Pinterest for Business: A How To

If you’re a woman and reading this post, it’s likely that you both know of Pinterest and have an intimate relationship with it. If you’re a man and reading this post, it’s likely that you’ve heard of Pinterest, but that’s as far as we’re willing to go. And it makes sense, since out of the 70 million active users on Pinterest, 68% of them are women, myself one of them.

With all these women pinning, Pinterest is a great opportunity for businesses to do some targeted marketing. Pinterest, like all social platforms, should not be a singular strategy in itself, but a facet of a larger, overall strategy. Unless you’re a B2C company and your pins link directly to your product, it’ll be hard to tell specific ROI on your Pinterest. But don’t lose heart—you’ll be building overall brand presence. As we’ve mentioned in our previous Insight, you’re building your brand presence for that quiet-ish majority who will notice your brand and, consciously or subconsciously, make a purchase without ever announcing the role of your Pinterest account in making the decision.

If you’ve decided that Pinterest is a good platform for you and your brand, follow these five best practices for making your boards effective.

1. Remember to think visually. Pinterest is a visual board. Pin eye-catching, brilliant images to attract attention. Oh, and remember: you can pin videos, too. And remember how impactful videos are?
2. Add a “Pin It” button to your own website. Make it easy for other pinners to pin what they’ve found on your site directly to their boards. Once you’ve installed the plugin, visitors to your site will notice a “Pin It” button appear over images when their cursor is on the pictures.
3. Change the descriptions of your pins with keywords and SEO in mind. Provide an actual description of the pin—it’s how your pin will be found when pinners search for, say, “Wisconsin lighthouses.”
4. Pin a variety of content. Don’t just pin from your website. Create boards that fit for your brand, but in a more distant way. For example, let’s go back to the lighthouse example. Let’s say you are a lighthouse tourist location in Door County. Instead of only pinning scenes and events from your lighthouse, pin lighthouses from around the world, Door County attractions, historical lighthouse keepers, Door County wildlife, Door County events…the point is, round out your boards with many different topics.
5. Keep track of your efforts. Track when you receive the most repins, followers, comments. Track your successes by the rising number of followers and repins each week. If you’re not noticing an increase, it’s time to reevaluate the types of content you’re pinning.

These tips should be a good start. If you find yourself getting stuck, feel free to contact us. We’ve got some great board ideas up our sleeves.