Even though Pinterest isn’t a traditional social network and isn’t primarily designed for direct communication, it still offers powerful opportunities to interact with your target audience. One of these features is Pinterest group boards—and that’s exactly what we’ll explore in detail in this guide.
For entrepreneurs, group boards are a fantastic way to boost the visibility of your Pins, build trust in your brand, and position yourself as an expert in your niche. Curious how to do that? Keep reading.
What Are Pinterest Group Boards?
A group board on Pinterest is a shared board where multiple users can pin content related to a specific topic. Only the board owner can invite others to contribute, making it feel a bit like an exclusive club. In many cases, joining a group board requires following certain rules.
In essence, a group board is about collaborative pinning. The creator chooses a theme and invites others to contribute ideas and inspiration on that topic. Everyone involved curates content together, building a rich pool of valuable Pins for a shared audience.
Benefits of Using Group Boards for Your Pinterest Marketing
A group pinboard is therefore an exciting way for your company to get in touch with users who have the same interests. You can also find out what content other pinners are interested in on a particular topic and strengthen the sense of community within your target group. Publishing your pins on a group board on Pinterest has even more advantages:
-
Even with just a few followers of your own, group boards give you the chance to reach a much larger target group, as they bring together people who are passionate about interests that you can serve with your company.
-
Since group boards are topic-specific, you’re directly connecting with users who are already interested in your niche—making it easier to provide value and convert them.
-
The group board is filled with new content more frequently and therefore remains up-to-date. Regular activity on Pinterest also promotes the visibility of the pinboard and your pinned pins in the Pinterest search feed.
-
Contributors tend to pay more attention to what’s pinned on a group board and engage more actively.
-
Since only invited users can participate, the overall trust in shared content tends to be higher.
-
Engaging regularly with the same users through consistent, branded content increases your brand recognition and helps shape your image.
-
Your Pins are more likely to be saved by other contributors, increasing your chances of being seen by their followers—even if they’re not following you yet. Group boards can therefore be a real boost for your reach.
TL;DR: If you use group boards strategically as part of your Pinterest marketing plan, you can actively grow your network, boost your authority, and increase your reach—regardless of how many followers you currently have.
How to Integrate Group Boards Into Your Pinterest Strategy
Originally, Pinterest introduced group boards for personal use—like planning weddings or home renovations with friends and family. But as these collaborative boards began driving significant traffic, bloggers and businesses took notice. Over time, group boards were misused as spam channels, prompting Pinterest to tweak its algorithm in 2018, reducing their visibility in search. That said, group boards can still be highly effective. Instead of ranking well in search results, Pins on these boards are shown directly to engaged, interested users—the very people you want to reach. This makes group boards a smart way to speak directly to your ideal clients.
You’ve probably already noticed. Group pinboards are the “cherry on top” – they complete your Pinterest strategy, but should not be your sole focus. So only use them sporadically and sensibly. Only join groups that match your topics very well in terms of content. Depending on your niche, you should join between three and a maximum of seven group boards that are relevant to your offering. As mentioned above, these boards are not intended to be spammed with your own content, but should be seen as a collaborative collection of ideas. Therefore, only share every second or third pin you publish on such a board.
If you want to become a member of a group board, you usually have to adhere to various rules. We will go into this in more detail later in the article. It is important for you and your Pinterest strategy to know that you are usually only allowed to share content on group boards if you repost third-party content from the board on your own pinboards in return. This is how members increase each other’s reach. If you’re unwilling to share third-party content, group boards might not be the right fit for your strategy.
How to Find & Join Pinterest Group Boards
Here are three practical methods to discover and join group boards that are relevant to your niche:
Option 1: Analyze Relevant Profiles This way you can easily find boards if you do not yet have a clear idea of suitable topics: Check the boards of your followers, competitors, and ideal clients and look whether they a member of a interesting board. Group boards can be recognized by multiple profile pictures displayed at the top. Click on the member list to explore who created the board—the owner always appears first.
Option 2: Use Pinterest’s Search Feature You can use the Pinterest search function to filter specifically for group boards. To do this, enter the topics and keywords for which you are looking for a group board in the search bar and add “group board” to your search query. As you can see in the animation above, you can now use the filter on the left under the Pinterest logo to select which content you are looking for for your keyword in particular: all pins, videos, pinboards, profiles or products.
Option 3: Use Third party tools like Pingroupie or PinInspector. These third-party tools help you find group boards based on keywords and display useful data like number of followers, Pins, and contributors. They’re ideal if you work professionally as a Pinterest or social media manager and need to save time. As they are not free of charge, they are not suitable for one-off use. Wanna save time? If you’re looking for German-speaking group boards, Lexa from “Meergedanken” has curated a great list that may save you some research.
Choosing the Right Group Boards
Do not join randomly shared pinboards. When selecting suitable group boards, make sure they are of a certain quality. The following tips will help you make the right choice: The board should be up-to-date and regularly updated with content. If something has not been pinned within the last 1-7 days, this is a very good indicator that the board is not being used regularly. In this case, do not join. Also make sure that there are enough members on the board, the more users a group pinboard has, the more reach you can generate. However, the risk of competing content is also greater here. The group description should clearly state which topics are collected on the board and how many pins per day and pinner are desired. There should also be information on how to register with the board.
How to Join a Pinterest Group Board
Check the board’s description for instructions. Most owners request that you contact them via email or Instagram (not Pinterest DMs, which often get lost). Some boards also offer a direct “Request to Join” button for easy access.
Creating Your Own Pinterest Group Board
Want to start your own group board? Here’s how:
1. Log in to Pinterest and click your profile photo (top right).
2. Under your profile description, click “Saved.” Now you only see pins you already saved.
3. On the far right, click the “+” icon and choose “Board.”
4. Give your board a title, description, and add relevant collaborators.
And that’s it—your group board is live!
Group Board Etiquette – The Rules of the Game
Participation in group boards is often linked to certain group rules by the creator, which can be found in the respective board description. Participants in such collaborative pinboards are often required to save a pin from another user on their own pinboard for every pin they add to the board. This increases mutual visibility and promotes reach. You should stick to these rules so that everyone can benefit from the advantages of pinning together and the fun is not lost. Make sure that you don’t spam the group pinboards with your own content and really generate added value for your fellow users – anything else will only damage your own image. Below you will find some rules of courtesy that you should adhere to:
-
Only pin content that truly fits the board’s theme and are highly relevant. Remember: pinboards should provide specific ideas and inspiration.
-
See what content others are sharing. Well-curated group boards often have their own style or special requests, such as only German-language content or no rich pins. To ensure that you don’t make yourself unpopular and that the board remains a source of inspiration for everyone, you should adhere to these wishes.
-
Don’t be spammy and don’t flood the board with your content. The best thing to do is to take a look at how active the board is in general and decide accordingly how often you want to share your pins. If the members on the board are very active, you can post a pin once a day. Does the board have less activity? Then spread your pins over several days or even weeks.
-
Provide value. It doesn’t just have to be your own content. Contributors can quickly see whether you are really interested in a topic or simply want to advertise. What’s more, these pinboards are based on the principle of give and take – so feel free to mix and match pins from others with your own.
-
Nobody likes duplicate posts and certainly no search engine like pinterest. Before you remember a pin, have a quick look to see if it already exists. As a rule of thumb, don’t re-pin pins that have already appeared in the last 40 pins (pins on the same topic are of course okay).
Final Thoughts: Pinterest Group Boards as a Marketing Tool
You now know what Pinterest group boards are and how to use them to boost your marketing reach—especially if you’re just starting out or have a small following.
By joining active boards with a loyal audience, you can get your content in front of hundreds of potential followers. Plus, your Pins live longer on Pinterest, making them discoverable weeks or even years later. But for that to work, your content must provide real value and follow a consistent visual brand.
Use group boards not only to expand your reach but also to test which content resonates most with your audience. Ultimately, group boards can become the foundation for building a community around your business.
So—why not give them a try?
