What’s so special about your Pinterest business account, you ask??? Well, first of all, you can get access to some AWESOME analytics! The Pinterest analytics show so many things, from how many daily viewers you are getting to impressions, engagement, most popular posts and more! They give you so much data, that this is a great tool to really find out who your target market really is. Is this video we will just go over how to check your analytics and what each area really means.
Pinterest, just like any other network, requires care, commitment, and attention to detail when it comes to implementing your strategy and measuring your results. In today’s blog and this week’s Growth Prompt, we are building your Pinterest Strategy and Setting Goals for measuring your success.
Earlier in the month we’ve explored the in’s and out’s of what Pinterest is, as well as, how to create images, manage your boards, etc, but today we are taking that deeper dive into the strategies to use to optimize Pinterest for your business.
In addition to the information provided in this blog post, be sure to download this week’s growth prompt HERE. This PDF includes space for you to create your Pinterest Strategy and to Establish your Goals on Pinterest.
Part 1: Creating your Pinterest Strategy
Step 1: Be Consistent.
On Pinterest in particular, it is of utmost importance to be consistent with your pinning. Why? Pinterest will show your followers a collection of recent and popular pins when they sign onto Pinterest. Imagine that none of your pins appear for days and then all of a sudden 10 branded images pop up at once.
First, the person isn’t going to know who you are and second, they are going to feel like you are spamming their Pinterest feed.
Rather than only signing on one time per month, instead we recommend trying to have a consistent flow of pins to your boards that consist of both your pins and those of other people.
To build Consistency into your Pinterest Strategy, you want to make sure that you have a clear understanding of:
- When you can pin (ie, can you only commit to pinning on your computer at 10pm while watching Netflix or can you carve out time during the day)?
- If you would benefit from a 3rd party application to pin and repin on your behalf?
3rd Party Apps to Help Manage Pinterest
Yes! These apps do exist and there are 2 in particular I recommend utilizing.
Tailwind:
The first, Tailwind*, has a robust pin-scheduling tool for your own pins and allows your to set schedules to pull from other pins, as well. Tailwind also includes Tribes, which are groups of people who have agreed to share each others pins on a specific topic.
Boardbooster:
Personally, I utilize Boardbooster* for my Pinterest management. With Boardbooster, you create Secret Boards and pin images to these boards rather than your public boards. In boardbooster, you then create a schedule for how many pins you would like to move from the secret board to your public board and what time of day you want these pins to be published. Boardbooster also has a looping function to repin old pins from your boards at a set schedule.
One downside of Boardbooster is that you can’t really visualize the order of publishing your pins, so let’s say you make 3 images for a blog post, when you pin them to your secret board, you also need to pin other images.
I love boardbooster, however, because I can spend one movie just pinning other images to my secret boards and not worry about Pinterest for a month.
Step 2: Create Multiple Pins for your Blogs.
Rather than just creating one pinnable image for your blog post, change the design and wording slightly so you have 3-4 images for each blog post. This especially works well if your blogs are 1000+ words long as you can create a pin for each topic you cover.
To manage this, I recommend creating a few layouts and templates in Canva that you can just swap out words and images. Then, as mentioned before, rather than pinning all the images at once, add them to your secret boards (if you use Boardbooster) with other images between and try to space out their publishing dates (or at least times).
You’ll also want to make sure the images are rotated into a board specifically for your brand and website. I recommend calling this board “From the XYZ Blog” or “Company Name Pins” – just something that makes it very clear that these pins are only from your website. Put this board at the top of your Pinterest boards as a featured board and you are good to go!
So, how do you incorporate multiple pins in a blog post without being overwhelming? Get your hands dirty with HTML and you’ll be good to go! 🙂
I recommend the following process for adding multiple pins to your blog post:
- Create images and name them with your blog topic then upload the images all at once to the end of your blog post.
- When you upload the images, add individual ‘alt tags’ to them with the following formula: BLOG/PIN TOPIC, keyword 1, keyword 2, #firsthashtag, #secondhashtag, keyword phrase 3, #thirdhashtag
- Drag and drop or copy and paste images to where they fit in the content (for example, if you have one topic at the start of the blog and it flows into another topic, you may want to include one pin that includes language from each of these sections rather than using the same language on every pin.
- With the remaining images that are at the end of the blog, you will now want to HIDE them!
- Just into the HTML for the blog post (in WordPress this is the Text tab above the content editor) and scroll down in the text editor to the end of the post. You should see the html code for the images here. This looks like: <img src=”URL” alt=”info you added to the alt tags”/>
- Directly before the first image you want to hide, add the text: <div style=”display:none;”>
- At the very end of the post after the last image you want to hide, add: </div>
- Click save and you are all set!
Step 3: Incorporate Pins from other Websites.
The last core piece of your Pinterest strategy is to include the Pins of other accounts and to pin images directly from other websites.
When you pin from other accounts, be sure you are looking to find popular RICH pins that include keywords in their descriptions and are frequently repinned. Typically, when you search for a topic, these pins will appear first in the search results.
Why do you want to only repin rich pins? These are often shared more frequently and if your account is posting pins that are shared frequently, you will tend to show up more frequently in Pin search results.
You also want to pin images directly from different websites because then you have the added benefit of having your profile link appear alongside the pin rather than only appearing when someone clicks to expand the pin!
Part 2: Setting your Pinterest Goals
There typically are two main goals businesses set for Pinterest. The first is much easier to accomplish than the second, but both simply require that you are consistently active on Pinterest.
Goal 1: Gaining Name Recognition and Exposure.
Gaining name recognition and exposure is a great goal for Pinterest and is actually fairly easy to accomplish!
With my Pinterest account, I was able to grow from 100 followers to 60,000 pin views in a matter of 3 months. How? I wrote blogs and used Boardbooster to consistently pin new images, my images, and repin for me while I worked on other aspects of the business.
You can do this too, if you follow the strategy steps outlined above.
Goal 2: Growing Traffic to Website.
Though to reach the first goal of gaining exposure doesn’t necessarily require you to blog, growing the traffic to your site ABSOLUTELY requires that you blog for your business! This makes attaining this goal a little more difficult as you need to build time in your schedule to blog and create pinnable images.
Once you create your schedule for writing blogs and the images, then, as long as you are using keywords in your descriptions, sharing the pin to group boards, and testing out different pin designs, you can be fairly certain people will click through to your site.
Final Thoughts: Freebies
So, as I wrap up, there is also the important notion to remember about what to do once people get to your site!
I always recommend including Content Upgrades in your content as a way to capture the names and email addresses of those who click through the site. This means in addition to creating the blog post and images, also creating a download and a form to add even more information to your post. Once someone signs up to download the form, you ‘own’ their email address and can send them weekly tips and news to continue helping them on their educational journey in your industry!
We’ll be doing an entire section on the ins and outs of Content Upgrades (Freebies) and Welcome Series, so stay tuned!
Infographics are a HUGE part of Pinterest and those who love Pinterest absolutely adore infographics. Infographics are an easy way to consume and learn new information. A good infographic can take you step by step through a message with lots of visual content and a minimal amount of text.
In this video tutorial, you will learn how to quickly and easily design infographics by using Canva.
Did you know? Pinterest is the 3rd most popular social network and it has become a huge search engine! People turn to Pinterest on the daily to: shop, find information, ideas, educate themselves, organize themselves and so much more. Once you get to know Pinterest and all that it can provide for you, the love affair begins 😉
To make sure your brand’s content hits the ground running, there are some basics you need to have in place, especially when it comes to graphics. Pinterest is a highly visual platform. Understanding the best graphics to use on the site is key to making your account perform its best.
We want to make sure you and your brand look your best on Pinterest, so, we put together this helpful 2018 Pinterest Image Size guide. Download it, print it out, and keep it handy so you can have these image sizes available at-a-glance! Download the guide HERE.
Part of being successful on Pinterest requires your ability to be found! That’s where hashtags (#) come into play. Once you have an understanding of how to utilize hashtags, you will notice an increase in your Pinterest traffic.
Hashtag Know How!
Here are 3 strategies you can use to get your hashtag game in place for your brand
STRATEGY #1:
Know the number of hashtags you can use one 1 pin. A recommended rule of thumb is to use no more than 20 hashtags per pin.
STRATEGY #2:
Always use hashtags on the pins you post. When people search hashtags in the search bar, Pinterest will compile the latest pins chronologically, placing the newest pins at the top of the list. That’s where you want your pins to live.
STRATEGY #3:
Organize a list of hashtags for your brand. Categorize you hashtags into 3 buckets:
- Branded Hashtags: a list of hashtags that only relate to and describe your brand
- Trending Hashtags: a list of trending (popular) hashtags on the topics you post about (these hashtags will frequently change based on the topic and current trends you are posting about)
- Content Related: a list of content related hashtags to use in order to describe the post you are pinning
Best Practices When Selecting Hashtags:
- Avoid using very broad hashtags, be more specific and try to think like your audience. What hashtags would they use to find your pin?
- Don’t be afraid to use hashtag phrases if they help to define your audience even better. For example, we may use a hashtag phrase like #SocialMediaTraining as a hashtag to reach our audience.
- Do some research! When adding a hashtag to a pin on Pinterest, Pinterest will populate a list of suggested hashtags. Next the hashtag, you will see how many pins are using the hashtag you are considering. If the number is HUGE, your pin may get lost in the shuffle. Try to determine how you can make your pin more niche with a more specific hashtag or hashtag phrase.
When working with Pinterest, our best advice is for you to get started, have fun, and experiment with different ideas, strategies, and tactics. Happy pinning!
Pinterest is growing so much and is really used for a search engine rather than a social media platform. People go to Pinterest to find ideas, products, inspiration and much more! So, why shouldn’t they be able to find your business as well? In this video below you will learn how to create a business account on Pinterest OR switch your personal profile to a business account.
Here are a few key points you want to remember while creating your account:
* Use keywords in your board titles and descriptions
* Use #Hashtags in your Pin descriptions
* Create boards your target audience would be looking for
* Verify your website
* Add the Pinterest icon to your toolbar
Enjoy!
We are going to be talking about Pinterest for digital marketing for your business. Now is such a great tool for businesses to use for their marketing because it allows for your business to gain a broader audience without necessarily having to always wear to grow your network. Pinterest works much more like a search engine in this capacity rather than a social media Network.
What is Pinterest?
First and foremost, what is Pinterest? Is an Application that utilizes images to help people find things online more easily. So you can think of it almost like a visual search engine. Imagine if you did a Google Search and rather than having websites come up in text and phrases, the websites all appeared as images. This is Pinterest. Now with Pinterest, users are prompted to search for items of interest and organize them in elements called boards. Board is a collection of that all relate to a certain topic. As a business you are able to Showcase elements from your own website as well as related pins from other people’s website so that your followers and the people who come across your account can more easily find information regarding the topic of your expertise without having to search around for related website and phrases.
The download for this week is to help you organize the boards on your own business Pinterest account so that they relate to items that your target market will be finding online. The link for this is at the bottom of the blog.
Now you might be thinking that Pinterest is only for a DIY, crafts, and Home Improvement projects, but in reality, it is for so much more! We have found that everything from business services and tips to graphic design and accounting for businesses have garnered lots of great feedback and traffic to our client’s websites. In fact once a pin goes viral, you can find that you consistently get leads that come from one blog post image on your website month after month.
We haven’t really discussed in detail the use of lead capture forms on your website, but Pinterest is a great traffic source if you have a lead capture form and free giveaway on your website as a way to attract new people to your email list.
When you utilize Pinterest it is important to make sure that your pins correlate with a Content that you find on your website and that your pins and board description include the keywords that you need to be found just as you would a search engine.
How do Search Engines Work (How Google Ranks Pages)
How search engines work is through matching the search user’s intent would be words that appear on a specific page on your website. If the search user intent and the keyword phrases that are used match the content that is found on your website you are more likely to appear in organic listing.
The same is true for Pinterest. As you are creating every single pin from your website you need to make sure that you are thinking about words and phrases that somebody might be using on Pinterest.
How to Organize Your Business Pinterest Account
We’ve recommend following these steps to ensure that your Pinterest account Boards are set up for success.
First step is to create boards that align with the interest of your target market on Pinterest. You want to make sure that these boards closely relate to your own business so that you can include a combination of pins from your own website as well as from other resources online.
When you create your boards, think about the different aspects of your business. For us, for example, we can pin about:
- Blogging,
- Business Tips,
- Productivity,
- Email Marketing,
- Web Design,
- Branding,
- Social Media, etc.
Each of the boards we will want to pin very specific pins to that align with the board theme.
From here, you will want to make sure your Boards have descriptions that align with what a user will find pinned, as well as a list of the keywords that will help someone find the board.
Then it is time to get pinning! Don’t only pin from your own website, you also want to search for popular pins on Pinterest to Repin to your boards. It is best if these are popular pins because they will then help boost your own engagement and reach on Pinterest. Best of all, when your boards are well organized and the descriptions include keywords, your boards may even show up in Google Organic results, too!
We’ll be sharing more tips about including Pinnable images on your website and blog, but as a quick refresher, these should be tall images (735px x 1104px to 2061px).
I’ve put together a guide for you to create your own outline for your boards on Pinterest. Within this guide, think about the keywords you would expect someone to use to find this board (you’ll want to include these keywords in both the Pin Descriptions and in the Board Description), the Topics you want to include in the board (for example I group all social media together rather than having a board for each network), and your goals for the board with how frequently you hope to pin to the board so you can keep consistent.
Most businesses use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to reach out to potential customers and promote their brand. But if you are looking to extend your social media reach, you might want to consider adding Pinterest into your social media marketing campaign.
Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. In fact, there are over 500,000 businesses with Pinterest business accounts. It has become the hottest ticket item for business marketing.
Here are 4 ways to use Pinterest for marketing your business.
Inspire your audience
Aside from feeding obsessions with gourmet foods and exotic destinations, you may also use this social channel to inspire your audience. If you are selling kitchen appliances, show them what an ideal kitchen should look like. Make sure that your appliances are included in that picture. If you own a flooring company, then feature beautiful homes with stunning flooring. Provide style inspirations for each room in the house. If they like it, it can translate to big sales.
Humanize your brand
Social media can help spread the word about your business. But people are less likely to buy from you if they don’t trust you. You can use Pinterest to humanize your brand and build a relationship with them.
Instead of bombarding people with advertisements about your product, try telling your story. Create a board about how you started. Pin old photos of your first office, company founders, your first holiday party etc. By telling your story and introducing the people behind your company, you are sure to build an amazing Pinterest following.
Contests and giveaways
Contest and giveaways are a great way to capture the attention of your audience and generate exposure for your brand. Everyone likes free things, especially if it’s valuable.
You can ask people to re-pin your pins that feature you products. If you include a link to your website, then this will help generate traffic to your site. Choose a prize that your audience will find interesting or valuable to encourage them to join the contest.
Interact with other users
Creating boards on Pinterest would be ineffective without engagement. Just like other social media platforms, Pinterest requires interaction. Interact with other users and re-pin their posts. This may encourage them to pin yours in return.
Pinterest for Business:
There are over 100 million active Pinterest users across the globe. Pinterest is slowly becoming the most useful social e-commerce tool there is! With its creative outlay and design, Pinterest makes it easy for businesses to take advantage of the social media platform and for businesses to expand their reach around the world, learn how your business can do this too!
In this webinar, you will learn how to effectively utilize Pinterest for Business including:
- What makes Pinterest so unique
- The advantage of a Pinterest Business account
- How your business can be successful on Pinterest
- The most effective ways for your business to be relatable
- And more!
Join Amber Irwin on July 26th 3:30pm MST Sign Up TODAY!
The BIMS Team prides itself on keeping on top of the best practices of digital marketing and Caitlin is excited to empower you to feel confident in using Instagram for marketing your business!
With over 70 million users, Pinterest is considered as one of the fastest growing social networking sites. Armed with that information, it is safe to say that Pinterest is just as important as Twitter and Facebook when using social media to reach your target market.
Since Pinterest is all about graphic images, your goal is to create visual images that your customers would enjoy. The more appealing an image is, the more likely it is to generate attention.
So, how can you use Pinterest to attract and engage customers? Here are some tips to get you started.
Build boards around your products
If you own a restaurant, there’s no better way to attract new customers by showing off your dishes. Be sure to create a collection of boards for each of your specialties. After all, food is the main attraction of your restaurant. So, focus on your menu.
Become an information curator
As an online curator, your job is to gather and organize all the best images related to your topic and present them to your virtual audience. When done the right way, people will see you as an industry expert and will eventually consider you as a go-to source for cool images and content.
Add compelling descriptions
If your goal is to capture the attention of customers, you shouldn’t stop at creating visually compelling content. Adding a description is just as important.
Since you’re using SEO to promote your site, why not use it as well to promote your Pinterest page. Use keywords in your titles, tags and pin boards. This is important as it makes it easier for people to find your content.
Engage with other users
The whole point of social networking is socializing. So, engage with customers, strategic partners and industry vendors by tagging them in your descriptions. Another way to interact with other users is to like their pins. This can be a way of telling them that you appreciate their content. Plus, it can help you build a following and convert fans into buyers.
Social media platforms have been the go-to business strategy for sharing content over the past couple of years. Recently, the main focus has shifted more towards visual content, which is why Pinterest has been on the rise for businesses. Pinterest has grown immensely over the past few years, with the latest statistics revealing that 70 million people use it daily, while 9% of all Fortune 500 brands are active on the platform as well.
Now is the time to get your business on board with Pinterest! Here is a variety of ways to help maximize your efforts:
1. Using Rich Pins
Rich pins are a new edition to Pinterest that add extra details to Pins from your website. There are six types are rich pins which include app, movie, recipe, article, product, and place. There are many advantages to using Rich Pins including real-time pricing and stock availability. They also help improve CTR and discoverability of pins by making them eligible for Pinterest’s own curated feeds.
2. Focus on Pinning
Pin every new product, engage frequently, and keep it fresh. Knowing what types of images work best on Pinterest is extremely important. There are many tips and tricks to making your images high-quality and pinnable. Using colors wisely, keeping your mages anonymous, paying attention to size, timing, and your analytics through various Pinterest tools will ensure that you’re grasping your consumer’s attention and using Pinterest to the best of your ability.
3. Inspire
Rather than just creating boards that promote your product, create them around a particular lifestyle that appeals to your audience. Understanding your customer, knowing what they seek for, and exerting that through a Pinterest lifestyle board will help keep them interested and inspired by your brand. Many major brands use this strategy to promote what they stand for and to reach out to their consumer.
4. Running Contests
Increasing engagement is important on every social media platform, but not too many people use it to their advantage on Pinterest(and they should!). If done properly through following the Pinterest contest guidelines, contests can drive sales and help reach a wider audience. Be creative, make it worth it for your consumer, and look to other brands for contest ideas. Also, there are a variety of apps that can help organize your contest and host it on your site including Gleam.io, Wishpond, and Woobox.
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