Perhaps you’ve seen people talking about Tailwinds but don’t really know what it Tailwinds is. Perhaps you are simply unsure if Tailwinds is right for you because you’re new, don’t make enough to cover the cost, or just don’t understand the benefits.

No matter what your situation is, hopefully this will answers many of your questions.

First, I receive no compensation from Tailwinds. This blog is entirely my opinion.

What is Tailwinds?

It is a scheduler for Pinterest and Instagram. Don’t spend time every day posting pins to Pinterest but instead schedule all of your pins over a few days (or weeks if you want). Once everything is scheduled, it does all of the work for you, giving you more time to work on products.

How does the scheduler work?

When I started on Pinterest and TpT, I had no idea how anyone could have time to work on new products because posting pins and repinning took FOREVER! And I didn’t even belong to collaborative boards. Once I joined a few boards I couldn’t figure out how to save three pins a day to all of them without spamming.

Spamming is when you post everything at once. TpTers hate. Bloggers hate it. We all hate it. No one wants to look at a saturated board with mostly the same pins over and over.

The Tailwind scheduler handles all of that for you.

First, you tell Tailwinds how often you want to post using the Smart Scheduler. I have chosen 50 times a day (I did 100 for two months but am choosing to dial it back a bit). Your Smart Schedule will select the best times for you to post based on what you pin. Some days will post over 50, a few days post less than 50 but it all evens out.

If I have a day that I want more pins I can add more custom timeslots and I can generate a new schedule any time I want.

This is my empty scheduler. I knew this but forgot to switch back but you have to be logged into the correct Pinterest account for your scheduler to work. I got mad, rescheduled my 48 missed posts and didn’t bother filling it up past that.

I will say that rescheduling any failed pins is very easy though. Sometimes they fail because the URL doesn’t work for no particular reason and will post as usual the second time. I’ve run into one major glitch that caused me to miss two entire days of pins but Tailwinds was fantastic. They have amazing customer service. Every time I have a problem, question, or suggestion they are always very responsive and helpful.

When it is time to schedule, if you have loaded the Tailwinds add-on to your browser, you will see a little Tailwinds button appear on your pins. Just click it and another window will pop up to indicate it has been added to your drafts.

Once you’ve selected the pins you want to include, go to your DRAFTS page and they’ll be waiting for you.

On the right hand side of the page you will see the schedule and the six pins I’ve selected. They are dim at the moment because I have not told them where to post. I can select boards for each individual pin. If I am going to send all of these pins to the same board I can select Add Board To All. You can even create custom board lists if you consistently pin the same combination of boards.

Advanced Tailwinds Tip

Many people make this mistake. I still make this mistake sometimes but IT IS CRUCIAL YOU DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE!

This is a draft in Tailwinds. You see the pin cover, a blank “Type a Board Name”, pin description, a Facebook box, a Twitter box, an Add to Tribes button, “Repin from teacherspayteachers.com, a small circle (it is a clock), and a green box with a checkmark that says, Add to Queue.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A DESCRIPTION!

Your pin will not show up in searches. Your pin will probably get skipped by pinners. Your pin may not be scheduled by other Tailwind users.

When I have a pin from another TpT seller with no description (happens A LOT) I do try to type a small description that may actually get them some hits. I don’t write, “A pin.” or “A TpT pin.” But I can tell you that many people delete them. Make sure you have a description saved on all of your Pinterest Pins or they won’t have descriptions in Tailwinds.

Empty Slots, Locks, and Tribes

You can see in the picture above that my scheduler is filling up with my now scheduled drafts. However, there are still unfilled time slots. When I had a hundred slots a day to fill up I participated in a lot of pinning parties. I am taking a little breather for now but these empty slots would be filled with other people’s pins.

Now when I have empty slots I use Tailwind Tribes to fill them up.

Tribes a bit controversal. Some love them. Some hate them. Some don’t know enough about them. Here are the basics:

1. You pay extra for them.
2. You simply search for Tribes. Search TpT or Teachers Pay Teachers to get started. The joinable Tribes will pop up. Be sure to look at the stats provided to see if it is an active tribe.
3. You load your content to the Tribe. Some Tribes let you load the same stuff all the time. OTher tribes ask you to wait a few months. Some Tribes ask you to never repeat content.
4. Make sure you keep track of what tribe is what because some may say TpT but they only want blog posts. Some only want blog posts but no product mentions. Keep an eye out.
5. Not all Tribes are equal. I belong to two amazing Tribes that get me a lot of repins. I have two other Tribes that as soon as I find something better I am leaving because NONE of my stuff is repinned. Some Tribes have very active admins. Others do not.
6. You can start your own Tribes. I have two. Both are searchable. One has a few members. One has none. I keep it just because. : ( Sad little Tribe. I also have recently kicked out two members for not following rules. Some admins are active. Others are not. Can’t say that enough. (All High School, All the Time and TpT High School History)
7. You can load material to the Tribes based on the plan you pick. I am in the lowest plan which means I can upload 80 pins a month. I have no need for more at the moment.
8. You can be in a certain amount of Tribes based on your monthly plan. My plan is the lowest which means I belong to 10 Tribes.

I suggest starting off with the lowest plan to see what your needs are. Maybe Tribes is exactly what you are looking for and you are amazing at them. I still recommend that if you join Tribes you begin in the lowest plan and upgrade from there.

Finally, locks.

Manually arranging your schedule is very easy. Just click a pin and drag it to where you want it. Once you get it in the exact right spot, lock it into place. It won’t move. Everything will move around it.

If you are going to shuffle your queue I suggest locking those few pins you want exactly so, into place.

The amount of time it takes you to schedule is based entirely on you. How many time slots a day? How many collaborative boards? How much of a control freak are you?

You will read many people brag about taking an hour and they can schedule a week at a time. I can’t. I have no idea how those people do it but they need to teach a class. 50 pins a day takes me about an hour to schedule 3 or 4 days.

I follow my Excel spreadsheet which tells me which collaborative boards for which days, how many pins for each board, and if there are special instructions. I schedule for a day at time, shuffle, lock every pin, then move on to the next day. To schedule an entire week would probably take me two hours. I try to take an hour, twice a week and schedule for a few days out.

A few times I have sat and scheduled for the entire week at once and those weeks were amazing. Such a load off my shoulders and so much more productive. I love Tailwinds.

Still Not Sure?

I got Tailwinds at the end of September. I had 1290 monthly views with 91 engagements. Not good. One sale a month.

Today?

I often see people on Facebook saying they don’t make enough to justify spending money on Tailwinds.

Neither did I. But I saw Tailwinds as an investment. If told myself that if my monthly impressions and views didn’t go up within a month I would leave. I am still here. My sales have gone up (I still don’t make much but much more than I did in September), I gain a few follwers a week on TpT, Pinterest, and Instagram, and one day, having put in the work to learn about Tailwinds will be the difference maker for me.

Convinced you yet?

How about a $15 credit towards your first month? Follow me on Pinterest and send me a message. Follow me on Facebook and message me. Email me at integratedsocialstudies1@gmail.com and I will send you the code. No obligation. Redeem it or not. : ) Although I hope you do.

Next time, we will explore Tailwinds for Instagram.

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