Using Pinterest for Business

“Pinterest is a tool for collecting and organising the things that inspire you.” You’ll see from the image-based site that eye-catching, highly visual pictures are what makes it so addictive for its users, and ultimately why using the platform for business is an absolute no brainer.

Pinterest is unique compared to other social media sites in the sense that it reduces the number of steps from discovery to conversion. What other social media site appeals to our visual nature quite so eloquently as Pinterest and convert visitors into leads faster and with less effort; sound like a platform that you want to be a part of?

Who should use Pinterest?

Pinterest users aren’t discussing the events of their week or how their day has gone, they’re actively building collections of images they find interesting and want to share. Users are displaying their buying aspirations for everyone to see, including marketers, which makes it easier for us to influence customers purchasing decisions.

What do I put on Pinterest?

Create a board and organise your pins by topic. Boards can range from projects that you’re working on, to images of the things that inspire you. Pin images or videos from a website, or upload your own images straight to Pinterest. All images link back to the source, so it’s a great source of traffic. Keeping a balance is key, so remember that the same rules apply here as with other social media platforms; don’t keep posting about yourself. Share, comment and communicate; be social.

How frequently should I post?

Fairly frequently. Remember that the people who follow you will see your pins in their feed, so refrain from posting too much at once as you’ll clog up their feed with all of your images.

Don’t do this...

• Don’t download photos from the web and then upload them as your own pins. You’re sharing someone else’s images, so credit the original source
• Don’t just repin other user’s images, pin your own content too
• Don’t pin more than 5 consecutive pins at a time (spread them out over time, otherwise people may begin unfollowing you)
• Don’t perplex your followers by pinning random things. Pin images to one of your corresponding boards. If a follower is following a board on kittens, and suddenly a motorbike shows up, they might unfollow.
• Don’t just pin images of your products or projects; expand your thinking a little. Show off your businesses personality by pinning images that express this.

Jargon buster

• Board – boards are a collection of images that are similar, or are about the same thing.
• Pin – a pin is an image that you have added to one of your boards.
• RePin – the when someone shares a pin from one of your boards.
• Comments and Likes – similar to Facebook, Pinterest lets you to like someone’s pin, or you can leave a comment.
• Pin it button – this can be added to your browser, which allows you to easily share something that you have found interesting, like a pin for instance.
• Follow – just like Twitter, you can choose to follow a user, or you can choose to follow a specific board that you find interesting.

Size guide

A few stats for you...

• pins with price tags included get 36% more likes than those that don’t,
• 69% of Pinterest users have found at least one item that they’ve bought or wanted to buy,
• 80% of users are women