Social media, business promotion and branding are no strangers to one another. Most companies have embraced the idea of having a Facebook page, a Twitter account or both. But, what many companies have yet to discover, is that Pinterest can be a wonderful place to positively promote products and services — if done properly.
I am compiling everything I’ve learned about proven practices in Pinterest marketing and condensed them into one digestible post. Please note, I am not in PR, nor marketing, I’m simply sharing what I’ve seen work well or what I’ve learned from others more knowledgeable than myself — but I think you will find the info useful.
If you’re wondering, “I’m already using Facebook and Twitter, do I really need to use Pinterest too?” I’m going to give you three reasons why I believe the answer is yes.
- 2.2 million people use Pinterest daily, 15 million monthly — that is a huge audience of potential customers you could be interacting with.
- Having people care about your product, service or company enough to save your links for future use leads to future customers.
- People are far more likely to purchase things their trusted friends recommend — seeing a friend repin something is akin to word-of-mouth promotion — which is hugely valuable!
1. Create an account especially for your business. Whether your business sells services, goods or is a website or blog, you want it to have its own Pinterest account. There are a few reasons this is important. First off, not everyone that follows your personal boards will be interested in pins that relate to your business. Second, if your business is, say, a company that sells men’s running attire — you won’t want your personal pins or your favorite eyeshadow looks strewn about. And last, simple math — if you have a personal account you pin to, that gives you one “audience” of followers. If you also have a business account, that means you now have two audiences. (Please note, this does not mean you should pin all of your business related pins to your personal account, that’s obnoxious. 
But an occasional, appropriately categorized one is ok and useful!)
2. Create boards that relate to your business’ mission and product. A company that does a great job of this is Chobani Yogurt. Their yogurt is healthy and nutritious, so their boards include things like healthy recipes (including but not limited to those that use Chobani as an ingredient), inspirational photos related to health and fitness, workout routines and ideas, etc. This makes your Pinterest boards relevant to followers who would also likely appreciate/want to purchase your product.
3. Think carefully about the photos you use online — make them “Pinworthy.” I’m not just talking about quality photography, I’m talking about representing a product, idea, recipe, project — whatever it is you’d love people to pin — well in a photo. The Nester, a popular home decor blogger posted about this same thing and gave a great example of the difference between a good enough photo and a great, pinnable photo. The product she was promoting was an e-book that taught readers how to perfectly paint furniture. Her original photo, of a dresser that had been painted, but shown at an awkward angle, was ok. But, when she thought about making a pinnable photo, she redid the image, added color for attractiveness and a nice caption that explained the photo (and would stick around even if a pinner didn’t caption the pin well down the line).
Nester’s photo “before”
Nester’s photo made “pinworthy”
4. Make your stuff easy for people to pin. If you have a website, search for (and install) widgets that will allow you to add a “Pin It” button to your product pages or posts. If you make it easy, people are far more likely to do it!
See the “Pin it” button that we have at the bottom of our posts?
5. Pin your best work. Yup, that’s right — I’m talking about a little shameless self-promotion. Be sure that you pin your best products, posts, info to your business board and occasionally your personal boards as well. You can’t sit around and wait for others to hopefully pin your stuff — sometimes you’ve gotta take the bull by the horns! The caveat however — you must resist the urge to over-pin your stuff. People don’t want to follow boards that are made up exclusively of self-promoting pins. Also, that’s against Pinterest’s terms of use, so just don’t do it okay? Think back to number two — pin your stuff and others’ stuff that is relevant to your business. You pin others’ stuff, they’re likely to pin yours. Give a little, get a little and all that good stuff.
6. Find out who is already pinning your stuff. Want to find and follow those who are already pinning things from your website? Simply type www.pinterest.com/source/[your website] (e.g. www.pinterest.com/source/thefullmoxie.com) into your browser and you will be taken to a page of pins recently pinned from your site. From there, you can click on the pinners to follow them or interact with them. These people likely are already taken with your products or services to some level, so they are more likely to be future customers.
7. Interact, interact, interact! Social media works best when it’s social. It’s as simple as that. People follow businesses on social media usually because they already have some interest in the business or are a customer and they LOVE to feel as though it’s easy to interact with the companies they care about. It’s no different on Pinterest. If you want people to want to follow you, view your pins, click on your pins, like your stuff — guess what you have to do? Follow people, view their pins, click on their pins and like their stuff. Yup — again, you scratch their backs, they’ll scratch yours. Follow the people who are pinning your pins. Compliment their pins that you like (be genuine). And, one of the best things you can do: Flatter and Promote. That’s right — I’m capitalizing that. Flatter and Promote is huge in the social ‘net community — whether it’s with blog comments, Twitter, Facebook or on Pinterest — a great way to get someone to check out your stuff if to 1. Flatter: leave a comment complimenting something relevant to your products and Promote: suggest a visit to your own product. Examples: You make custom earrings, you find a pin of a custom necklace that would go great with the earrings you make — so you leave a comment “I love this necklace! It’s beautiful and would go great with these earrings that I make! (insert link to your earrings)” or for a blogger “I loved your post on healthy dinner ideas for toddlers! The veggie wrap idea was my favorite. I did a similar post, but for breakfast ideas if you’d like to check it out, here’s the link (insert your link). Have a great day!”
This post is part three of a three part Pinterest series. See part one here, and part two here.
Natali Carrera is a full-time working mom, wife, web-writer and recovering Target addict. Oh let’s just be honest. She’s not likely recovering.
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How to use Pinterest to promote your business
Social media, business promotion and branding are no strangers to one another. Most companies have embraced the idea of having a Facebook page, a Twitter account or both. But, what many companies have yet to discover, is that Pinterest can be a wonderful place to positively promote products and services — if done properly.
I am compiling everything I’ve learned about proven practices in Pinterest marketing and condensed them into one digestible post. Please note, I am not in PR, nor marketing, I’m simply sharing what I’ve seen work well or what I’ve learned from others more knowledgeable than myself — but I think you will find the info useful.
If you’re wondering, “I’m already using Facebook and Twitter, do I really need to use Pinterest too?” I’m going to give you three reasons why I believe the answer is yes.
1. Create an account especially for your business. Whether your business sells services, goods or is a website or blog, you want it to have its own Pinterest account. There are a few reasons this is important. First off, not everyone that follows your personal boards will be interested in pins that relate to your business. Second, if your business is, say, a company that sells men’s running attire — you won’t want your personal pins or your favorite eyeshadow looks strewn about. And last, simple math — if you have a personal account you pin to, that gives you one “audience” of followers. If you also have a business account, that means you now have two audiences. (Please note, this does not mean you should pin all of your business related pins to your personal account, that’s obnoxious.
But an occasional, appropriately categorized one is ok and useful!)
2. Create boards that relate to your business’ mission and product. A company that does a great job of this is Chobani Yogurt. Their yogurt is healthy and nutritious, so their boards include things like healthy recipes (including but not limited to those that use Chobani as an ingredient), inspirational photos related to health and fitness, workout routines and ideas, etc. This makes your Pinterest boards relevant to followers who would also likely appreciate/want to purchase your product.
3. Think carefully about the photos you use online — make them “Pinworthy.” I’m not just talking about quality photography, I’m talking about representing a product, idea, recipe, project — whatever it is you’d love people to pin — well in a photo. The Nester, a popular home decor blogger posted about this same thing and gave a great example of the difference between a good enough photo and a great, pinnable photo. The product she was promoting was an e-book that taught readers how to perfectly paint furniture. Her original photo, of a dresser that had been painted, but shown at an awkward angle, was ok. But, when she thought about making a pinnable photo, she redid the image, added color for attractiveness and a nice caption that explained the photo (and would stick around even if a pinner didn’t caption the pin well down the line).
Nester’s photo “before”
Nester’s photo made “pinworthy”
4. Make your stuff easy for people to pin. If you have a website, search for (and install) widgets that will allow you to add a “Pin It” button to your product pages or posts. If you make it easy, people are far more likely to do it!
See the “Pin it” button that we have at the bottom of our posts?
5. Pin your best work. Yup, that’s right — I’m talking about a little shameless self-promotion. Be sure that you pin your best products, posts, info to your business board and occasionally your personal boards as well. You can’t sit around and wait for others to hopefully pin your stuff — sometimes you’ve gotta take the bull by the horns! The caveat however — you must resist the urge to over-pin your stuff. People don’t want to follow boards that are made up exclusively of self-promoting pins. Also, that’s against Pinterest’s terms of use, so just don’t do it okay? Think back to number two — pin your stuff and others’ stuff that is relevant to your business. You pin others’ stuff, they’re likely to pin yours. Give a little, get a little and all that good stuff.
6. Find out who is already pinning your stuff. Want to find and follow those who are already pinning things from your website? Simply type www.pinterest.com/source/[your website] (e.g. www.pinterest.com/source/thefullmoxie.com) into your browser and you will be taken to a page of pins recently pinned from your site. From there, you can click on the pinners to follow them or interact with them. These people likely are already taken with your products or services to some level, so they are more likely to be future customers.
7. Interact, interact, interact! Social media works best when it’s social. It’s as simple as that. People follow businesses on social media usually because they already have some interest in the business or are a customer and they LOVE to feel as though it’s easy to interact with the companies they care about. It’s no different on Pinterest. If you want people to want to follow you, view your pins, click on your pins, like your stuff — guess what you have to do? Follow people, view their pins, click on their pins and like their stuff. Yup — again, you scratch their backs, they’ll scratch yours. Follow the people who are pinning your pins. Compliment their pins that you like (be genuine). And, one of the best things you can do: Flatter and Promote. That’s right — I’m capitalizing that. Flatter and Promote is huge in the social ‘net community — whether it’s with blog comments, Twitter, Facebook or on Pinterest — a great way to get someone to check out your stuff if to 1. Flatter: leave a comment complimenting something relevant to your products and Promote: suggest a visit to your own product. Examples: You make custom earrings, you find a pin of a custom necklace that would go great with the earrings you make — so you leave a comment “I love this necklace! It’s beautiful and would go great with these earrings that I make! (insert link to your earrings)” or for a blogger “I loved your post on healthy dinner ideas for toddlers! The veggie wrap idea was my favorite. I did a similar post, but for breakfast ideas if you’d like to check it out, here’s the link (insert your link). Have a great day!”
This post is part three of a three part Pinterest series. See part one here, and part two here.
Natali
Natali Carrera is a full-time working mom, wife, web-writer and recovering Target addict. Oh let’s just be honest. She’s not likely recovering.
More Posts