Pinterest For Business - 10 Top Secrets To Implement

If you remembered the first time you tried using Pinterest? Perhaps it was full of images, displaying beautiful home furniture, fine buildings, or incredibly appetizing food, or maybe it was dedicated to an event being organized by someone. Really, I guess whatever you found, didn't actually portray "business.” But I'm here to correct that impression you've gotten of Pinterest for business, I would advise you take a second look at Pinterest. The truth is that Pinterest, the visual discovery network has the potential to be your best social e-commerce tool yet.

Shopify recently released from their social commerce study, that the number of orders through Pinterest has increased by 79% since last year, with the average order valued at almost $60. Pinterest is also known as the most mobile social network, that drives 64% of its traffic from mobile browsers. Shareaholic data also showed that Pinterest is currently driving more Web traffic than any other social network.

Though Pinterest really doesn’t immediately strike users as a great tool to generate sales, in actual fact it may be one of the best ways to showcase your business’ products/services. Today, there are many big companies that are ahead of the game with their Pinterest, as well as some of the most creative uses of Pinboards. In a short while, I will help you to know the virtual scrapbooking network better, and learn how you can tremendously boost your business using Pinterest.

Pinterest for Business - 10 Secrets You Should Know

Secret #1: Give Your Brand Good Exposure on Pinterest

Add your business’ name and your business website address on Pinterest’s profile page, and connect your Twitter and Facebook profiles for increased visibility. Your Pin captions can make a difference: whether you are pinning contents from your official website or re-pinning it from somewhere else, try to explain why this content would be useful to your brand’s customers, also mention your business name and website URL in the caption.

Apart from mentioning your business name when making a new Pin, also try to add a call to action (CTA), as well as other important business links, in all Pins that contain original content from your business. The CTA can be linked to an affiliate offer, ongoing campaign, or simply redirect users to your website.

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Secret #2: Prepare Your Website To Be Pinterest-Friendly

Before starting to Pin original content on your business’ Pinterest account, you ought to make it as easy as possible for other Pinterest users to “Pin” contents and pictures from your business website using a Pinterest browser extension. You can even optimize your website to allow Rich Pins, or Pins that give extra information about the link. Don’t wait for users to search what content to pin: include a Pin It button on items, especially good-looking ones. You should also display a "Follow Me" button in a striking position on your webpage, this will it easier for your customers to find you. You can take a look at Pinterest’s guides on how to create buttons for your website or go for plugins that allow create Pinterest buttons.

Secret #3: Create Charming Content People Would Love To Pin

As common to most social networks, you would want your business’s Pinterest profile to be a blend of original and found content, with an emphasis on contents and images pinned from your site. I assume that already you're an expert on social media images, so finding high-quality images shouldn’t pose a problem, but being on Pinterest should give you extra incentive to create original desirable and charming content that appeals to vision. By-the-way, image is the first thing someone sees in a Pin. This will lead us to our next secret tip.

Secret #4: Familiarize Yourself With Pinterest’s Image Requirements

After you have optimized your site for the network, and Pinterest still doesn’t show your pictures, check your image dimensions. Pinterest will not show images with a width or height less than 80 pixels. It doesn’t also recognize images embedded in iFrames, background images, or within Flash websites. The standard original image dimensions are 600 by 800 pixels, which automatically resize to about 192 by 256 on the Pinboard. Making use of accurate dimensions will help your Pins get noticed better, which will in turn lead to more clicks to your business’s site.

Secret #5: Study Various Pinterest’s Categories To Know The Most Suitable For Your Content

There are over two dozen categories Pinterest users can search for contents. Take time to study them and know the ones that apply to your business; and no, We're not referring here to "Everything category"! Decide if any of your content fits in one of Pinterest’s most popular categories. Recently, the most pinned category was Home> Recipes>Food>Wedding>Fashion in that order. After you've found out the categories that apply to your business, don't also forget to categorize any Pinboard you create. This makes it easier for users to discover your content.

Secret #6: Pin Only Contents That Will Add Value To Your Brand

Users of Pinterest social media love learning new ways of doing things, and you have a unique opportunity to share knowledge about your area of specialty, right from the source. Use Pinterest to share tutorials and how-to lists in order to teach your fans and readers something new, or help them find a novel solution to an old problem. One of the top Pinboards of 2013, Lowes’ Build it! Board, it's a mix of original and repinned content that describes different DIY decoration and building projects—suitable for the business’s home improvement theme, but also appealing to crafty Pinterest users.

Another type of posts that easily makes it to the Top Pinned lists is infographics. You can start by finding and repinning well-researched and well-designed infographics on the topics relevant to your niche. Ultimately, you'd want to create some time in your content creation calendar and design some pinnable infographics of your own. It's killing two birds with one stone by displaying helpful and shareable content in a visually engaging manner.

Secrets #7: Pin To Encourage And Recognize Your Customers And Fans

Pinterest can be used as a great tool for recognizing your customers and fans. This can be done by creating Boards that tell customer success stories, or share a common customer experience. These Pins can stand on their own as Boards or be a part of your How-To category, if your clients find unique ways of incorporating your brand’s products or services into their everyday life. These types of customer-centric Boards tend to be a great non-intrusive way to show off customer testimonials in such a manner that welcomes sharing not only for that particular customer, but by other folks who can benefit from the story line.

Secret #8: You Can Create a Pin Group Or Team

Pinterest permits users to contribute to the Boards you create, so encourage your employees, fans and customers to add content they find interest, or even curate their own Board. Not just are your employees your business’ best advocates, they can also all have at least one interest they share with your customers - your brand! Try to include your employees in the discovery process, and @mention them in the captions of the Pins they selected.

Pinterest also may help your business promote company culture, to celebrate current employees and attract new hires. Supposing your company held a fundraising event or a fun-team-bonding event recently, why not create a Board to share it with the world? Generally, customers like knowing the person behind the screen, and Pinterest offers the benefits of being less formal than other social networks.

Secrets #9: Consider Creating Themed Boards For Some Important Events

Do you have a holiday or a big product release just around the corner? Peharps your business is growing, and you want to find an innovative way to tell your current and potential customers about it. Why not create a themed Board for that great event? Pinterest makes it possible for you to connect all the written content, images, and video resources in one place, organize it in a sharable way. Don't forget that Pins created for the themed boards should make sense on their own as well, in case someone wants to re-pin them to their Board with similar themes.

Secret #10: Don't Forget To Check Your Pinterest Analytics

Anytime your business joins a new network, it’s crucial to make regular checks on your content strategy for that network. Pinterest’s analytics feature, Business Insights, makes it possible for you to see what content gets the most likes, comments, and repins. Additionally, Business Insights display information about your brand, your industry, as well as Pins that are driving the most traffic for your business. This analytics feature will further allow your business to keep an eye on your competitors’ accounts, and do comparative analyses of your Boards.

I hope this Pinterest for Business article will help you restrategize and maximize returns from your business. Don't just read it and let it go, read and implement all these secret tips for any of your business - online and offline alike.

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