A few weeks ago I discovered Pinterest. It has quickly become my favorite social media tool! Wonderful!
Of course, as a small business owner, I’m also interested in finding ways to build my business without being annoying. My personal experience and the research I have done have led me to the following tips:
- take some time: As with everything you are going to need to spend some time. She starts by simply opening an account, connecting with her friends who are already there, finding things she likes and sharing them. Get an idea of how the site works. Set aside 30 minutes a day for about 10 days to get started.
- Find your target market: Do some research the first time (use the search bar) to find people who are already interested in what you offer. Follow them.
- Know your goal: Once you’ve put in the time and found your market, you’re ready to figure out what you’d like to do with Pinterest. What kinds of things are others doing that you could adapt for your business? Where are some of the holes you could fill? figure out what you want, and then focus on your work on Pinterest.
- Make sure you are worthy to share: Find things to share that are interesting to others and truly worth sharing. (translation: Spam us!)
- Be generous: Also share things from others, including those who might be competing. They could share your stuff with their followers, which could expand your market.
- Check out their links: When you share something from your site, make sure you have a working link that takes the viewer to your page if they’re interested in learning more.
- Use catchy subtitles: Create a catchy caption with your links to entice people to look further – it works like a headline! Use your subheadings to define your brand if you can.
- Start or join the conversation: Before you pin again, make a comment about the other person’s pin and say something that engages them in the conversation. Also use questions on your pins to start a conversation.
- Share a wide variety: As with all social media platforms, don’t just share a bunch of links to your products. commit. Create lots of boards that tell a little bit about you. Do something quirky, fun, interesting, original, etc.
- Boost Pinterest with other platforms: talk about your Pinterest page on other platforms you are involved with to engage your followers in a different way again.
- Respond to your comments: People will often reply to you with comments about your pin; make sure you keep track of these. See the action in the left column of the home page.
- Share your discussions: When you start a discussion on your page, share it with your other platforms using the sharing links on the actual pin
- Bring your physical store: If you have a physical location that your customers go to, make sure you have special promotions that encourage your clientele to follow you on Pinterest just like you did with your other social media platforms.
VERY CAUTION! Before you get too excited about sharing things on Pinterest, take note of this from their guidelines:
Most people separate topics for pins. For example, food, cats, cars, skiing, etc. You should also be careful not to upload images that you do not own or that you do not have the rights to. Pinterest may not control copyright, but copyright laws still apply. A good rule of thumb is to never upload anything to the web for public viewing that you have no right to. (See the Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter to learn how you can get in trouble for using images you don’t own.)
And that is! So get started and start pinning!