How to Use Pinterest for your Business
Pinterest is often overlooked as a social platform, but especially as a business tool. The platform goes beyond the traditional role of a social media, with dynamic search tools that are used to inspire users, drive awareness and increase traffic conversions and sales all at once. Pinterest is so effective as it has so many facets that drive traffic and engagement, but this can be overwhelming and complicated if you’re new to the platform. There are keyword searches, pin titles and descriptions, board titles and descriptions, rich pins, tagging, guided search, re-pins and group boards. But don’t let this overwhelm you! Start small with relevant pins, titles and descriptions that have clear links and represent the content well and build from here.
Starting Out
You may be wondering how to determine if Pinterest is the right platform for your business. Is your demographic and audience even on there? Are they active users? The most likely answer is yes, just as much as any other social platform. 478 million people use Pinterest every month, to browse, shop, and discover. Because such a large basis of Pinterest content is inspiration, 97% of the top searches are unbranded, meaning its an unsaturated platform for business to be discovered and increase awareness.
Start a business account where you post images and content from your business, but also create boards of things that inspire you and are on brand. The more you post, share, save and link back to your website the better.
Content Formats
There is not merely one kind of post on Pinterest as many people believe. The platform has five different pin formats for business accounts, each one serving its own purpose.
Standard pin: A static image or carousel with multiple images that link to a URL
Idea Pin: A short multi-page story that brings an idea to life
Video Pin: A short 4-15 second video that can tell a story for your brand or project
Product pin: A shoppable pin featuring 1 product that can show real time pricing and availability
Collections pin: A shoppable pin featuring multiple products
If you’re new to Pinterest, get your head around using Standard and Idea pins properly and to their full potential before exploring other formats. This will create a good baseline for you to establish your own style and see how well it resonates with your consumers.
Strategy
Pinterest is very different in the sense that any content you publish has an extremely long life span and can be revived at any point, unlike Instagram and Facebook which functions on a more or less chronological timeline. Valued content on Pinterest provides fresh perspective, new ideas, innovative products and inspiration. Create a handful of boards that each house content for different elements of your business and start building out original content in each one.
Pinterest is a powerhouse for small business, and a platform that I am still discovering and learning about myself. I know first hand how overwhelming it can all seem, so do a little bit of research, play around with the elements to familiarise yourself and then JUST START! Take small steps toward building your Pinterest up, and take time to make the content rich and valuable as it's life cycle on the platform will be long.
Nikki X
