Originally published on Inc. on March 6, 2015 By Peter Economy.
70 million people can’t be wrong. Use the power of Pinterest to grow your business now.
Pinterest is an image-filled catalogue of possibilities. Users create boards such as “my dream home,” wedding or party ideas, favorite clothes or shoes, awesome DIY projects–and much, much more. A user then searches for vivid images through Pinterest, Internet searches, or off their favorite websites and pins them to their board.
Simply put, people use Pinterest to create boards that represent the things that interest them most. They pin images to their boards that they would love to own, experience, share with others–their boards are their place to go back to that fully resonates with who they are.
As of January 2015, more than 70 million people were using Pinterest. 80 percent of these users are women. Women account for more than 85 percent of consumer purchases. And, the number of pins (or pictures) sent every day through Pinterest is over 2 million. Pinterest is growing so rapidly that it is now creating more internet traffic than Twitter and Reddit combined.
There are more than 30 billion pins and growing–rapidly–on Pinterest.
In just one example of the power of Pinterest–a Denver-based company pinned one of their products onto Pinterest, and the very next week their virtually unknown website was visited 48,000 times. They went from a small-time company to a multi-million dollar company within 18 months.
Think that marketing your business through Pinterest just might be the way to go? If the answer is yes, here are 12 easy steps to knock your business out of the park (in a very good way) with Pinterest.
1. Set up a Business Page on Pinterest (not a personal page).
2. Your business page should have your business name, website, and a very clear description of what you are offering or what your company is about.
3. If your company is connected, link your Pinterest account to your company’s Twitter, Facebook, and Google accounts. Have a successful Facebook business page? Check out Pinvolve and increase repins by more than 150%.
4. Explore Pinterest. Search similar products or services and take note of boards, popular pins, and commentary–it’s always enlightening to see what pinners are saying and asking.
5. If you don’t have images of your products or services (or don’t think the ones you do have will work), brainstorm ideas and come up with beautiful, imaginative, and persuasive images. You may need to hire a professional photographer–beautiful images fly on Pinterest.
6. Each image representing your company should be linked to your website and contain rich, clear descriptions.
7. Create some boards–each board should represent your business in a different way. Title boards with keywords–make it easy for pinners to find your images.
8. So that Pinterest users can easily pin images from your website, add a Pin It Button to your website or add an On Hover Pin It Button. The On Hover Pin It Button is not mobile friendly
9. Pin images from your website and from other related pins throughout Pinterest onto your boards.
10. Once established on Pinterest, you will be able to use Pinterest Analytics, which tracks your success and provides invaluable information to help you navigate and grow your business.
11. Communication is important too–follow those businesses on Pinterest that you normally follow on other platforms and if someone leaves a comment or question on one of your pinned images, always follow up.
12. The above steps will get your company on the map within the huge, wonderful world of Pinterest. Keep searching, pinning, interacting, and learning all that Pinterest has to offer. If you Need Help, Pinterest is there to support you and your company.