How to Use Pinterest for Business: 6 Basics for Getting Started

Pinterest isn’t just about DIY crafts, fashion, and weddings. It’s also a valuable (and powerful) tool for businesses to generate awareness and sales. The platform has over 200 million monthly users and 55% of “pinners” use Pinterest to shop, which is higher than most other platforms. Pinterest’s demographics expand beyond just their core audience of female millennials to families, young dads, and mobile users. Pinterest might require more initial start-up time, but the platform can be invaluable to your business in the long run. All that’s left is for you to learn how to use Pinterest for business by getting started with these six basic tips.

1. Set-Up Your Account & Do Some Research

If you’re unfamiliar with the platform, you’ll need to take the time to learn how to use it and, more importantly, learn how your competitors are using it. The first step is to create your Pinterest business account. Then, see what other brands in your industry are “pinning.” Create your own pins for your blogs or products and have images ready to post with them. Start creating “boards” with your pins organized together.

2. Save Buttons to Your Website

If you want people to really take action with your Pinterest page, then add Pinterest buttons to your website! You can set the buttons up to correlate when someone hovers over any image or only to specific images. This way, people can easily share aspects of your website to their own Pinterest pages to help spread brand awareness. Pinterest has a Widget Builder available to those who want to add these buttons to their website.

3. Incorporate Daily Pinning into Your Schedule

In their Best Practice Guide, Pinterest says you should pin at least once a day so that your followers get fresh content. They also recommend that, if you have many pins ready to post, to spread it out over the course of a week to keep it consistent rather than posting them all at once. When posting about an upcoming event, it’s best to start posting about 45 days in advance of the actual event.

4. Have Good Visuals

Since Pinterest is full of a constant flow of imagery, it’s important to try and stand out.  Your photos should be in focus, well-lit, and well-composed. Pinterest advices that lifestyle photos stand out a lot more than product images. For instance, if you are showing off some new piece of clothing, it will appeal to many more users by having that piece modeled rather than just a shot of the product. 80% of users use the Pinterest app on mobile devices, so vertical images help a lot with taking up more picture real estate. Keep your images with a low amount of text to not distract the user.

5. Utilize Text Descriptions & Keywords

While visuals are certainly the main focus, it’s good to also have a description that correctly describes your photo or where a link leads to. Think of your keywords for your business and use them in your description to help boost SEO. Just don’t keyword-stuff your description, otherwise people will be turned away. If you decide to go the route of creating a couple pins that lead to the same content with different images, make sure to incorporate a different description with different keywords.

6. Be Social

Since Pinterest is a search engine and a social media platform, you need to be engaged. Don’t just post your own pins and call it a day – interact with your followers and other users! Follow different boards and accounts, especially loyal customers that followed you first. Actively “like” pins in your industry and from your followers. You can also find different groups to join and actively get traffic from there.

If your demographic is on Pinterest, it could be one of your most effective social media platforms. (Yes, more effective than Facebook.) The platform is user-friendly and easy to get used to, making it ideal for any business and any industry. Once you’ve learned the basics of how to use Pinterest for business, you’ll be set for success in the Pinterest world of pinning!