You may have joined Pintapalooza last week and if you did, you probably realize just how important Pinterest may be for your business. The beauty is that it’s good for nearly any type of business, not just a home staging business like mine. If that business deals with women, all the better, since women make up over 75% of the traffic. Of course that dynamic is slowly shifting as entrepreneurs break ground and begin using this for more than sharing craft tutorials and fashion tips.
So, what are some tips on using Pinterest for your small business?
Think outside of the box, but inside the boards. Think of each board like a mini Facebook fanpage. You want people to like what they see and follow you. Arrange your boards based on level of importance to what you do. You did know you could rearrange them, right? When someone looks at your boards, they should have a clear impression of what you want them to know about you. You should also be sure your boards are rich in key words. Instead of saying “stuff I made” say “handmade on Etsy by {company name}.”
Let’s talk about some examples of how this might help you. A home staging company in Indianapolis might want to have boards about: before & after home staging photos, Indianapolis Real Estate, Nascar, or Indianapolis Architecture.
Someone who owns a virtual fitness company might want to have boards about: Upper Body Exercises, Healthy Snacks, or Low-Carb Recipes.
A local real estate agent might want boards about their local area, restaurants, and Things to do in {insert geographical location}.
Pinterest is a little different than other social media tools because the goal is to visually draw someone to what you are pinning and to get them interested in clicking on the pins to get where you are sending them (probably back to your website). Since they are now the #3 referring site on the internet, they aren’t a site you should just ignore. You don’t want to get too far behind the curve here.
I know a lot of my friends own businesses and their reaction is often, “Yeah, I need another social media site like I need a hole in the head.” Well, consider the alternative – pay for marketing. That’s what I think too… forget it, I’ll do the free, fun one. Many of us felt the same way when Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn became important. Some of us still feel that way about one or more of them, but this is business. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do – get over it. The great thing is that unlike Facebook, however, pin boards are being crawled by Google. This means that your board might actually get picked up by search engines.
Before you go pin crazy, I should say that there is a right and a wrong way to pin for your business. I think this article by Pinnable business really says it best.
If you feel like you want to know more about how to use Pinterest to market your business, we have a recorded webinar for that. It is chock full of information that will help you and it’s only $27. It also includes some other great tools that may help your business.
Ok, now as promised, here are your infographic visuals…
Paul Wilson says
Melissa- Thanks for linking to our site and sharing our infographic. The currect image you have actually has some errors. Below is a link to the updated one. It would be great if you swapped it out. If you have any questions please let me know.
http://pinnablebusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/pinterest-image-optimization.jpg
melissamarro says
on it right now Paul.. thanks!
Paul Wilson says
Thanks Melissa! Let me know if you ever want to do a guest post about what you are doing with home staging and Pinterest. Your industry is a match in heaven for Pinterest!
melissamarro says
Thanks Paul! I would love to do that. How can I get the particulars from you? My email is marro.melissa@gmail.com
Paul Wilson says
Melissa- I sent you an email. Let me know if you got it or not.