If you follow me on Instagram you know I love to share Pinterest tips! But as I began to add more advanced information, it occured to me that there are many people who just need to know the basics. This post will serve as a cheat sheet as you start to explore the Pinterest world and discover what it can do to grow your business.
Let’s start at the beginning! Pinterest describes themselves as follows: “Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save creative ideas”.
Pinterest is a search engine. Instead of typing in the google search bar for answers, people are turning to Pinterest. Over 250 million people to be exact!
Pinterest is a good fit for your business if you are a blogger or sell a service or a product online. Even if you have a brick and mortar business, if you sell products or services online, then Pinterest can be leveraged to your advantage.
What are the advantages? The online space is growing and growing rapidly. With the increasing possibilities for making money online, the competition gets fiercer. Where you once may have been able to easily rank in google, you now have to pay big bucks for ads or hire SEO experts to help you be seen. With Pinterest, you are MUCH more likely to be found as a smaller business or entrepreneur, and it is FREE!
Unlike other social channels, your pins will be in Pinterest forever! While your social media post may only have a shelf life of a couple hours or days. If you need exposure and want traffic to your website or blog, then Pinterest should be a part of your overall strategy!
I’m going to go over a handful of steps that are essential when using Pinterest for business.
Business account – The very first thing that you need to have is a Pinterest business account. You can convert your personal account or you can open up a brand new one. Learn how here and catch a video tutorial here!
Rich pins – If you have a website that you are using for business, or a blog that you own, you should verify your domain. By doing this you will be able to create “rich pins”. Rich Pins are basically a turbo charged pin. It won’t change the appearance of the pin itself but the description will be in bolder text which will catch more attention, while looking more credible. To learn more about rich pins and how enable this feature, click here!
Business name – Your business name in Pinterest should be your name AND what you do/title. Some accounts just use their title, so it’s up to you. My profile reads Peggy James/Virtual Assistant. This matters because if someone is searching for a Virtual Assistant they will find me!
Board names – Make sure they are keyword specific, don’t get cute. You want the board name to be searchable. If you want a board about healthy recipes, then your board description should not be “Stuff I need to eat”, it should be “Healthy Recipes”. To see if your board description is a searchable key phrase, just type it into the search bar and see if it pops up! Choose at least 4 to 5 other boards that resonate with your brand and where you’ll likely be pinning your best content to, using the same principles.
Board descriptions – Board descriptions are important and should not be ignored! They should be filled with Pinterest keywords. So, using the “Healthy Recipe” example, type it into the search bar and underneath you will see all the other words that are being searched along with “healthy recipes”. Now try to work in as many of those keywords into a cohesive paragraph and use this as your board description.
About you (Bio) – Now it’s time to fill in your “About you” in your settings. I want you to take the 4 or 5 board titles that you chose and plug them into your “about you” section and put a comma or a line between each board name. Putting a phrase about yourself or what you do might look a little nicer but it is not going to get you ranked in the “people” search! To see an example of what this looks like, go to my profile here!
Pin descriptions and headlines – I want you to think about your pin descriptions and headlines before you even search for pins or make your own. Using the “Healthy Recipes” board as an example, I want you to follow the same steps that you did to write your board descriptions. Use those keywords by putting them into a rich description that correlates to the board and the pin you want to create. Rinse and Repeat with your other pins.
If you are feeling like this is redundant, it is! And that is the point. Your business name, your about me, your board descriptions and your pin descriptions should all have keywords run like a thread throughout your account. Pinterest sees this as relevant and consistent and will show your content to more people. Let’s keep moving…
Pinterest hashtags –
Yes, you can use hashtags! When you type in a keyword or keyword phrase, the most popular and relevant pins will appear in your feed. But, when you search using a hashtag, the most recent pins will appear! Go ahead, do a test!
Type in any keyword in the search bar and you’ll likely see a bunch of pins that have been in circulation for a long time (check the date). Then go ahead and type that same keyword into the search bar, but as a hashtag. Now you’ll be looking at the most recent pins that are associated with that keyword!
Why is this important? Well, we don’t know how people are searching for content, and covering ALL the bases is a smart idea! Furthermore, if you are new to Pinterest and you don’t have any ranking pins yet, this could be your best bet at getting your content visible!
Creating pins – I use Canva to create my graphics. They have a ton of premade templates and they are easy to edit to your liking or if you’d rather you can design a pin from scratch. You should use a 2:3 size ratio so it fills up more of the page. If you have brand colors, fonts, or a style that represents you, try to work that into the pin so you stay consistent and on brand. Take a few minutes to search which pins are popular and what style of pins are being repinned over and over again. Pinterest is very visual, so it should look pretty, put together and have large text that catches the eye!
Pinning your graphic – Before pinning make sure you have a keyword rich description, that pulls in your board name and keyword hashtags to match. You’ll be asked to attach a website or link and the board you wish to pin to.
When to Pin – If you are pinning or repinning manually, then evening and into the night is the best time to pin! If you are using a scheduler like Tailwind (I use this for myself and my clients) you can schedule pins to post whenever you want! Tailwind has been such a time saver and allows me to schedule my pins at the optimal times!
Repinning – There are a few things you want to keep in mind. The pins that are the most popular and are the most likely to be repinned are generally the ones at the top of your smartfeed. So, make sure you pin a healthy amount of popular pins on your boards that correlate with your board name. If the pin looks spammy or of low quality, don’t repin. This could flag your account and you could run the risk of being shut down or be put in Pinterest jail (a short, long or indefinite probation period)! Also, another big no-no, do not use other peoples images/pins as your own unless you have explicit permission. This is not good Pinterest etiquette AND you could get reported… you guessed it, Pinterest jail!
Pinterest Views – Views are the total of number in which your pin has likely been viewed, and by viewed I mean “has been scrolled passed and may have been viewed”. Although a big number looks awesome, unless you are also getting the engagement, repins, and domain clicks, it doesn’t matter much. However, if you are getting a large number of views, it is usually accompanied by a healthy dose of all the other important numbers.
Followers – Your following is not nearly as important as it is on other social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The Smartfeed (also known as newsfeed) that pops up in your followers account is not full of your pins. Your followers will only be able to view your content if they click on the “followers tab” which will direct them to another feed that is full of their followers pins. Building your followers number isn’t necessarily a bad thing and will give you some exposure, but your main focus should be on getting repinned and getting website clicks using keywords to your absolute advantage.
Group boards – A group board is a board that an individual has started and then invited other people (Pinterest accounts) to join in a collaborative effort to pin related content. Group boards can have as little as two people or hundreds. Group boards matter because they allow you to pin to other boards that are not your own, putting you in front of a different audience. You can request to be on someones group board by sending them a direct message, or by following the instructions to be added that most accounts have posted in their board description.
If all of this seems overwhelming, I got you! I offer Pinterest account setup and management and will be happy to chat with you about how I can serve your business! Contact me here!
Some of the links that I include in these posts are affiliate links, which means that I may get a commission if you choose to purchase through my links.
