If you’re not familiar with Pinterest, it is a social networking site that acts like a virtual bulletin board for your interests, hobbies, recipes, lifestyle, and more. Pinterest allows you to easily visually bookmark, organize and share things with your friends. It has quickly become a big hit for both individuals and businesses alike. Just like your other social networks, Pinterest is a virtual, visual scrapbook of your tastes and interests.
What sets Pinterest apart is the ability to share images rather than just text. For example, on Pinterest you can “pin” photos of your favorite books. These pinned images of books will appear in a virtual “board” that you’ve created on your page. When your friends/followers visit your page, they can find a book they might like to read and pin it to their own board under “Reading List.” Then, they can click on the book image and even buy the book right on the spot! On the business side, you can see how this would really work well for retail and B to C businesses.
Here are some quick tips to get you started:
- Sign up for a free account. Go to pinterest.com and sign up for a FREE account. You’ll be asked to enter your email address and then wait for a welcome email from Pinterest, usually within 24hours.
- Create your page. Your Pinterest page is the first impression for visitors.
- Set up your “About” section. Just like the other social networks, this is where you can shine! Write at least one paragraph about who you are and what you do – either as a solopreneur or company.
- Upload and showcase your best pictures, graphics, and important business info on your page.
- Start Pinning!This is the fun part! There are 3 ways to pin content to your page:
- Repin – browse content on another user’s page, find images that you like and add them to your own boards by clicking the “repin” button.
- Upload – You can upload an image directly from your computer. Simply click the “Add” button and choose “Upload a Pin.” Then you can browse through your images to select the images to add to your boards.
- “Pin It” button – Allows you to pin products and photos from other websites (including your own). To do this, you need to click on the “About” drop-down menu and select to add the “Pin It” button to your browser’s toolbar.
- Start sharing – find things to pin and share with your peeps! Here are a few ideas of what to share: books, recipes, movies, clothes, shoes, style, lifestyle ideas, crafts, motivational quotes, info graphics, home décor ideas, videos and more.
- Start following – finding other users to follow is part of your overall strategy. You may want to follow leaders in your field, friends, competitors, etc. Just like Twitter, following someone is a simple click – they do not need to accept your request.
- Comment on pins – The quickest way to maximize your visibility on Pinterest is to comment often on other user’s pins. You should comment on your own pins as well. Every time you pin something, you should leave a comment that is full of keywords for your business.
Think strategically about what you pin and share. Finding out how to find and pin relevant content that gets shared and repined by others is your key to maximizing your success on Pinterest. Happy “pinning”!