If you’ve been around this site for even five minutes, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of all things Tailwind. I’ve been with them for years and I’m also one of their beta testers. So it’s not surprising that I’m a BIG fan of Tailwind Tribes – now known as Communities. In fact, I’m here to try to convince you to start a Tailwind Tribe of your very own.
Here’s their disclaimer:
Note that this post may contain some affiliate links and I would make a small commission if you click on them. It’s one of the ways I support my site. Also, here are the Tailwind Typical Results – I don’t want to over-promise anything. Pinterest is crazy unpredictable even at the best of times, so your mileage may vary. But I’ve had a great experience with it. Note that this post may contain affiliate links and I will earn money from any purchases. It’s one of the ways I support my site.
What is Tailwind Tribes?
If you’re not familiar with Tailwind Tribes or Communities, let me give you the “in a nutshell” version. Tailwind is a scheduling tool for both Pinterest and Instagram. It helps you to pre-schedule your posts to both platforms and is a big time saver. As a Pinterest VA, I am currently scheduling for 15 different accounts for myself and my clients, so I’d be a crazy woman if I didn’t have a scheduler like Tailwind to organize their daily pinning.
How Tribes Work and How to Join Tailwind Tribes
The feature I’m focusing on today is the Tribes feature. Let’s say you are a fashion blogger and you want to get more exposure for your fashion posts. That’s what we all want, isn’t it? More traffic, more repins, more Followers. So you could just flounder around on your own, setting up new boards, joining group boards and putting out great pins. But nothing much is happening.
If you are on Tailwind, you could find a Tailwind Tribe of like-minded fashion bloggers. There are a ton of them out there. You find a Tribe that fits your niche and you join it. Now you can see pins from all the other fashion bloggers in the Tribe and you can add your own fashion pins as well. You share their stuff and hopefully, they share yours.
Usually there is a rule that for every pin you add, you must share one pin from someone else, just to keep it fair. There’s a little counter to tell you how you are doing in each Tribe. And if you don’t play fair, the Tailwind Tribe owner can give you a warning or just boot you out.
By the way, you don’t have to PAY for Tribes, although I think it is definitely a power-up worth investing in. Everyone automatically gets access to 5 Tribes of your choice, plus 30 shares per month to those Tribes. But I get a lot of benefits from my Tribes, so I added the power-up for 10 Tribes and 80 shares per month. And I use every one of them!
But if you are active in a Tribe, you can get a LOT of shares from it. Here’s a screenshot of some of my recent shares – the number in red is the shares I’m seeing from that Tribe. The interesting thing is that this is the SMALLER of my two Pinterest accounts, but the share counts are HIGHER than my lifestyle account that has ten times as many Followers. I think Tribes helps to level the playing field somewhat for smaller accounts.
Why You Should Start a Tailwind Tribe of Your Own
I’ve long advocated having your own Pinterest group boards. I have more than a dozen of them and it’s a great way for me to have more places to share my own pins, plus I get new Followers and subscribers from them. I feel just as strongly that it is helpful to start a Tailwind Tribe of your own as well. For one thing, it gets your name out there in the Pinterest community. It gives you another place to share your own pins, and it also helps boost your own share rating since people are usually inclined to pin the owner’s pins.
There’s another huge benefit that I should mention. Tailwind has a very generous referral program. You can get an automatic $15 bonus for every user you refer that signs up for a paid account. These bonuses are unlimited and they can add up pretty fast. In fact, I’m one of their top referrers and I’ve used this to my advantage, because these bonuses have paid for my account every year for about the last five years! See my post – How I get my Tailwind for FREE.
The nice thing is that EVERYONE can take advantage of this referral program. You don’t have to sign up or anything. If you have a Tailwind account, you just click the heart on the top bar and it gives you a unique referral code to share. They also have a separate affiliate program through ShareaSale – where you can get cash bonuses as well as residual referral fees on purchases people make for years to come. Click HERE to sign up with Shareasale.
The benefit of having your own Tribes is that you can invite people not only to Tailwind in general, but to your Tribe specifically. Based on my own unofficial research, I’ve found the Tribe invitations have a MUCH higher success rate. It’s like you’re inviting them to your own little club. I have about 5 different Tribes now, so I can invite new members from a variety of different niches and grow my Tribes while also growing my wallet! Can I get a WIN-WIN??
Pro tip: Invitations to your own Tribes have a MUCH higher success rate to earn those referral bonuses
Advice on How to Start a Tailwind Tribe and Keep it Running Successfully
It’s much less work to start a Tribe than you would think. It’s a combination of planting and pruning, just like growing roses or any other plant in your garden. The first step is to pick a niche. The more specific the better.
I tend to steer clear of those “pin all the things” group boards and I feel the same about Tribes. Pick a lane and stick to it. If you’re a lifestyle blogger like me, then set up a couple of different Tribes to cover various niches.
You need to set up some rules. Do yourself a favor and keep it simple. I usually only set 3 rules.
- Stick to the niche. If I find someone sharing their Get Rich Quick pins in my Parenting Tribe – boop, out they go!
- Stay active – don’t share your pins and then disappear for a year. That drags down the activity rating of the group. If I see that someone hasn’t been active for a while, I will remove them. They can always rejoin if they want to try again.
- Add a pin, share a pin. Some people set rules of add a pin, share 2 pins, or even 4. It’s your little kingdom, you set the rules But I think 1:1 is pretty standard and to me, that seems more fair.
Pro tip: Set up your Tribe as Public so people can join immediately. People are just more likely to join a Tribe if they don’t have to go through an approval process, and unless you’re willing to spend the time to review people one by one, it’s much easier for you. Yes, once in a while you’ll get someone who isn’t a good fit, or doesn’t obey the rules. No worries. You can either give them a warning, or boot them out with the click of a button.
Keywords – You also want to set up some keywords to help people find your Tribes. Taking our Fashion example – you’d want to use keywords like #fashion #womensfashion #fallfashion #springfashion #workwear #cuteandcasualfashion #ladiesfashion, etc…. I also add a special hashtag of my own #adrian – Hint: If you want to come and join any of my five Tribes, just search on Adrian in Tribes search and they’ll pop right up!
Now that you’ve gotten your Tribe all set up the way you want it, the next step is to start inviting people to it. When you first start a Tribe, Tailwind will offer you suggestions for users that are in similar Tribes. You can just click a button to invite them. Take advantage of that.
You can also find people in your blogging groups, or share the link in your newsletter or in a Facebook group. Tailwind has a chat feature you can use in similar Tribes to invite people. You can invite blogging friends in your niche if you have their Email. This is not a time to be nit-picky. You want to grow your Tribe fast and you want to grow it BIG because that will make it more attractive to new members. One of my Tribes has more than a thousand members and I get new members daily.
Then it’s just a matter of policing your Tribe. About once a month, I take a quick scan through my Tribes. I spot-check the pins people are sharing to make sure they are appropriate to the topic. I check their numbers to make sure they are sharing pins appropriately.
Tailwind is very helpful here because if the number shared drops drastically lower than the number added, it will turn them red for easy visibility. I allow a discrepancy of about 20-30 pins. That can sometimes just be a scheduling thing where they need to catch-up a bit. But if it goes lower – I have no problem with booting them out. There’s always going to be rule breakers and I want my Tribes to be a helpful resource for my members.
Ready to Start a Tailwind Tribe of Your Own?
Well, there you have it. All the reasons why and the how of how to start a Tailwind Tribe all by your own little self. What do you think? Are you ready to start a Tailwind Tribe yourself? C’mon, give it a shot. Won’t hurt a bit, I promise. Or just come join my Tribes. Remember – search on Adrian to find them.
Here are some other posts you may enjoy:
Join the Pinterest #5Ways2Thrive Challenge
Pinterest Strategy Planner
Why You Need an Expert Pinterest Review
Using this Little Known Tailwind Feature?
5 Ways to Repurpose Your Blog Content for More Traffic
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