There are over 8 million people on the social media network, Pinterest, and 80% of them are women. If those aren’t drool-worthy figures for a business targeting women, then I don’t know what would be.
In addition, Pinterest is an incredibly visual medium, which means it is pretty much perfect for showing your potential clients and customers what you can do.
Businesses such as jewelry stores, clothing shops, cake decorators, and wedding planners are all perfect candidates for Pinterest. One business that I particularly like is interior design and will use this business as an example in this blog post.
To get the hang of Pinterest start thinking of it as a visual blog. Your goal is to tell a story in pictures.
What to Do
Once you set up your account you should strategically plan some boards. Boards should generally have no more than 15-20 pins on them to avoid looking cluttered, but you can create as many as you want. You could go as simple as: “Bedroom, Bathroom, Living Room.”
Alternatively, it can be as complex as the Pinterest account by Interior Design Pros with boards for “Remarkable Bedrooms,” “Sustainability,” and “Fun With Kids Community Board,” to name just a few. They have over 25 boards!
While many people use Pinterest to share other people’s designs that they’ve found floating about the Internet – just things that they like or enjoy – you would ideally be taking pictures of your own successful designs, uploading them, and using the small space beneath the picture in order to tell their story.
You are a “contributor” when you upload your own pictures, and they tend to spread faster because nobody’s seen them before. There’s room to place your URL in your profile and in the blurb beneath the picture. If you want the picture itself to get people back to your site just upload the picture to your website and “pin it” from there.
Be Sure to Share and Socialize
You might also save a few boards for promoting other people. Perhaps there’s a product you go to again and again for your designs – a special board is a good place to share those sorts of things, and you should follow that vendor as well.
Speaking of following, you’ll want to follow people on Pinterest just as you would on other social networks like Twitter. The principle is much the same: you want to find people you like, follow them, re-pin some of their stuff and grow your base of followers. Save a board for things they like as well. You can do a location-based search on Pinterest, so if you’re a Minneapolis interior designer just type “minneapolis interior design” into the search box.
It’s a good idea to set aside a little time one day a week to find and re-pin other people’s content. You can also comment on other people’s content, which is a nice way to highlight your expertise. Just make sure you don’t come across as “salesy.”
Make Your Site “Pin Friendly”
Pinterest is easy to use and is downright addictive as well. That means it’s easy to encourage other people to use it. You just need to make sure there is a “Pin it” button on your blog or website and that it appears on every page or post.
This makes it quick and easy for Pinterest enthusiasts to give you a quick “impulse” pin, which means that you get traffic that you didn’t have to create yourself – always a plus.
Today’s Action Items:
- Set up your Pinterest account
- Set up at least one board
- Find 100 people to follow
- Set aside a certain amount of time each week that you will spend on Pinterest.
- Add Pinterest share buttons to every page on your site or blog posts.
