How to use Pinterest for your business

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media platforms and although many users love to use it personally, it is great to utilise to visually showcase your business. Get started with an account for your business, or convert your personal account into a business one, and create a picture platform to promote your business.

Your boards should represent your business

If your business is a restaurant there is no point in having a cute cats board, although it might interest some of your feline-friend customers, it isn’t selling your business or products and makes your account seem less professional. Keep your pins and boards relevant and specialist, a music venue would benefit greatly from the range of pins available, as you don’t have to just pin images you can put audio and video pins on your business board. This is great for mixing up content and adding interest for your users, who will then increase the time they spend on your page. Categorise your pins accordingly in boards that will appeal to customers.

Topshop’s Pinterest profile effectively showcases new products

Link and enrich your pins

Your Pinterest profile should have direct links to your other social media platforms and website this is a great way of redirecting users if they like what they see from your boards. Pinterest is particularly advantageous if you sell products online, pin images of your products directly and utilise the Rich Pins Product type. Rich pins allow you to add extra detail to each pin, in the case of a product pin you can add price and availability. Another suitable rich pin to utilise is the Place pin, great for shops and services, as users can see where your business is located straight away.

Search, follow and interact

It is easy to search for other pinners (users) and boards on Pinterest, these may be other businesses relevant to yours, local people or customers. Interact and comment on pins you like and if a user comments on one of your pins, possibly a question about one of your products, ensure you reply right away. Be polite and use their name and be happy to assist in any way. Remember even though you’re online it is still important to embrace highly professional customer service. Make sure you re-pin other pinners? content, this is the best way to create an active following.

Pinterest is a great way to search for local businesses      

Pin regularly

Often users and businesses may delve into a social media platform for a week or two then lose interest, using Pinterest for your business consistently puts you ahead of competitors by tapping into a site with lots of enthusiastic users. You should use your Pinterest profile as a visual blog, update regularly and you will win recurring visits and consistent followers. A great way to get followers is to conduct a Pinterest competition, similar to that often found on Facebook, get your followers to re-pin a certain image in order to win a prize, such as a gift voucher to redeem on your products.

Get started creating a visually unique and interesting Pinterest profile for your business, it’s a fantastic way to promote the products and service you sell. Like the other social media platforms you will learn as you go along but there are many great online resources to offer you tips – a good place to start is Pinterest’s own user guide for business.