What is Pinterest, and How Can it Help with Marketing Your Business?

Posted: Sep 17, 2012
Author: WordJack Media

Pinterest this, Pinterest that. Did you “pin” this? I “pinned” that! It seems like Pinterest is suddenly everywhere. In fact, it recently passed LinkedIn to become the third-most-popular social network on the planet (behind Facebook and Twitter, of course). The odds are very high that you’ve heard of Pinterest, but do you really know what it is and how it can help your small business with its marketing efforts?

In the simplest terms, Pinterest is a “virtual pinboard.” You can use it to organize and share things with your friends that you have discovered on the web. For example, you could have one pinboard for dessert recipes, one for interior decorating tips and one for your favorite books. You can also browse through your friends’ pinboards and see what they’ve “pinned” recently.

In addition to individuals who use Pinterest for personal interests, businesses are also jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon faster than you can say “pin it,” and you don’t want to get left behind. Here are 5 tips for how your small business can benefit from all that Pinterest has to offer:

1. Don’t skip straight to the “pinning”

While all the setup stuff you are presented with when creating a Pinterest account looks boring and somewhat tedious, don’t skip it. If you complete your company’s profile in detail, it will increase your ability to be found in relevant searches. You’ll also want to include back links on your Pinterest profile to your company’s blog and/or website.

2. Resist the urge to scream “Buy my product!”

Pinterest is a great opportunity to show a more personal, human interest side to your company instead of all the cut-and-dry marketing that people are so used to seeing on your website. Consider posting a picture of your staff at the most recent company barbecue or creating pinboards for your company’s overall goals or your customers’ interests, instead of just trying to market your products or services.

3. Add “Pinmarklet” to your account

Pinterest is primarily image-driven. Pinmarklet (also called the “pin it button”—more info can be found at the top of this page: http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/) allows you to pin images from the web while maintaining their back links. You’ll be much better off by linking people back to your website if they click on your pin than by uploading pictures directly from your computer and missing that easy opportunity.

4. Aim high on search optimization

If you want to show up in searches on Pinterest, pin often, and make sure you write descriptions for your images. If you’re pinning pictures of your products, make sure to include prices (simply using the $ sign and price in a description is enough to tag with a price), so it will be added to the “Pinterest Gifts” section. You can also use hyperlinks or, like on Twitter, hashtags for linked searches.

5. Integrate Pinterest with your email and other marketing campaigns

Pin a link to the online version of your email campaigns, webinars or other online marketing efforts. You can also include social sharing buttons to spread it across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and beyond.