Using Pinterest with Buffer
With nearly 500 million monthly active users, Pinterest is the place to be to drive high referral traffic to your site. 80% of Pinterest users say they use it to discover new brands and Buffer can help you reach a new audience by scheduling your pins in advance.
These features are available for Pinterest
- Publishing: Yes
- Analytics: Yes
- Engagement: No
Connecting and refreshing your Pinterest channel
Head to your Channels area to connect your Pinterest channel: https://account.buffer.com/channels
You can connect multiple Pinterest accounts to Buffer. To make sure Buffer knows which one want to connect, log in to that Pinterest account in another browser tab before trying to connect it to Buffer.
Lastly, if your connected Pinterest channel requires a refresh, check out the article Refreshing a channel in Buffer.
:::info If you have a Pinterest business account linked to your Pinterest personal account, you'll need to first log into Pinterest and make sure the account you want to connect to Buffer is currently selected from the dropdown in the upper right corner of Pinterest. Once the correct account is selected, you can head back to Buffer to connect the Pinterest account.
:::
Scheduling Pinterest posts
The "best time to post" feature in Analyze is not available for Pinterest at this time.
Buffer’s Pinterest scheduling features allow you to plan posts in advance, schedule to multiple Pinterest accounts, and choose a different board for each selected profile.
<br /> <br />| Features & good-to-knows | Notes |
|---|---|
| Scheduling posts | Check out our step-by-step guide to scheduling posts on any social channel or peruse Pinterest-specific details below. |
| Tagging / mentions | It is currently not possible to mention / tag Pinterest profiles in posts scheduled through Buffer. Learn more about adding mentions (tags) in posts here. There also isn't a way to tag topics in Pinterest through Buffer. |
| Hashtags | Pinterest does not hyperlink hashtags, so hashtags sent to Pinterest will not be clickable. Learn more about how hashtags work in Buffer here. |
| Daily posting limit | 25 posts per 24 hours for customers who verify their email on Buffer; or5 posts per 24 hours for customers who have not verified their email.Learn more about Daily posting limits here. |
| Character limit | 500 characters per post. Learn more about character limits for each social network here. |
:::info Looking for tips on finding the best time to post to Pinterest? Check out our general advice here: The best time to post on social media - Is there an overall best time to post?/ :::
Image, video, and GIF specifications for Pinterest
Pinterest supports images, videos, and GIFs.
| <br /> | Videos | Images | GIFs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number allowed per post | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Video length | between 4 seconds and 15 minutes | - | - |
| File size | up to 1GB | up to 10MB | up to 3MB |
| File types supported | MP4, MOV, AVI, and M4V | JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC | GIF |
| Dimensions | Pinterest suggests using square videos (1:1), or vertical videos with the aspect ratios of 2:3, 4:5, or 9:16 | - | - |
| Custom thumbnail supported | Yes | - | - |
| Autoplay in the feed | Yes | - | - |
| Canva integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Alt text | - | Yes. Learn more about adding alt text to your images here | - |
How to add a thumbnail to your video
By default, the first frame of the video (0 seconds) will be used as the thumbnail. If you'd like to change your thumbnail, you'll follow these steps:
- Once your video has finished uploading, click Edit Thumbnail,
- Drag the slider to the position in the video you'd like to use as the cover/thumbnail image.
- Click Save.
Engaging with Pinterest posts
Buffer's engagement features are only available for Facebook Pages, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn profiles and pages, X/Twitter, Instagram professional accounts, Google Business Profiles, TikTok, YouTube, and Mastodon. Engagement is not available for Pinterest at this time.
Pinterest analytics
We can post all day, but the real excitement comes when seeing how our posts land. Insights gives you a quick view of your Pinterest performance right inside Buffer, no need to leave your publishing dashboard.
There are two places to check your Pinterest stats:
- For a quick view of an individual pin's basic stats, head to the Publish tab, then the Sent tab.
- For a full performance view, select your Pinterest channel in the left sidebar, then click Insights beneath the channel name.
From your Pinterest Insights dashboard, you can:
- Get a Summary of your recent performance, including impressions, views, and saves, compared against a previous period.
- Sort your Performance per Post table by impressions, saves, or clicks to spot your best-performing pins.
- Track trends with the Metrics chart, including Posts and Visibility views.
- Get AI-powered Takeaways, including repost suggestions for older posts and "Start with AI" prompts based on what's been working.
:::info Notes
- Pinterest backfills 90 days of impressions and views when you first connect a channel. Follower data is more limited, so if you're not seeing follower history, that's expected rather than a bug.
- If your numbers look different from what you see natively on Pinterest, see Why your data in Buffer Insights might look different from native analytics. :::
Pinterest error library
If you're (unfortunately) hitting Pinterest errors in Buffer, the Pinterest error library is the place to go for solutions.
:::info Do you have a Pinterest feature suggestion? We’d love for you to submit or upvote it here on our feature suggestions board. :::
FAQ
Do you support posting to secret boards? Yes, with Buffer you can create a post and publish it to a board that's marked "secret."