Pinterest is often overlooked by many small businesses, entrepreneurs and even savvy marketers because it has been classified as a place to simply find recipes, crafts or home decor.
Although food/recipes are the number one searched item on Pinterest, just ahead of crafts and decor, big brands like Lululemon, Chobani and Target are very successful at using it to reach their audiences. So why is now the time to give Pinterest another look?
Pinterest has unique advantages over the fast-paced, algorithm based, pay-to-play models that the other major social channels are thriving on right now.
The great thing about Pinterest is that it has evolved as a place for businesses to drive awareness, but it has done so without losing its appeal to consumers. Users are very much in control of the content that they search, click and share. By using these tips, you are simply increasing likelihood that your brand, boards and pins will appear where relevant in search.
With Pinterest, when someone likes something that they see, they SHARE it. This has so much more potential than a “like” or comment on Facebook or Instagram. Businesses that use the platform effectively (like you will learn how to do right now) see more leads driven to their sites and content from Pinterest than from other social channels.
Also important to note: the life of a Pin is much longer than a tweet, facebook or instagram post, and there are amazing opportunities tied to pin optimization and content sharing.
If you are a small business or entrepreneur:
- If you haven’t already, make sure your Pinterest Page is a Business Page – it is easy to switch to one.
- Fill out your profile completely, add your website and use all of the characters (160) to describe yourself and your business.
- Make sure you have a bright, clear profile image so your page pops in a search.
Make sure Pinning your own content and products is a part of your strategy.
Pinning your own content (products, graphics, blog posts, articles, and more!) drives traffic to your site and can be one of your easiest “sells.”
- Make sure all of the content you are putting on your site is able to be pinned – learn how here.
- When you are getting started, use this blog from Pinterest where they literally tell you what and how you should be pinning in real time.
- Write your own descriptions on your pins and on pins you share using keywords
- Be as specific as possible with board titles and descriptions – example: rather than “Healthy Shake” try “Health and Wellness Protein Shakes”
- TEST YOUR PINS: Make sure your image and pin clicks through to your website
How crazy should I go with my Pinning?
- Pin consistently throughout the week, but you don’t have to be pinning constantly.
- Try to Pin between 3-30x per day – multiple posts daily increase visibility for brands (these can be repins!)
- Best time to Pin: generally the best times to post are 2PM – 4PM EST and 8PM – 1AM EST; and, research by HubSpot says Saturday morning is THE best time to post.
Imagery really matters.
You will want your images to be beautiful, bright, professional and sized appropriately. Canva has lots of tools to create great Pinterest graphics for free. Also, please check and double-check your pins for spelling errors. So often people will focus on the imagery and miss glaring typos that render a Pin less likely to be shared.
Image courtesy of Simply Amanda
More Tips & Tricks
- Look at trending topics on Pinterest to help you name your boards and pins so you can see how people are searching
- When you are thinking of naming boards and pinning, enter your ideas in the search bar and top search returns will come up for inspiration
TOP TIP FOR PINTEREST: People use the Pinterest search bar as if they are using a google search bar – this platform functions like a search engine. What does this mean? Keywords really, really matter on Pinterest. Name your boards, posts and descriptions accordingly.
Keywords
If you have gone through the process of Google Adwords, or had your website optimized for SEO, get out that list of keywords and have a look at them. These keywords can act as inspiration for content not only on Pinterest, but across all of your Social Media channels.
Applying Your Keywords & SEO to your pins:
Add your keywords to your pin titles. Click on your board and click the little pencil icon to add keywords to your board description.
Also, be sure to add your keywords to your own uploaded pin descriptions as well as pins you share from others by clicking on the “Save” button and then clicking the small gray pencil next to description, under the image.
Image courtesy of faithfoodfamilyfun.com
Lastly, when uploading images to pinterest, add your keywords to the image file names.
As with any SEO you use, make sure not to sound too “keywordy.” You want to sounds like a real human being – not a bot! You can incorporate keywords in the right context and keep the descriptions appealing and optimized.
Want to learn more? Sign up for one of my social media training sessions to take a deeper dive into the world of Pinterest.