Pinterest is much more than a social media network. An increasing number of businesses large and small are leveraging the platform to reach new audiences, drive traffic to their websites, and generate leads or sales. And guess what? It’s working!
As any social media marketing company would tell you, using Pinterest for business is a fun and easy way to build your presence online while building your brand. This relatively new social networking site allows users to create online image collages on “pinboards” to quickly and easily share with other Pinterest users. And with more than 70 million active Pinterest users as of July 2013, there’s never been a better time to set up your own page. So, if you haven’t already, it’s time to get pinning!
Top 15 Pinterest Tips for Beginner Pinners
- When using Pinterest for small business, be sure to feature the name of your company on your profile for the ultimate exposure. Try to use your company name as your username, and definitely do the same for your profile name once your profile is set up. Don’t forget to include your website URL in your profile, too!
- Make the most in the “About” section. Add a carefully written paragraph about who you are and what you’re interested in. This will appear directly under your photo to give users more info about you. And a good social media marketing company will tell you to use some relevant keywords for search engine optimization.
- Include a description under the image you’re posting. Follow the lead of a social media marketing company who urge the use of keywords in these descriptions. Remember, a solid description will stay with that image as it gets repinned all over the Pinterest world. Use your business name with any image that’s pinned from your own website.
- Vary pinning your own special discoveries with plenty of “repinning,” which is reposting another user’s pin to your followers. An email will be sent to the user whom you repin, and they also get a credit on your pin, boosting their following.
- Go ahead and pin your own blog entries, but avoid over-promoting. Don’t try to steal the spotlight by talking only about your own business. Try discussing trends in the industry or interesting news items.
- Pin from many different sites, instead of just from one or two sources. Variety is important on Pinterest for small business users.
- Connect your Pinterest for business account with your Twitter and Facebook accounts. These social media icons will then appear under your profile picture, linking to your accounts and driving users to them.
- Pin content steadily, not in huge bursts. When it comes to Pinterest tips, this may be most important. Users will come to rely on seeing your content, which will boost your exposure and their engagement.
- Network with other professionals by tagging other Pinterest users in your pins by entering, “@username” in your descriptions.
- Comment on other users’ pins. This feature on Pinterest for business users is great to build relationships and engagement.
- Recognize great content by liking other users’ pins. You’ll find the more great content you post, the more often people will “like” your pins, too!
- Don’t forget videos! There’s a special section just for pinned videos, which is great for businesses. YouTube videos are super-easy to pin.
- When using Pinterest for business, it’s especially useful to embed pins as content on your own website pages or blog posts. Pinterest has an embed option specifically for this reason.
- Repin on the go by getting the Pinterest app. You can even pin from your camera!
- Add a noticeable button on your website titled, “Follow Me on Pinterest” to promote that you’re an active pinner.
Pinterest has become one of the fastest-growing social sites, so it’s no wonder why you should use Pinterest for business growth. If you’re new to the site and need help managing your Pinterest for small business account or are looking for more Pinterest tips, contact your local social media marketing company. You’ll have a following in no time!