The end of 2014 is looming, and I’ve had a bunch of emails these past weeks asking me what my predictions for 2015 are. My predictions centre around images. I really feel like social networks that centred around images got really hot in 2014, and I don’t see that trend going anywhere any time soon. According to this article in TechCrunch, Tumblr experienced the greatest growth in 2014, followed by Pinterest, and then Instagram.

Like many of you, I’m hopelessly addicted to Pinterest, especially this time of the year. I did a recent post on my cooking blog about how to make DIY Flavoured Salts, and where do you think I did my research?

Pinterest is becoming more and more important all the time as a marketing tool. It’s the #4 source of traffic to my cooking blog.

I recently read an article over on Small Business Ideas Blog called Pinterest Marketing: How I Became One of the Top Pinners for “Baby Shower”. It’s a really interesting case study about how one guy rose to the top of Pinterest’s SEO, and I suggest you check it out.

I asked the author, Brian, for his #1 piece of advice when it comes becoming a top pinner, and here was his advice:

Get into the habit of pinning regularly, even if it’s just a few minutes a day. Your pins & boards will gradually accumulate more and more views. As you pin more things over time, your overall views and followers will increase, which will accelerate your growth on Pinterest. A lot of people will quit before that happens.

Kids, I gotta tell you: the longer I am at this (it’s been 8 years, now), the more I feel like social media success boils down to just one thing: consistency.

I also dug up this infographic for you today that outlines how to double your Pinterest Followers in just 5 minutes a day. It’s good stuff–except for the piece of advice about following 100-300 new followers a day, waiting a few days to see if they follow you back, then unfollowing and refollowing them. Please don’t do that. First of all, I feel like following 100-300 people per day is an unrealistic goal. Second, following and then unfollowing and refollowing is a jerky thing to do. I recently blocked someone on Twitter for doing this to me. If I don’t want to follow you, I don’t want to follow you. Don’t harass me.

Now, get pinning!

Infographic courtesy of WhoIsHostingThis