Curious about Shuffles? 🧐 Here's what you need to know

Hey friend,

I hope your week has been going well so far!

Have you heard about the new Shuffles app Pinterest released last month? 👀

This new app has Pinterest managers and bloggers wondering:

a.) Should we have a presence there?

b.) Is it worth joining for our clients?

c.) Do we really have to learn ANOTHER platform?!?!

Wellllll, I spent the last 2 weeks on the app — snooping and making shuffles — so you don't have to. Let me show you around the app and answer those questions for ya!

Shuffles App: What You Need to Know

If you haven't heard, Pinterest quietly launched the Shuffles app in early August.

Shuffles is a standalone app created by a team at Pinterest specifically for designing and sharing collages and custom mood boards called Shuffles.

Here’s a little peak:

How the App Works

Every user logs in using their Pinterest account. You can browse Shuffles made by others on 4 social feeds:

For you
Popular
Hashtags
Recent

Users can also search for (and follow) Accounts and Hashtags in the app.

The only way to see a hashtag's number of followers, is on the Hashtags feed (more on this in a sec).

How to Make a Shuffle

When making Shuffles, you can use images from:

Pinterest (using the in-app search engine)
Uploaded images from your phone, or
Stickers from the in-app sticker selection.

The stickers offered are pretty limited and mostly offer a vintage style. I'm not sure how often the selection is updated. Updates seem pretty random. 🤷‍♀️

Don't see any stickers you like? No problem...

The Pinterest search feature allows you to grab ANY image that exists on Pinterest to add to your Shuffle.

Images from Pinterest (and uploaded images) can be edited to remove the background or cut out the object of the image, like these pink headphones for example:

There are lots of editing tools within the app to help you style your Shuffle like drop shadows, outlines, filters, and animations.

Link, Links and More LINKS! 🔗

Once a Shuffle is published, each image pulled from Pinterest is automatically linked to its source URL and to the Pinterest pin. 😍

If an image doesn't have a source URL, the link will only lead back to the pin on Pinterest.

How to Get an Invite

Currently, this app is invite-only, meaning you either have to:

Join the waitlist to receive a code or
Get a code from someone who already has the app and has available invites.

This launch style is VERY similar to the invite-only Clubhouse app launch... Who remembers asking around for a Clubhouse invite?! 🙋‍♀️😂

This launch method creates scarcity and major FOMO, which is perfect for stirring up some interest around the new app.

Side note/FYI because I was confused about this: New users do NOT automatically get invite codes. I was given ZERO codes when I signed up. I followed the instructions on-screen to share the code (obviously it didn't work because I had 0 invites)...

But a few days later the Share code button turned into a Request invites button. So I clicked it, and I eventually got an invite about a week later.

Soooooo, Should You Start Marketing on Shuffles?

Ok. Here's the scoop:

👧 13-year-old me (who used to spend hours making collages from magazine clippings) is obsessed this app. It's a TON of fun.

*****BUT*****

👩‍💻 30-something-year-old me says: it’s NOT a viable place to market your blog or business. At least not yet.

Articles like this one are pretty misleading and might make you think there is a huge audience there... But since the app is still invite-only, the audience there is very VERY small.

For example, the largest following I've seen on Shuffles is the hashtag #aesthetic with just over 5.6k followers. The next most popular is #taylorswift.

So, even though the FOMO is hitting hard... I promise, you’re not missing out.

And, don't worry, no need to learn yet another platform right now. 😁

✋ The people just aren't there (yet!).

Instead, I'd MUCH rather you spend time on good ol' regular Pinterest. Because big things are happening behind the scenes over there...

MASSIVE Interest Data Dump 👀

If you've been on my list for awhile, you know I get all goo-goo-eyed when the former CEO would talk about improving user experience and enhancing the recommendation engine. 😍

It's the little things, ok?

Well, since mid-2021, Ben has been ensuring investors that machine learning improvements were coming to the Taste Graph.

And by-golly, it's happening!!!!

If you're totally confused at this point, the Taste Graph is a part of the discovery algorithm that serves relevant content to users according to their interests.

Historically, engineers at Pinterest have struggled to:

assign correct interests to pins and
create new interest categories.

After following this topic closely for the last year and a half, I can now officially see the changes coming to life in the backend of the Pinterest code.👏👏👏

Engineers have added thousands of new interest categories to the taxonomy over the last few weeks. 😮

I'm (lovingly) calling it the Great Data Dump of 2022.

This Data Dump means it's now easier than ever to get in front of NEW people who are actually INTERESTED in your content.

How?!? you ask...

👉 Interest Targeting 👈

Interest Targeting is a core training inside of my Pinterest strategy course, Scheduling Shortcuts [Hacks for the New Pinterest Algorithm]... And it's been quite the game-changer.

Here's an example...

A few months ago I shared these Interest Targeting results with you to show you how powerful this strategy is even BEFORE the Data Dump:

Well, since then, those numbers continue to increase, plus 2 pins have gone viral, getting millions of views in just a few days:

Whoa.

I KNOW this wouldn't be possible without Interest Targeting.

And since there's more Interests to Target than EVER, I want YOU to get in on the action ASAP!

So for the next 7 days, you can get the full Interest Targeting training inside of my signature course, Scheduling Shortcuts for 40% OFF using the coupon code DATADUMP

You'll get instant access to:

Interest Targeting - How to Do It & Why It Works
My Scheduling Strategy that Gets Me Millions of Views
Pinning Tutorials With AND Without a Scheduler
How the Pinterest Algorithm Actually Works in 2022
Answers to All Your Burning Pinterest Questions
Long-Term Strategies for Maximum Results
Google Analytics 4 Training, and so much more!

>> Take Advantage of the DATADUMP and Learn Interest Targeting for 40% OFF! (coupon applied automatically when using this link)

If you have any questions about Scheduling Shortcuts or Interest Targeting, feel free to hit reply and ask away.

I'll let you know if the course is a good fit for you or not!

Happy pinning,

Amy

(P.S. But if you're on the Shuffles app, hit reply with your username so I can follow you!)

Adding this countdown so I don't lose track of when the coupon expires. 🙃

Hi! I'm Amy.