How to Use Pinterest (Mini Guide For Beginners)

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social networking sites and it has become very popular during 2011. Pinterest had attracted several million people by the time we’ve reached January 2012. Many businesses see this and they all want a piece of the pie. Pinterest is driving tons of traffic to websites and blogs and it is currently helping businesses to build their brand. It is important you learn how to use Pinterest for your business while the website is still in the early stages of its growth. When you learn to use Pinterest effectively, you will be positioning yourself and your business for greater success.                                 

The internet is changing daily and businesses have to change with it. The net is inching more and more towards a visual and social world, not that the net isn’t already visual or social. I’m talking more in the line of social media. Google and the other major search engines are relying more and more on social media to determine where a site will rank in the search results. It is almost impossible for people to find your website if you are not apart of the social media world because Google is implementing new and stricter rules daily preventing people from manipulating the search engines. Plus, they use likes and shares as votes to see just how popular your site is. Pinterest can make your site popular when used correctly, and because people love to share pictures, Pinterest went viral. Since they went viral, people will continue to use the site for many years to come.

So What Exactly is Pinterest

Pinterest is a social networking and photo sharing site that lets its users share interesting content on their pinboards. Members of the sites can search out other pinboards for their entertainment or to be inspired. But what is shared must be associated with a picture of some sort, usually from another website, but members can also share photos of their own. Members can also find other people who share their interest. Pinterest helps members connect with others on this unique platform. Pinterest have most of the same features as other popular networking sites. For example, users can follow friends, comment on pins, re-pin what they like, and share things from their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

How To Use Pinterest For Your Business Or Affiliate Marketing

In order to use Pinterest for your business and get the exposure you desire, you need to focus on two main things. These two things are creating appealing, eye catching content, and making your content pinnable.

In order to make your content pinnable you need to use the plug-ins which helps visitors pin your content. If you have a Wordpress website it is easier for your visitors to pin your content, but if you have a site that’s hosted by blogger or something else, you will still be able to create pinnable content. An example of one of the plug-ins you can is the Pinterest “Pin It” Button.

To be certain the content on your website is pinnable, you need to test your site by pinning some of your content. This way you can see how it looks on Pinterest. You need to have images that are of high quality. They need to be clear, crisp, and pleasing to the eye. If when you test your content and it don’t look pleasing, make sure you change it quickly. You want to make sure you make your site “Pin Friendly”.

Since Pinterest is all about being visual, you need to make sure you pin really good pictures and make sure you have these same types of images on your website, blogs, etc. If your photos are not eye catching, Pinterest marketing strategies will not work for your business. That means no book, information you find, or any other tips will help you, this book included. You should treat Pinterest like you would your own scrapbook or photo album. I don’t think you would put some bland photo in a scrapbook with other appealing pictures.

When you pick photos to share on Pinterest, you should focus on choosing photos that cause emotion. If a picture makes people laugh or cry, they will be more prone to share them with others. Also, if a picture is really cute, people will share it. 

A marketer who put great pictures on Pinterest will be able to attract the kind of attention they desire and will be able to drive a big chunk of Pinterest traffic to their website by increasing the visibility of their brand. Clothing, shoe, and jewelry retailers will be able to use Pinterest to their advantage because people love these items. But that doesn’t mean other business can’t succeed with using the site. Every business can experience the blessings this site has to offer. Some businesses will have to be more creative than a clothing business would. For example, a home improvement retailer use their products to remodel a room, patio, decks, and more, pictures can be taken once the remodel is done. There are people who are interested in pictures using products from a home improvement store. It is best to use before and after shots to show people how just a few items from a home improvement store can be used to transform a room in to a place where a person will always want their house guest to be. So there is always a way for people to be creative using pictures. 

  

People Will Always Love To Share Pictures 

Most companies in existence today have products and services to sell. For many years, pictures were used in ad campaigns. Just picture some of the big companies who used billboards, commercials, and sales papers; they all have the use of pictures in common. So why not use Pinterest in the same way business use these other platforms to get the word out about their brand. People are visual creatures and just as those national ads with pictures caught their eyes during the yester-years, before the internet and TV existed, pictures will continue to capture their eyes now and in the years to come.

Investing money into obtaining good quality photos will help your business in the long run. Why? The reason is because people will always love to share pictures. As I said earlier, pictures that cause emotion and ones that are comical and cute will be the best ones to share on Pinterest.

4 Reasons You Should Use Pinterest For Your Business

1.   You Can Find What’s Trending

You can start by finding out what people love to share with others. You can find out the current hot trends which can help you to market your products and services. A person might discover one of your cookware products while searching for a specific recipe on Pinterest. It could have been found by pins your company posted, which would more than likely would not have been found if you haven’t used Pinterest which brings me to my next reason…………..

2.   Pinterest Turns Searchers Into Buyers

Pinterest will change the way people make purchases. Most of the time, we get on the internet and search for things to buy when we want to make a purchase. But when we search for a recipe, we usually are not in buying mode or we don’t expect to buy anything. Pinterest on the other hand helps us to realize we want or need something before we know it. Pinterest can also provide proof that a product is the best by the re-pins. All a person has to do is see how often a product was re-pinned and see the nice glossy image and be a few clicks from making a purchase. Pinterest turns people into buyers faster than any other social networking site.

3.   Build Your Brand

By using Pinterest, you can easily build your brand. Best advice is to stay active, keep pinning, and keep following. You can even hold a contest on Pinterest.

4.   Pinterest Drives Traffic

Traffic is the blood for all websites. If you don’t have it, your business will die. Pinterest will increase links back to your sites.

Marketing Strategies To Use On Pinterest

What is the best way to market your business on Pinterest? It is important you don’t turn your Pinterest account into an ad account. Keep in mind the site is geared towards pictures. Pinterest is a community and in a community you don’t go door to door selling or begging people to buy your products. This applies to any social media site, people don’t like to be sold or marketed to. You need to focus on providing something valuable and meaningful; something that will inspire people and get their attention. Here are a few steps you need to use for your marketing efforts:

-Online Catalog

This is a great way to market your business if you have physical products or digital ones. You need to separate items by the boards so it is easy for your visitors. For instance, if you own a baby store, you should have a board for baby clothes and one for baby toys, or one for girl items and one for boy items. And make sure the pictures are linking back to your website to the product information page.

-Grow Your Pins And Boards

You have to pin your boards on a regular basis and stay active within the Pinterest community. Set yourself a schedule so you can keep up. You need to also pay close attention to pins and re-pins that are popular. This way you will know what is trending. People will come to your boards and check you out.

-Be Human

Social networking is about being yourself and not some robot. People want to know you before they know about your business and the products you offer, mainly and especially when you are using a social networking site. Show something that causes emotion since this is what gets shared the most. Be unique and creative. Show a funny side of your brand. This will get people to re-pin and share your content. And most of all… be honest.

-Pin About Your Event

If your business hosts webinars, seminars, or any other kind of events, you should create boards that have information about your event. You can pin interesting content that will draw attention. You could talk about presenters and speakers who will be attending. Post pictures of past events on your board. Come up with creative ways to grab the attention of many.

-Announce A New Product Launch

If you have a new product that is about to launch, create a board for it; you should start talking about your launch months in advance and use creative ideas to draw in your audience. Post critical information you want people to know and tell the people what they will get out of using the product. Post pictures and customers testimonials after the products are created and have launched.  You should also allow customers to leave feed back and you can create a board for this. Let people include the good and bad feedback because you should let people see the honest reviews other people left regarding your products. And remember, no product is 100% perfect.

-Offer Specials For Your Pinterest Followers

Everyone loves a deal, so when you promote your product, create an offer that is strictly for your followers. You can create a code for your followers to use this way you will know that the offer is exclusive to them. This also works great for twitter and other social networking platforms.

-Create A Video Gallery

Pinterest have features available for anyone who wants to create a tutorial or share parts of a webinar, conference, and videos. When you create videos you should add annotations. When users find your videos to be appealing, you score a better chance of having your video pinned. You can also tell viewers of your video to pin the video to Pinterest.

-Encourage Users To Leave Comments

Most of the popular pins are liked, commented on, and re-pinned. You should encourage users to do all of the above. People will leave comments and you can ask them to in a way that will make them want to do it. For instance, if you took a trip to a popular spot in Paris, or you vacationed in the Caribbean, you can ask them to guess the location you took the picture. This will open the door to many opportunities on Pinterest and get people to participate. And you should do it often too. 

-Add Watermarks To Your Pictures

At some point during the process of re-pinning people may not know where the picture came from. So you should watermark your pictures. You don’t want to lose the marketing impact you were going for, so this is important. You can put your web address on your picture. 

-Do A Focus Group

As you know, focus groups are used to gather opinions from customers and others about a product or services. You can find out the thoughts of these people and your targeted market. You can use Pinterest as a focus group by creating a board for a new product and see what is on the mind of your followers. You can find out from your followers if they like it and ask them what kind of information they would like to see if it is an information product. If the product is physical, ask them what features they want. This is a great way to improve on your product that currently exist or your new one.

-Add The Follow Me Button

An easy way to get Pinterest followers to discover your brand on your Pinterest page is to put the follow me button on your website and make sure your site is full of good quality content.

-Be Helpful To Your Followers/Customers

If you have a business where you provide some sort of service, you could pin some tutorials and helpful articles from how to sites and blogs. You can pin some pictures that show people what you want to teach and you can send them to a blog post or media story. Pictures tell a story. When you focus on educating your followers or customer, this will make them want to know what you have up your sleeve in the future.  

-Don’t Focus Just On Your Business

You should re-pin what others are doing. Make sure you do your share. When you pin other people pins, people will notice you.   

-Share Your Screen Shots On Pinterest

If you want to show people proof something works, share your screen shots. The website url2pin.it helps you to create a screen shot to share on Pinterest. All you have to do is enter the URL and hit submit.

Wrapping Up

As you can see there are many ways you can market your brand using Pinterest. The best thing you can do is be creative. The internet is forever changing and you need to be changing with it. The most important thing you can do is get on the Pinterest Bandwagon now. 

Pinterest Power  

Pinterest