Top 5 Best Practices for Pinterest

Ilfusion’s Top 5 Best Practices for Pinterest

“I saw this great thing on Pinterest…” “Isn’t that funny? I found it on Pinterest!”

You can’t go far these days without hearing people talking about the new social media platform called Pinterest. This online bulletin board is used for a plethora of things from wedding planning to vacation destinations to books to read…if you have an interest in something, you can create a pin board for it. Companies are beginning to catch on to this trend and using it to promote the business. Here are some best practices for using Pinterest for your business.

1. Integrate Everything

When you create pin boards, be sure you link everything to everything. Have a pin for your Twitter, Blog, Facebook and Website. Also, a no-brainer should be that if you have products, pin those too! Be sure you display what you have to offer. Pinterest is all about visual marketing. If they don’t see it, they won’t know about it, and if they don’t know about it, they can’t share it.

2. It’s Not All About You

While it is YOUR page, in order to be successful, you have to participate. Re-pin pins from your followers and add them to your boards. Create boards for things that pertain to your industry. For example: If you are in the flower industry, have a board for care and upkeep of flowers or boards that focus on one color of flower. If your boards only show
“you,” your number of followers will stay low.

3. Don’t Get Too “Pin-Happy”

We all have those friends that spend hours on Pinterest, pinning away their lives. As a business, however, this would not be a good practice. Choose quality over quantity; only pin things that are relevant and interesting to your audience. Just because there’s a series of 10 roll-on-the-floor-hilarious cat pictures, we wouldn’t recommend you re-pinning all of them for your accounting firm’s Pinterest page.

4. Give Credit Where Credit is Due

It is easy on Pinterest to blindly pin something and have no clue where it originally came from. Be sure to give credit to the creator if you can find out who it was. A simple way to do this is to just use the @ symbol with their name. You can also just copy and paste the website URL in the caption. Be sure to pin the content from the original site if possible. While this is not required, as a business, it is definitely recommended that you give credit to ensure there are no copyright issues. Also, it will make the creator happy and you could gain a new client.

5. Interact

Pinterest is a community. The goal is to share what you like with others and to see what their interests are. Comment on a pin a follower posted; give your input. “Like” pins too; everyone likes to be liked. You can create conversations with your followers that help them to better understand your brand and feel more connected. The more they know about your brand, the more likely they are to become and continue being customers.

Another plus about Pinterest: it’s fun! Don’t make it a chore. Think of it as a way to express your brand’s ideas and interests in a whole new way and experience the same from your audience. So, get to pinning!

Categorized in: Articles, Marketing, Social Media