Pinterest for Businesses – Beginner’s Guide to Next Big Social Thing

Pinterest is a well-turned combination of "pin" and "interest" meaning web service that allows to post, manage and share inspiring pics and videos online. Pinterest has quickly started enjoying great popularity, involving more than 1 million users in summer and exceeding 4 million members to date. By the way do not hesitate to check our Free eBook The Art of Growing Your Presence on Pinterest.

Interest in Pinterest

Of course we all as web professionals not only care about how to find new awesome stuff there, but also how to show our own awesome products or services to new audiences on Pinterest. That's what we'll try to figure out today.

But first let's dig into how this whole thing works. Here's how. You find interesting stuff, place it to the pages and topic boards and share them with other site users. It's much like other social networks, still hiding a few nuances which make it quite a powerful marketing tool on the net. Most "pinned" content are photography and digital design but there's also an option to share video content. The pics themselves are not the main focus of interest – the point is the ability to arrange links to various exterior pages and connect with people sharing your interests and hobbies. You may also follow the updates of other users boards if their taste is authoritative for you. Now here is where you should be careful - officially Pinterest is not for business needs, it's for personal use only. But that doesn't necessarily means that you can't use it for your business, it just means you have to be more careful than you would be on Facebook or Twitter for example.

Back to your new Pinterest account. The initial and only inconvenience is that you can't access Pinterest immediately, but need to get an invitation first. You can request an invite on the site itself and wait for an invitation request coming in a week or so to your email. Another way is getting an invite from other active pinners you are familiar with.

Quick Pinterest Usage Guide

No matter whether it's a business or a personality that you want to create the Pinterest account for, you still want to create an account for a person. Reveal your personality by filling out the biography field right under the profile pic. This shows you are active and lures more interested pinners. Creating topical boards for images is as easy as putting two and two together. Place your so-called "pins" on your edited boards and enjoy sharing! The "Pin It" Button is represented by an ordinary extension of your browser with a drag-and-drop function. You can pin everything you like, seek or trade: cute pets and astonishing landscapes, luxury autos and accessories, home decor and clothing, tutorials and video lessons. You may even allow other pinners to publish your content on their own boards. You may find the boards devoted to separate rooms with decor ideas for each one, photos of pets of their owners or plants they grow. Cooks make another active category of Pinterest fans – they keep and share their recipes online. But the major audience is represented by artists in search of inspiration and fresh ideas.

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You can follow the updates of other Pinterest users and re-pin their posts. If you can't help searching for other crazy pinners, use the «Everything" menu, and choose Boards by category. What else can be done with a pin? It can be commented, liked or re-pinned onto your personal board. Besides, pins can be tweeted and shared on Facebook. Being an open network like Twitter it allows to follow nutty boards and pinners without any special permission.

You may check the most discussed and popular images by clicking the "Popular" button in the menu. You are to include @mention into the pic description for sharing material with another user, and pinner will receive a message about having been referred. Due to the "pin-it" option in the bookmarklet you don't have to be logged in and stay on page to pin something.

Use the "Videos" button on top in case you need to pin and share some video material. The range of videos on Pinterest is impressive: starting from video tutorials, lessons and presentations and ending with movie trailers.

Pinning Marketing Tips

This service is geared at specific groups of products and services like fashion, decor, model business, photography, architecture, interior design, landscape design, website design etc. The content posted for these areas is leading. And surely, the pin should be awesome. A stunning pic will win much attention and get thousands of pins. So our the major suggestion for businesses starting their Pinterest activity is to post images related to the product or service they deliver (not the images of products themselves, this would look too obtrusive). For example, AMD (the micro chips manufacturer) maintains boards featuring the life of techie people and gadgets - that's pretty much related to the product they sell, so the proper audience will hang around these boards for sure.

Need a special gift? Enter the Gifts section and look for the priced items. The process is quick and easy: click on the pin and go to the store where you may buy it. Gift pins are even sorted by price which makes the section even more convenient. When you like something, you just pin it to your board and get a convenient wish-list contenting your desire of ownership. If you represent the store, encourage other pinners to move to the next step and actually buy your products. Pins take you back to the original web page, which eases the process of marketing and website promotion.

Just like in other social networks you can easily add descriptions and tags to the images. This makes them easier to be found by other users. The marketing essence of the whole "pin factory" is the external links you place for the pics you pin. What's so important for businesses and websites promotion: when you pin graphics from a website directly and click on this pic on Pinterest board, you'll find out that it is still linked to the original page. These links work the same way even if images have been re-pinned.

As for the potential customers, the service is more geared at female rather than the male part of Internet audience. The majority of pins represent home decor, fashion, make-up, vintage, crafting, clothing and kitchen ideas and so on. This makes it similar to various creative Tumblogs aimed at inspiring readers. This doesn't necessarily mean that you fail in reaching interested men there. Generally, it depends upon the business itself – photography, household, architecture, design and art, sportswear, fishing, football and other areas lure both men and women.

Pinterest better suits for small companies promotion. But cramming your boards with your own goods is a bad strategy. You should act as an individual with his/her own taste, contributing helpful and exciting stuff to win trust and friendly feelings of your potential followers. One way is offering imagery that is inspiring for other pinners and still reveal your brand/business. The other way is getting more followers, socialize, link and connect to users with the similar tastes or preferences. Self-promotion shouldn't be so evident – use creative thinking and interact! The major aspect of your marketing work in Pinterest is getting more clicks from the back links associated with every pinned image or video. This helps to boost your SEO and brand awareness in general.

You may even hire a special pinner to promote your goods through Pinterest boards, representing your brand face, thoughts, style and other business peculiarities. You may not refer to the brand in the image name, but remember to include the links to your original website. We'd like to warn you to be careful while commenting, since all comments are public and you just can't hide them.

Group pinning is one more useful option you may enjoy on Pinterest. It may enhance promotion of your brand, its special offers and deals, if you pin it all to any topic-related community fan board. If the pin is something you'd like to purchase, you may include the price into its description.

Following the updates and boards of your target audience on Pinterest will help you track trends of current interest and predict your customers desires. Offer the goods they visualize and make their dreams come true!

P.S. Check the video revealing how Pinterest Will Compete with Top 10 Social Networks