Getting started on Pinterest for Business
What is Pinterest?
For those not yet in the know, Pinterest is a visual social network. It is designed as an inspiration source that allows people to share visually and save images to their account for future reference. These images are called Pins. A great example of a Pin would be a recipe, with the image of the dish, a description of the dish or the recipe and potentially a link to a site with the recipe, further details or more recipes.
Although it is a social network, it should be considered more of a visual search engine. When using Pinterest, the search bar at the top is the main feature. It’s followed by the search results underneath, much like a Google search.
Pinterest is a great tool for e-commerce as it gives your brand and product more visibility. People are on this social platform to be inspired and find things that will make their lives easier, more enjoyable or more interesting. If you own an e-commerce product that is going to do this, then this is something people are likely to search for and “pin” to their own boards for later.
How do you get started?
Firstly, you would need to register at Pinterest.co.uk. It’s recommended to try out your personal account first if you are unfamiliar with the mechanics of the social platform.
Learn how to save and create pins, as well as create a board for your pins. Explore some ideas in the Pinterest feed or search for some inspiration on what you want to achieve, either in life or in your e-commerce business.
You’ll start to get a feel for what things are useful to you and how they relate to what you’re searching for. Think about how you’ll want to apply this to your own business for potential customers.
Create a Business Profile
Once you’ve tinkered with the personal Pinterest profile, it’s time to join as a business. This will appear as a separate account to your personal profile and you may have to switch to it within the interface.
To complement your profile, it is important that you add your company logo, a description of your business and a link to your e-commerce store.
A Pinterest for Business profile also grants you access to additional social media tools, similar to that of a Facebook business profile.
Pinterest Analytics
As mentioned previously, you gain access to the analytics tools and audience insights provided by the platform. You can see how many impressions and engagements your content is generating and use this to influence your next steps.
You can additionally gain an understanding of your audience interests and demographics. You may notice for example, depending on your niche, that your audience is predominantly female, so you can tailor your pins to this gender. In fact, it is worth being aware that around 80% of Pinterest users are in fact, women.
Creating & Sharing Good Pins
When creating pins, it’s worth noting that the optimum ratio for images on the platform is 2:3.
You’ll want to make sure you’re regularly posting pins that have value so that your pins are seen and shared more and therefore grow your following. In turn, this will have a positive impact on your business. Here is an example of how creating good pins would grow your business:
You, the owner of a plant store, pin a visually creative picture of a house plant with a link to a blog post on how to grow it.
Person A, a loyal follower and customer, who originally discovered you through a Pinterest search, loves the image and blog post and therefore repins it to their “House Plants” board.
Person B, who is not currently a customer, will see the repin on Person A’s board.
Person B is inspired by your pin and see it was you who originally created it. They’ll click your name to find out who you are, read your content and potentially make a purchase.
Claim Your Website
An important part of Pinterest for Business is claiming your website. This is a simple piece of code, provided by Pinterest, which is placed within your website. Once approved by Pinterest, all of your pins, regardless of where they are found on the site (i.e. from you or reshared by someone else), will carry your Pinterest logo and a link to your website. This will help users attribute you and your website to the pin.
Promoted Pins
Every business account across social media has access to paid posts and a Pinterest account for business is no different. After all, that is how social media companies make a lot of their money these days.
Promoted pins are Pinterest’s version of boosted posts. It expands your reach and your pin will show up more often in search results and the home page. Given the nature of Pinterest, there are the following objectives: Brand Awareness, Traffic, App Installs and Conversions. You’ll want to investigate which objective is best for your e-commerce store.
