Pinterest for Businesses

What can Pinterest do for your business?

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social media network that allows users to share their photos, interests and creations by pinning to their own boards (a collection of pins usually consisting of a common theme). Users can upload an image from their own computer or through a website. Pinterest has created a "Pin it" button for companies to post online. This button can be linked to other social media sites or a business webpage. 

How to Create an account and get   followers.

To open up an account with Pinterest, you must be invited. You can either request an invitation or be invited by someone who is already a user. As a business, if you register with the same email address as your Twitter account, you will be able to link them together. As of now, Pinterest does not offer a connection to Facebook pages. Once your account is activated, personalize your settings with your business information including your logo, description, company name and links. Users love Pinterest for the purpose of sharing and exploring the interests of themselves and others. As a company, you should find a way to incorporate your company's brand and the lifestyle your brand promotes. For example, if you are a fashion designer, pinning a few outfits will not cut it. However, pinning the outfits next to the inspiration, whether that be an object or place, will gain attention. Create pinboards that speak about the business. Also, it is important that you understand the terminology of this social media site to better enhance the quality of your pins.

• Pin- image added to Pinterest
• Pinboard- set of theme-based pins
• Pinning- the act of visually sharing content
• Repin- reposting someone else's pin
• Pin it button- button that can be placed on websites to facilitate sharing on Pinterest. Pins added to Pinterest from the Pin it button an be linked back to the URL it came from.
• Pinner- the person who does the sharing 

As a Pinterest user, you can gain followers of your pins and followers of your pinboards. So how can you incorporate gaining an audience of both for your company?

Use Pinterest for Marketing.

Pinterest can help your company gain brand recognition and drive traffic to your website or other social media pages. People will better recognize your brand and associate it with their interests, which is positive. Many big businesses have taken advantage of the visual content for marketing which has enabled real businesses to leverage photos as an inbound marketing mechanism. Many companies who are wanting to use Pinterest as a marketing channel are making the mistake of using minimal pictures. While not all companies are promoting a product, there are ways to incorporate a picture to get users to visit your page.

Use visuals you already have. Surely you and your coworkers have snagged a few photos from the last office party. Linking these photos of the atmosphere of your company can seem welcoming, yet professional. Link some executive head shots to a pinboard and have those photos linked to a bio of each person. 

Use strong visuals from a blog post. Having a company blog with photos to enhance the articles. Make sure to pin visuals that reflect the written content. People will want to click on the picture so they can view the URL in which the image came from. 

Info graphics and data charts are in. They are a strong industry visual that provides all the data a user needs on one picture. These can also be done in Excel, however, don't make the image too complicated because the user will not want to spend the time to figure it out. 

Use the company's ebook. Post a screenshot of the ebook cover your company recently released to establish your thought leadership on Pinterest. 

Post photos of your customers. Seeing your customers walk away satisfied is not only satisfying for you, but for other potential customers. Encourage your customers to send you photos at your upcoming event or using your product or service. Create a pinboard of their smiling faces.

Try also creating a user generated pinboard in order to involve fans and customers in your marketing. Also, check out the followers and fans you have generated through your Pinterest and find out what they are interested in. This may help brainstorm possible new products or services your company could launch. Be the go-to Pinboard for your services or products. Explore ways to incorporate your company with the uses and gratifications of the services or products your company has to offer. For example, if you are a paper company, you could create a pinboard based off of posting pictures of recycling, and visually showing the changes your followers can make. As long as they are interesting and mixed in with real life style photos, they are visually appealing and will gain an audience. 

Your company is unique, so make your Pinterest unique. There is no one way to create a successful account. As an employee trying to drive traffic to your company's website, social media pages, products or services, you must figure out a way to incorporate good quality visuals with your products or services, as well as the company itself.

Pinterest takes time, but it is so worth it!

-Tia & Abigail


Information and Photo from hubspot.com