Pinterest is too much fun. From the first day I tried it, I was pinning and re-pinning like mad and now I have to limit the time I can spend there, because it’s just too addicting.
As you might already know 70% or more of the active users on Pinterest are women. Many of the categories on Pinterest are related to women’s interests, but that doesn’t mean your business has to fit into one of these categories to make a splash with the audience there.
Social media and blogging aren’t necessarily topics that screams recipes, shopping, home remedies, parenting, and humor as you’ll find plenty of on Pinterest, but it is a topic that some of the users there have really embraced.
And as long as your topic speaks to a segment of followers on Pinterest, you should be able to get many followers and traffic, because it is such an active community.
Without trying I have 3600+ followers on Pinterest, most of whom are following one board- Social Media. I’ve split the topic into other boards, but I haven’t actually done much with them, because the one board is doing so well.
How Effective is Pinterest?
The more I post to Pinterest, the more return I see from it. In fact, Pinterest is in the top 10 referers to my website, and has been since I started being active there. The truth is, even as I am less active when I have several blog posts to write or it’s time for vacation they still send a lot of traffic.
How to Get a following on Pinterest and Use it Intelligently?
In no particular order, here is how I handle my Pinterest activities:
Be active– Other than my occassional vacation from Pinterest to handle business, I recommend visiting once or twice a day and pinning a lot. There is no magic number, but I would say 5 or more repins is a good start, for each board you are trying to build up.
Find original content to share– The easiest way to do this is to look for related content on blogs, infographics, and websites that your followers will enjoy. For social media that means Infographic directories, Hubspot, Unbounce, and Social Media Examiner. I follow many blogs on AllTop and in Feedly and pin as I find something interesting.
Pin pinnable objects or make your own– This is time consuming, because so many websites are still clueless about the benefits of using Pinterest, and so they just don’t put in the extra effort, but the more pinnable or pin-ready they are, the more pins and repins it will get. You can upload photos you make yourself with tools like Quozio and then edit them to include a link to the appropriate webpage.
Make nice photos for your own website pins– The pins for your own website should include the title, an image, and maybe some additional text about the content of the webpage or blog post. The better these images are, the more pins you’ll get. The more effort you put into design and copy, the more visits you’ll get from your account.
Participate in Group Boards– As with any social media account, the more exposure you get, the higher your exposure and reach. When you get on to participate every day, make sure to add a few pins to each of the group boards you are part of, to get a piece of the exposure pie.
Push Pinterest On Your Site– Make sure you have icons, follow boards code and make suggestions to your visitors to follow you on Pinterest. Use a call to action at the end of your blog posts, to get people to visit your boards.
Be Patient– Social media takes time, so you have to be patient while you work on your following.
Using Pinterest might be some of the most fun you will have on the internet, so why not use it to promote your business, too? I hope you find these tips useful, if you have any of your own to share, please comment below for all other readers to benefit from.