How I Grew My Pinterest Following

I'm not usually one for 'How-To' posts but recently I've had a lot of success with my Pinterest account and I feel like, for me, it's the platform that has been easiest to grow. I'm currently at around 19,000 followers, gaining around 3-4 thousand new followers a month, which I feel like is pretty good going. I'm also starting to notice a big increase in the amount of blog traffic I'm receiving from posts I've shared in my Pinterest boards. 
So how did I make it happen?

Firstly, a disclaimer, I'm not a social media buff and I've never claimed to be. I'm just sharing what has worked for me and what I've done to gain the followers that I have. 
The 'tip' that I always see in these type of posts and the one that I completely disagree with is:
Don't spam pin - I'm not talking about pinning crap all over your boards but I've read lots of advice posts that say to limit the number of pins you post. I have and always will pin like a crazy woman. I tend to sit down with my phone and dedicate a block of time to pin, pin and pin some more - usually in the evening before I go to sleep. If people don't like it, they'll unfollow you but from my experience, the more I pin, the more followers I get on the back of it. Simple. One thing I will say though is that I try to pin across a variety of boards every day so that I'm not saving 5,000 pins on cake by mid-afternoon. I mean, I'm not saying that's a bad thing but...
Don't pin any old rubbish - I like to think I'm quite selective about what I pin. I try to stick with photos and imagery that I find aesthetically pleasing. If the photo is grainy, poorly lit and has a lot of hideous font all over it, I tend to avoid. Pinning larger, portrait style images is my preference and I try to incorporate these in my own blog posts because they appear larger on the Pinterest feed and demand more attention. We're not talking those huge scrolling pins though... *insert sassy hand emoji*
Don't just repin - I'm always repinning other people's pins and scrolling my Pinterest feed to find new content but I also make a point of adding fresh content to my boards too. Whenever I read blogs, I tend to pin any images that I like onto my Pinterest boards - that way you're sharing the love and aren't just regurgitating the same content over and over again. You can check out my Bloggers Board here. 
Finally, I feel like having a wide variety of boards caters to a larger audience and I try to pin across all of them as much as I can. I love pinning to my Fashion and Beauty boards but I know that some of my most popular are my Home and Wallpaper boards so I make sure I pin regularly to those too. The more diverse your Pinterest account is, the wider your potential audience becomes and the more likely you are to attract new followers. 
What are your thoughts on Pinterest? Do you have an account that you use regularly or are you new to the world of pinning? Let me know your top tips in the comment section below. 
If you'd like to take a peek and/or join my Group Blogger Board on Pinterest, you can tweet me at @Lifeinexcess_ or email me at lifeinexcess@outlook.com.