaps. The AI is most useful the moment before something needs to be written, not the moment it needs to be clicked. A few questions to ask yourself before you adopt this Before you add any new tool or integration to your workflow, ask yourself these: Does this remove a step I'm already doing, or does it just add a new thing to learn?Is my current bottleneck actually scheduling, or is it content creation?Will I actually use this weekly, or is it a shiny new feature I'll try once and forget?Does this fit how my team already works, or does it require retraining everyone?If you can't answer yes to at least one of those in a way that saves you real time, it's fine to let this one sit for now. Not every new AI feature needs to become part of your process. —------- Here are some helpful links from the podcast: 🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles.  🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple 📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team.  🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos!  Other helpful links: Simple Pin Insiders Simple Pin Shop Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials DM us on Instagram

  3. Aug 12 ·  Bonus

    Kate's Take: Quick thoughts on Pinterest marketing #15 – A side project

    There have been some tough things personally happening in the background. I always hate when people share things like this and don’t say what, but that they will share lately. Sitting firmly in that seat, I now understand why they say that. My apologies for adding to that noise. I promise is not a trend or a marketing ploy.  Anyway, this tough season has prompted a project for me that has been years in the making. I think it’s lived rent-free in my brain and was waiting for the time to be released. That time is quickly approaching and it’s time to share a bit about what that is.  I’m writing a book. That seems so scary to say out loud because it means I have to do it…but previous to the release of the book, I’m writing on Substack about this process and how I got here. I have a passion for small business owners. The ones starting their business from a scary idea and taking the brave leap into action. The ones that grind it out at the kitchen table. Maybe they have little kids and are working during naptime. Maybe they are retired and wonder if they’ve always needed to leap into this venture.  Regardless, the business starts and grows. Then there’s this question of hiring, getting help, and not letting the business eat you alive. The spark that ignited the idea slowly feels crushing and worries about what if start to creep in.  You want to hire but you don’t know how. You want to take a vacation but honestly, can’t step away from the computer for more than 12 hours. And if we’re being frank, what if tragedy strikes and you need to step away to be present for that, and you’re left with the question to let it all come crashing to the ground or keep working through pain.  I believe there is another way. An emergency preparedness plan for your business that allows you to build something you can step away from for a season.  That’s what I’m writing about on Substack and the book. The story of how I built my company to be able to step away. Giving you the stories, tools, and leadership ideas I’ve held so closely but haven’t shared.  If you’re a business owner who is looking for a path to build an emergency plan for your business that also allows you to take a vacation, I’d for you to follow along.  https://substack.com/@kateahl  —------- Here are some helpful links from the podcast: 🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles.  🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple 📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team.  🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos!  Other helpful links: Simple Pin Insiders Simple Pin Shop Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials DM us on Instagram

4.9
out of 5
460 Ratings

About

The Simple Pin Podcast delivers weekly Pinterest marketing tips, updates, and stories of how business owners are finding success on the platform. Every Wednesday a new show airs to showcase how this powerful platform is helping millions of small business owners acheive their goals of sales and lead gen. Simple Pin Media delivers weekly Pinterest marketing advice using data-driven results. Keep it simple, be authentic, and pin with purpose. Learn more at simplepinmedia.com

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