That’s Pinteresting!

Following on from our Facebook 101 for business post and Cinti’s Successful Creative Blogger post, I though we should visit Pinterest.

Just when we thought we had enough social media, out pops Pinterest. Pinterest has been around for a few years now, but is gaining more popularity with each day.

Pinterest is an invite only, virtual pin board. A place to share what you find interesting and what inspires you. If you like it, PIN IT!  You can sort all your “pins” into boards, different mood boards for different topics. With everything from food to party planning, cars to clothing –  the possibilities are endless.

Pinterest is really easy to use.  You can sign up on the Pinterest website  (and by the way, be prepared to wait a long time) or if you know someone already on Pinterest, (moi) get them to email you an invite. Once you have received your invite, you’re ready to start pinning. Your account will already have some standard boards added to help you on your way. Your account will look something like this, obviously without all the pins and the boards.

You are now ready to start searching topics and start pinning. You can add boards, rename boards, and shuffle pins around. Another useful tool for is the bookmark tool. What this does is adds a “pin it” button to your browser toolbar and enables you to pin images from other websites. Essential for keeping Pinterest content new and fresh.
So now you have Pinterest, don’t forget to search for friends, find others and follow them. See what they love, what inspires them, find common interests. If you want to follow us, we are HERE.

So what about my business/brand, can Pinterest help?

Yes, Pinterest can help promote your business and brand BIG TIME! All you need is one person to pin a product that you sell, all their followers can see this; one of their followers or a person to see this on the recently pinned thread, repin it and so the repinning continues. The pin also contains a link back to the original site the pin was pinned. So pinners may then come to your site from Pinterest to have a look at what other products are available in your store. It is common practice for us to pin all post images to our Handmade Kids board on Pinterest. Lots of your products have been already been repinned and liked. I know it all sounds a little confusing, but its not once you have a play around and see how it all works, it will all make much more sense.

There are a few more ways your business can benefit from Pinterest:

1. Add the “pin it” button on product pages or to your blog posts.
Not all shopping carts will able to do this, but its worth a quick email to your web developer and find out.

2. Link your Pinterest account to Facebook and Twitter.
Lets face it, lots of traffic to webstores and blogs comes direct from Facebook and Twitter profiles.

3. Place your Pinterest link on your website and encourage visitors to your site to connect and follow.

So that is our very quick run down of Pinterest and how it can benefit you. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments and we will endeavour to answer them for you.

WARNING:  Pinterest is addictive, and we at Handmade Kids take no responsibility, and will not be held liable. Use at your own risk- lol