How to Effectively Use Pinterest for Business

There is no doubt Pinterest has a big advantage compared to other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

First, it’s more than just another social media platform. It has in fact become a more visual alternative to Google, since users can upload, categorize, manage and store images and videos (also known as “pins”).

Secondly, Pinterest attracts predominantly women (79% of users are women!) who tend to save or send to others their favourite items. And, when they do, 88% of them tend to buy the item displayed.

Therefore, Pinterest offers direct selling opportunities for businesses.

The question is, how do you effectively use Pinterest for business?

First, you need to optimize your Pinterest account so it stands out from all the noise on Pinterest.

To do so, start by creating a Pinterest business account and uploading a properly sized profile picture. Profile pictures should be 165 x 165 pixels to fit perfectly.

When it comes to choosing your profile picture for your Pinterest business account, you have two choices. Either a head shot of you if you are the face of your brand, like Tony Robbins for example.

If that’s the case, make sure your profile picture is not cropped, is not a selfie, is not pixelated and make sure it doesn’t have a messy or busy background as it can make you come across as unprofessional. Instead, put a close up picture of you, head and shoulders ideally, facing the camera and smiling.

If you’d like to take your Pinterest marketing to the next level, and increase the results you’re getting from your current Pinterest marketing efforts considerably, click here to download my special FREE Pinterest report. Simply enter your name and email and I’ll instantly send it to you.

The second option when using Pinterest for business is to put a logo as a profile picture if you are not the face of your brand, like Starbucks or Nike. In terms of dimensions, the same applies, 165 x 165 pixels.

Then, make sure your bio for your Pinterest business account underlines who you are, what you do, how you help people and who you help.

For example, your bio could be:

“Paleo diet specialist, helping overweight men aged 40 and over lose weight through online information products and food supplements.”

Or:

“Anti ageing advocate, helping men and women over 40 improve the quality of their skin and regain their confidence thanks to scientifically proven anti ageing cosmetic products.”

Then, add your website URL or any URL you want your Pinterest followers to visit, such as your Youtube channel or your other social network accounts.

When using Pinterest for business, make sure your username is user-friendly. It should be easy to spell and easy to remember to make it easier for people to remember and find you on Pinterest. Plus, your username should not exceed 15 characters.

Your username could be your first and last name if you are the face of the brand as long as it’s not already taken. Or it could be a keyword rich username such as: pinterest.com/organicskincare.

The second step is to start creating and uploading, unique, attention grabbing and engaging pins on a regular basis.

Avoid pins that are either irrelevant to your audience, or are not informational. Ideally, when using Pinterest for business, your pins should be 1,000 pixels wide.

Plus, they should be multi-dimensional. In other words, you shouldn’t always be publishing the same types of pins with Pinterest marketing. Instead, try and vary the type of content you share. Between quotes, infographics, humour, cartoons, videos, how-to demos, pictures of people, statements, etc…

To come up with ideas for engaging pins to publish for your Pinterest followers, type in the search box, keywords relevant to your business and look at the most popular pins and try to model them. The more engagement they have received the more popular they are.

Remember, if you’ve decided to implement a Pinterest marketing strategy, you’ll have to commit to publishing pins regularly, once a day or at least a few times a week. If this sounds tricky, then we recommend using tailwindapp.com.

This tool is handy for any Pinterest marketing strategy as it allows you to schedule pins in advance. Plus, this tool already shows you when are the best times to schedule your pins for, to increase the chances of your pins being seen by your Pinterest followers.

The third step to effectively use Pinterest for business is to optimize your boards and pins.

Pinterest boards are the equivalent of folders to categorize your pins. To create boards, simply go to your profile, then click on boards and then click on the plus sign.

If you’d like to take your Pinterest marketing to the next level, and increase the results you’re getting from your current Pinterest marketing efforts considerably, click here to download my special FREE Pinterest report. Simply enter your name and email and I’ll instantly send it to you.

To optimize your boards, start by having a keyword rich title. For example, when you use Pinterest for business, avoid naming your board “things I like”. Instead, be more specific. For example, your board title could be “easy vegan dinner recipes”.

To get ideas for attention-grabbing board titles when putting together a Pinterest marketing strategy, perform a search on Pinterest. Simply type in a keyword relevant to your business in the search bar, then click on boards. There you’ll see all the board titles which include your keyword.

Then, make sure you add a keyword rich description for your board, such as “Discover over 100 vegan dinner recipes that require no more than 20 mins to prepare and serve up to 4 people for under $10”.

Remember to also create a board cover. Your board cover should be an image with the title of your board so it stands out from other boards. Then, reshuffle your boards by dragging and dropping them to make sure your most popular boards appear at the top of your profile.

Then with Pinterest marketing, you have to optimise your pins. Each pin should have a keyword rich title and a keyword rich description. Avoid naming pins with broad, generic keywords such as “gift ideas”. Instead, be more specific. For example, you can name your pin “gift ideas for men over 40”.

To come up with keyword rich pin names, type your keyword in the search bar and see what keywords Pinterest suggests. Or, check other pins for title ideas. The more specific your keyword is, the more likely your pin will show up at the top of the search results.

Lastly, with Pinterest marketing, you need to grow your Pinterest followers. There are many ways you can do so. You can follow people in the hope that a percentage of them follow you back.

You can also add a Pinterest tab on your other touch points such as your website, email signature, business card and newsletter. This will allow people to easily find you on Pinterest and follow you. If you want to speed up the process you can even use Pinterest advertising to gain followers faster.

If you’d like to take your Pinterest marketing to the next level, and increase the results you’re getting from your current Pinterest marketing efforts considerably, click here to download my special FREE Pinterest report. Simply enter your name and email and I’ll instantly send it to you.

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About the Author

Corinna Essa

Corinna Essa is known internationally as the go-to person when it comes to social media marketing.

Corinna owns a social media marketing company helping businesses around the world leverage the power of social media without doing any of the legwork. Her company has been featured in many media outlets including Sky Business news, Working Women magazine, Ymagazine, Tasmanian Times, Channel 7 and 101fm.

Corinna is also the author of 2 bestselling books “Money On Demand – The 16 Fastest Ways to Becoming a Millionaire Online” and “Reach: The SECRETS to converting your social media audience into your network marketing downline fast”