A couple weeks ago we wrote a post that hopefully convinced you to start using Pinterest for your business. There are so many different business’ and industries taking advantage and showcasing their brand so you’re likely to find your audience here as well.
The best thing about getting started with Pinterest is that it’s one of the least labour intensive platforms. If your business sells products or creates original content, Pinterest is a great platform to showcase it. Before you get started and jump right in, there are a few things you should consider:
Check the audience: 85% of the active users on Pinterest are listed as women and 67% of those are millennials. If your audience falls into any of these two categories, it’s a safe bet you should get started right away! If you’re looking for a more detailed analysis, Google will tell you everything you need to know.
Find your competitors: Searching for competitors is another great way to determine if the path makes sense for your business. It also helps to give you a sense of how to start using the platform for your industry. To find your competitors, use the search tool on the Pinterest main page, search for the name of your competitors. If you can’t find them on Pinterest try searching for a link on their website. Still can’t find them? Reevaluate if the platform is right for you.
Search your category: This is probably the most helpful way of determining if your brand will do well on Pinterest or not. At the very top of the news feed, you should see a little icon with two columns and a downward arrow. Click that. All of the popular categories will appear. If you see the category your business most likely calls under, it’s a pretty safe bet people will be interested in your content
If your specific category doesn’t appear, try manually searching. Using the URL https://www.pinterest.com/topics/XXXX fill the X’s with the primary category used for your industry. Make sure to use broad terms. For example, if we were searching for our topic of careers we would search the following URL:
https://www.pinterest.com/topics/career/
Did you click the link? You may have seen a little number at the top: 13,838 (at the time of publication). That means there are almost 14K people who are interested in the topic of careers.
If you passed at least one of these tests, you should probably consider creating a profile for your company. We’ve put together a list below that outlines the most important elements for you to consider when getting started:
Register as a business
When you register, make it easier on yourself by signing up from the get-go as a business. You can do this through the URL: https://www.pinterest.com/business/getstarted/
Once you have actually created the account there are a three important things that you need to remember to include:
- An image of your logo
- A short bio of your company
- The URL to your company
Having these will help others find your page and your business faster.
Pulling Content
The best way to build your follower base is by curating content. Creating boards and pinning content to them is the most effective way to do this, and will prevent your page from looking bare.
Remember, it’s important to create boards that are relevant to your industry. There’s no set number of boards you need to have as long as they make sense to your brand. When it comes to pinning content within them, the more pins you have the better. Sharing your own content is important but so is sharing content from other sources.
Rich Pins
Rich Pins are effectively branded images that contain extra information about your company and your website. Rich Pins give readers an enhanced experience meaning they are more likely to engage with your pin than one that is not enhanced. We won’t fully get into this topic here because setting up Rich Pins is a post itself but you should set these up.
To learn more details about Rich Pins and how to set them up click here.
Creating ‘Pinterest-worthy’ images
If you’ve ever gone and scrolled through Pinterest you’ll know the type of images we’re talking about. They’re the longer images with text often overlaid. They really grab your attention quickly as you scroll through your news feed because the titles are even bigger than what you would find with Rich Pins, and more attention grabbing.
The good news is you don’t need to hire a graphic designer for the sole purpose of creating these types of images. There are a few different free tools out there for you to use but by far the most popular is Canva. The platform even has existing layouts that you can use and customize.
Analytics
Finally you can’t build a presence on social media without tracking analytics. Pinterest gives you the ability to access your analytics for free if you register for a business account. To access, all you have to do is log into http://analytics.pinterest.com/. If you’re already logged into Pinterest you should be connected instantly.
When it comes to tracking, the stats may seem overwhelming at first. At the very least you should be looking at the ‘Top Pin Impressions’ section to see what it is that your audience engages with. Based on that you should have a good sense and idea of content that’s worth sharing to help grow your audience even more.
So there you have it – the quick basics on using Pinterest as a business. Before you get started, we should instill a small degree of caution; Pinterest can be addicting. Even the most expert of social media marketers can find themselves lost in the Pinterest rabbit hole.
As with anything, building a presence and an audience takes time. Hopefully these tips give you enough confidence to get started!
See also:
Choosing the right social media platform for your business
The do’s and don’ts of digital marketing for small businesses
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