Social Media Series: Pinterest for your Creative Business *Part 1*

What is Pinterest

Pinterest is often thought of as a social media platform, truth be told it’s NOT! Pinterest is a search engine platform that differs from others such as Google in that it uses images. This visual application allows you to create, find and save pin content for your consumption and for others. When you find a pin (image with a link to blog posts, video, etc) that you like, pin it into a board so that you can find it later and keep them organized.

Pinterest is the place people go to when they want to make a purchase. Research shows that 87% of users have purchased products they found on Pinterest. The platform is very smartphone friendly hence why 85% of smartphone owners have a Pinterest account. Pinterest is a great place for your business to be to get seen, grow and evolve; it puts you right in the palm of your ideal customers.

How to use Pinterest for your business

Pinterest is by far the best tool out there to grow your business right after (or maybe more so than) Instagram! 93% of the traffic on my website|blog, Instagram, shops and Facebook come from Pinterest!!! So how do you use this powerful platform for your business to grow?

You can start by creating a business Pinterest account. Create boards with pins that are relevant to your ideal audience by imagining the perfect customer you would like to have and create a Pinterest account for them. For example, your ideal customer|follower is a young woman in her early 30s, who is very crafty, lives alone and is into DIY for home decor and wardrobe. She works a 9 to 5 job and is always looking for casual, unique but still professional handmade pieces for her wardrobe. Her weekends are spent at home catching up on shows and enjoying her favorite hobbies. The goal here is to describe that crazy perfect person you want to be interested in what you’re making and create boards they would be browsing through all week and weekend long.

Why Should you Create one for your Business?

Pinterest is a good place for you to share the things you want the world to know about your business. If you already have a website, blog or shop (Etsy|Ravelry|your own), Pinterest is a good platform where you can share links with images from your products or blog posts to help potential customers find you and your products directly. The half-life of a pin is 4 months; that’s a long time one pin will continuously generate traffic for your business. Pins are known to go viral days, months or even years after being originally shared on the platform. Pinterest will help your business grow by constantly bringing traffic to the platforms you share on it which in turn converts them into customers and followers.

People go on Pinterest to buy and find ideas. As makers and designers, Pinterest helps us find inspiration, new crochet designers and other makers with great content to follow both on Pinterest and other social media platforms. Having an account for your business is yet another place where you can interact and get to know your ideal customer or follower better.

How to Create a Business Account

You might be asking yourself why you need a business account? A business account gives you access to analytics and other tools to help you grow your business FREE. Now that we’ve talked about the what and whys, let me walk you through creating a business account or you can watch the video from my Instagram live at the end of this post where I show you all the steps below.

Step 1: Go to Pinterest.com/business/create/

Step 2: Fill out the info about your business such as email, password, the category your business falls under.

Step 3: Select create.

Now it’s time to make the account yours by filling out your profile. This is where you get to share more about your business, your brand and add links to social media platforms where you’re active.

We’ll start with your photo; I recommend you use a photo of yourself if you’re the face of your brand. I have a picture of me crocheting as my photo because I am the face of Desamour Designs. If you’re not too comfortable being the face of your brand, I recommend you use your logo. Make sure it is properly formatted so it isn’t blurry.

Step 4: Select the picture circle with the “person shape”  and then select edit profile on the right.

Step 5: Select Change next to your profile picture.

Step 6: Choose photo to select a photo from your device.

Step 7: Select the picture you want to use then click Open

Step 8: Click Done.

Now we’ll move on to your display name. This is the name which will show in big letter across the top of your page when you or visitors see your profile. It will also appear at the bottom of your pins and boards. I recommend you type in your business name there.

The next block is your username. This is like your Instagram handle; it is what users will type in to find your account. I recommend you use the same name you use on other platforms or your Instagram name to make it easy for followers to find you. This also gives your business a cohesive brand look across all platforms. My handle on all platforms is desamourdesigns so if you search for www.pinterest.com/desamourdesigns you will find me. Go ahead and type your business name in that box.

About your profile. Keep this box short and to the point. Tell your audience what to expect from your business, why they should follow you and where they can find you. This part will show right next to your name when visitors land on your account.

You can fill out your email address, country code, phone number, etc or you can scroll up and click done.

If you have a blog, website, Etsy shop and|or an Instagram, Pinterest allows you to claim them so that you may connect your other content to the platform.  This step makes it so that any content shared from those platforms with your URL gets attributed to your account and you can view the analytics related to said content.

To claim your accounts, simply click the claim button which is located 3 steps down from Edit profile. Follow the steps to type the URL to your website or blog, and claim your other accounts below.

Now once you click done at the top of your page, Pinterest will take you to your dashboard. This is where you will edit your profile cover. You can choose to showcase a board or upload an image or video.

I recommend you showcase a board that has only your products so when people visit your profile, the first thing they see across the top of your page is YOUR WORK! This is a place for you to promote your work, so shamelessly promote it. If you don’t have a board yet with your products or services, you should go the video or image route. Use Canva or a similar product to create a cover for your profile. Add all your information to that banner, let people know where to find you on your other platforms, I suggest you browse other accounts profiles to see what you like and don’t like to get ideas. Don’t copy anyone, make it your brand and you. If you choose the image option kow that Pinterest recommends you crop your image to fit the 16:9 ratio.

Now let’s move on to your profile image. Your profile image should be 600×600 pixels; this is the optimal size. Use a picture of yourself if you, like me, are the face and a part of your brand. If you’re not comfortable with being the face of your brand then I would use the business logo. That logo should be the same you use on all your social media platforms.

And….. your account is all set and ready for you to create pins, boards and start getting some repins.

Come back next Thursday for a Live on my Instagram @desamourdesigns where I will cover part 2 of the Pinterest for your Creative Business. We will discuss creating a board, pins, Pinterest best practices, and more. I will also share a blog post here with everything discussed!

Homework

Create or fill in all the information above on your business Pinterest account. Leave a comment below with your new Pinterest account handle so I can give you a follow. Let me know how you like this first post of the series and if you’d like me to cover other platforms.

    First Name
    


    Last Name
    


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