Manual vs Automated Pinning on Pinterest: Pros, Cons & Best Practices

If you’re a casual Pinterest user, you probably enjoy pinning your favorite photos and videos manually to your boards. You might save content from Pinterest itself or different websites across the internet.

However, if you’re a blogger or content marketer who needs to pin in bulk, you might be looking for an easier way that saves time and brings better results. This is where the debate between manual vs automated pinning comes in.

When you start using Pinterest, you usually begin with manual pinning. Many people believe this is the best approach, but as your Pinterest activity grows, you may find it challenging to pin multiple times a day while managing other key tasks. Staying active all the time can be difficult and may take time away from growing your business.

For example, to build a strong presence on Pinterest, you might need to pin 25–30 fresh pins daily. While you could manually upload all of them simultaneously, that’s not an effective strategy. Posting all pins at once can make your account seem inactive for the rest of the day. Instead, pins should be spread out to keep your account engaged and reach users in different time zones. You could manually pin every hour, which would be time-consuming and overwhelming.

A better option is to use Pinterest automation tools that schedule and publish your pins automatically at your chosen times.

By switching to an automated pinning strategy, you can:

✔ Save time and focus on other essential tasks

✔ Schedule multiple pins in advance (even for weeks or months)

✔ Maintain a consistent presence on Pinterest without constant effort

In this article, we’ll compare manual pinning vs. automated posting on Pinterest, explore the pros and cons of each, and help you choose the best approach to maximize your results.

Understanding automated pinning

Automated pinning means you don’t have to be on Pinterest all the time.

Instead, you use social media automation tools to upload and schedule your posts. These tools then publish your pins automatically at the times you’ve chosen.

The process is simple: first, you upload your content (images, descriptions, and links) to the tool. Then, you set the days and times for posting. Once the scheduled time arrives, the tool publishes the pins for you—no manual effort is needed.

With Pinterest scheduling tools, you can plan everything in advance, stay active on the platform, and save time without having to log in every time you want to post.

Pros of automated pinning

Automated Pinterest posting offers numerous benefits. These tools can enhance your Pinterest marketing by keeping your account active, even when you can't be physically present on the platform.

They save you time, allowing you to focus on other creative tasks.

By scheduling and publishing pins at the right times, you can reach a larger audience and ensure consistent posting.

Managing Pinterest can be time-consuming, but automation makes it easier. With scheduling tools, you can simplify many tasks, improve efficiency, and get better results without constant effort.

Here are some key advantages of using social media automation tools like Tailwind, Buffer, and others.

Saves time - Pinterest schedulers allow users to schedule multiple pins simultaneously, eliminating the need to post each one manually. This process saves time and enables you to concentrate on other creative tasks.

Visual content calendar - Many social media scheduling tools for Pinterest provide a visual calendar with a drag-and-drop feature, making it easy to organize content in one place. This gives you a clear overview of your pins, helps identify seasonal trends, ensures posting at peak times, and maintains consistency. Ultimately, it simplifies content planning and allows you to execute your Pinterest marketing more effectively.

Consistent posting - Pinterest automation tools help you plan and post pins at regular intervals, ensuring a steady flow of content. Posting consistently increases the chances of your audience seeing your pins more often, boosting visibility and reach. Plus, accounts that follow a regular posting schedule are more likely to be favored by Pinterest, helping their pins reach even more people.

Optimized posting times - These tools analyze past pin performance, audience engagement, and trends to suggest the best times to post, helping your new pins get more views and interactions.

Categorizing content - Some Pinterest schedulers, like MeetEdgar, let you create content in categories or batches and set a recurring schedule for each category. This not only saves time but also makes your Pinterest strategy more organized and efficient.

Recycling content - Most popular Pinterest schedulers automatically reshare your top-performing pins, allowing you to reuse evergreen content. This ensures that even if you don’t create new pins, your best ones will be shared again on the scheduled days and times.

Team collaboration - These automated Pinterest tools offer features, that allow members to collaborate smoothly without confusion or duplicate efforts. Team members can give instant feedback on content drafts, improving quality and efficiency.

Cross-platform scheduling - Many pin schedulers allow you to manage multiple social media accounts from one dashboard effortlessly.

Analytics & insights - They provide valuable insights about the performance of your pins, allowing you to understand which types of content resonate most with your audience. This knowledge helps you create more relevant pins to drive engagement and traffic.

In addition to the tasks mentioned above, Pinterest scheduling tools allow you to do many things, such as designing pins, editing pins, networking with other pinners, managing multiple profiles, adding hashtags, discovering trending ideas, and much more.

Cons of automated pinning

Pinterest scheduling tools have many benefits, but they also have some downsides. One big drawback is that too much automation can look like spam to Pinterest, which may lower engagement.

Also, since these tools schedule posts in advance, you can't respond to comments and messages in real-time, making it harder to build relationships quickly.

Lastly, using these tools adds extra costs to running a blog or business.

Understanding manual pinning

Manual pinning refers to the process of uploading and publishing photos on Pinterest in real-time. This means you open Pinterest, add a photo and post it immediately.

Each time you want to add a new pin, you must be online to upload the image, title, description, and website link manually. With manual pinning, you can only add one pin at a time, not multiple at once.

You also need to observe and analyze the best times to post and do it yourself.

Pros of manual pinning

Everyone starts using Pinterest by saving pins, which is the natural way to engage with the platform. Since you pin in real-time, you get a better understanding of trending topics and ideas.

Manual pinning gives you more control, allowing you to use all the platform's features effectively to grow your reach and gain maximum exposure.

Spending more time on Pinterest helps you identify trending pins, understand which visuals and video formats appeal to your audience, and get more views and saves. You also get to observe your competitors, see what kind of content they create, and learn which pin designs drive the most engagement—so you can create similar ones.

Manual pinning allows you to explore the platform deeply and develop a smart Pinterest strategy. Being active in real-time also helps build trust, as responding to comments instantly makes your audience feel more connected.

Additionally, manual pinning allows you to curate and organize content in a way that makes your profile visually appealing.

Cons of manual pinning

Manual pinning is great, but as your account grows, it becomes hard to manage and takes a lot of time. Consistent pinning brings better results, but doing it manually makes it tough to plan content and stick to a regular posting schedule. Plus, some scheduling tools provide helpful insights and analytics that can boost your growth. If you don’t use these tools, you might miss valuable opportunities.

Conclusion : Manual vs Automated Pinning

Pinterest is an amazing platform for driving traffic and boosting sales, but consistent posting is essential to achieve the best results. Manual pinning gives you full control and can enhance personal engagement, which can help drive more sales.

However, as your business grows and you find yourself needing to post hundreds of pins each week, manual pinning can become unmanageable and consume a lot of your valuable time.

As a beginner, you can start with manual pinning, but once you realize that it is taking up too much of your time, consider exploring automated scheduling options. These tools can offer great benefits to help grow your business on Pinterest.