Pinterest’s Secret Boards are a great online tool for collecting and organizing resources that you don’t want to share. Whether it’s for business or personal use, once you set up your Secret Boards, you’ll probably find yourself wishing for more than the few available to you!
What is a Secret Board?
A Secret Board on Pinterest is a board that is kept private from all users except those given access. The board and any Pins (or re-Pins) will not be shown on the public feed of any users (none of your Followers will see your Secret Board and Pins either).
At the bottom of your Boards’ page, you should see three empty Boards. You have the option to add up to three Secret Boards. [Update as of 2/28/14: you can now create unlimited Secret Boards.] You can click on the “Plus” sign to create a new Board from this screen or you can create a Board from your Home page (and mark it as “secret” in the settings). Below is a screen shot of my Secret Boards (notice that I have more than 3 because one of them is a group board that I was added to).
You can give your Board a name and description if you want. *Note* Even if you choose a Category here, your Secret Board will not show up in the public category searches.
These Boards are automatically marked as “Yes” to the Secret option and will stay that way until you change the option to “No” (public). *Note* Once you change a Secret Board to the No/public option, you can NOT set it back to the private/secret option.
You have the option of adding contributors (other Pinterest users) to a Secret Board. So whoever you invite will see all Pins you add to the Secret Board. You can change the settings and delete contributors whenever you want.
If you see a Pin on Pinterest or a link/article on the internet and “Pin It” to your Secret Board, it will not show up on anyone’s search results, your home feed, your Pins Activity Page or on any other users’ home feed.
If you have a Pin on your Secret Board that you Re-Pin to one of your “Public” Boards, then the Re-Pin will become “public” and show up in your Followers’ Feeds, search results and on your Pins Activity Page, just like any other Pin.
So how can you take advantage of Pinterest Secret Boards? Here are a few ideas:
Organize your Resources
Are you doing research for a blog post? Or looking for inspiration for your next project? Set up a Secret Board to collect resources that you don’t want to share with your followers. It can be a Board of random Pins that make sense to you, but wouldn’t necessarily attract followers.
If you find something inspirational that you do want to share, simply Re-Pin it from your Secret Board to one of your public Boards.
Use them to Check out the Competition
If you want to research competitors, potential clients or industry leaders, then a Secret Board is a great place to collect a Pin or two from those users.
You can keep an eye on their accounts without following them right away. As time goes on and you decide build a relationship, you can then follow their account/Boards as you normally would.
Build Up New Boards Before Launching
If you are creating a new board, you may not want to make it public until you’ve added a few Pins (I suggest at least 5 as a start), so it looks more impressive to a potential client.
So make the Board “secret” while you are building it. When you have a few great Pins on the Board, change the setting to Public.
You’ll also avoid overwhelming your Followers’ Feeds with Pin after Pin if you build the Board with a “secret” setting initially.
Collaborate With Team Members, Employees or Colleagues
When working on the launch of a new product, service or project, use a secret board to collect and share materials with your team, employees or colleagues. You can set up the board, make it secret, then “invite” other users – which gives them and no one else, access to the board.
Save Content Just for You
There may be times when you’re planning a personal event/party, a re-decorating project or looking for gifts, and don’t want anyone else to see what you’re collecting. A Secret Board is a great way to keep these things “hidden” from Followers and (gift) recipients.
You could also use a Secret Board for personal development: a Vision Board, articles to read on a certain topic, incentives (gifts for you!) to celebrate the completion of a goal…if you need an accountability partner to hold you to your goals, then invite a friend or family member to contribute to this Board.
These are just a few ideas to get you started. What other ways are you using Pinterest’s Secret Boards for business or personal collections?
About Terry League