There is no doubt that businesses, especially ones that sell their products or services online, should be exploring Pinterest as a major weapon in their marketing arsenal.
As with any online marketing tool, you should be using Pinterest strategically, with an eye on achieving your business goals.
An effective Pinterest account for business starts with great Pin Boards.
Pinterest boards give potential followers a glimpse into your business. They are the first items that potential followers see when visiting your Pinterest account and making the decision to follow you.
To create a Pin Board:
1) Log in to your Pinterest account and find the + button in the top right, next to your photo.
2) Click on Create a Board.
3) Name your Board. This part is key because people will often make the decision to follow or not follow a particular Pinterest Board based on its name. Make it descriptive but not too long.
4) Add a Description. Make sure you use keywords for your business and for the Board in order to be found more easily in Pinterest search. Be succinct but let potential followers know what to expect and what you plan to pin here.
5) Choose a Category. This is very important to be found when people are searching for your product or service. Pick the category that fits your Board closely.
6) Make it Secret. I always make my Boards secret (meaning no one can see them) until I amass at least 4-5 pins on the Board. You can easily edit the Board at any time and unclick the Secret button.
What Boards should I create for my business?
The technical act of creating Boards is easy. Figuring out what types of Boards to create and how they fit into your overall marketing strategy is much more difficult.
Here are 5 ideas for Pinterest boards that can benefit your business.
1) Your products. Sort your products depending on the categories you chose on your website. For example, Pinterest powerhouse Real Simple magazine has several categories listed at the top of its website and has created Pinterest Boards accordingly – Food & Recipes, Home & Organizing, Beauty & Fashion, Holidays & Entertaining, etc.
2) Featuring [your city]. Think about your location. If you are a small business with one or two locations, create a Board all about your city or town. Pin news articles, feature other businesses in the area or partner with local charities and pin their content.
3) Popular blog posts. If you have a blog (and you should), create a Board or Boards based on the most used tags from your blog. Pin your blog posts but also pin other relevant resources that your followers will find helpful in that category.
4) Express yourself. Show your personality! You don’t have to only have Boards about your products and services – showcase a hobby, an interest or a passion. Social media is about people connecting with people. Your business will benefit if your customers can see the human behind the Pinterest account.
5) Reading List. Create a Board with articles and books that you have read or want to read that relate to your business and industry. Pinterest is the perfect place to establish authority on a topic and become a go-to resource.
NOTE: You are not limited to just 5 Pin Boards (I have 88 Boards myself). There is no hard and fast rule for the best number of Boards to create for business – I suggest creating at least 10, to provide your customers with a variety of content and to demonstrate that you are committed to participating on Pinterest.
Keep in mind that people may not follow all of your Boards – that’s fine. As long as you are continually posting fresh content, linking back to your website, sharing others’ pins and contributing value to your online community, you will succeed.
In the coming months, I will be blogging for Maximize Social Business on topics that include how businesses can get the most from Pinterest, how to create great pins, what types of boards to create and how to get more traffic to your site using this innovative social networking tool.
Latest posts by Julia Campbell (see all)
- 7 Ways to Host a Killer Contest on Pinterest - October 27, 2014
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- 6 Things You Can Do Today To Improve Your Pins on Pinterest - June 23, 2014
- 12 Free and Low-Cost Tools to Create Pinterest Graphics - May 27, 2014
- What to Pin on Pinterest? 10 Ideas for Businesses - February 24, 2014
Voya says
April 22, 2014 at 4:43 pmCheck PinPromote.com if you want to get more visibility, you can get invited to about 200ish boards which are very popular!
Julia Campbell says
July 29, 2014 at 11:18 amNeat, I will check it out!