Would you like to promote yourself on Pinterest?
Pinterest’s new look
along with the new tools gives marketers and businesses another reason
to continue using the wonderful social network. The ability to use
images along with the high levels of virality, gives businesses the
opportunity to create countless ways to promote themselves – so here are
62 ways to promote yourself on Pinterest – make
use of
all of them and
use them as inspiration to create new ones…
Have a complete profile:-
A complete profile can be highly influential in helping you promote
yourself on Pinterest. A well filled in profile can help you project
your brand image, build trust and attract followers.
1. Use a good business and user name: Your business name is
one of the most prominent things on your brand page. It’s one of the
first things people will see when they visit it. It’s also good for SEO
as the large, bold letters will be easy to index. So make sure you
choose a highly relevant business name. The best option would be to just
use your business’s name.
The user name is the name that appears in your brand page’s URL so
make sure that it is the same or is very similar to your business name.
This again will make it easy for people to locate your profile.
2. Write a good about section: In the about section you have
160 characters of space to let people know what your business is about
and what you do on your Pinterest page. The aim here is to get people to
check out your boards and pins and to follow you – so do the best you
can to convince them.
3. Add your social accounts: Link your Twitter and Facebook
accounts to your Pinterest account. It should actually be compulsory
for you to add your Twitter account, as you can add your business
account. But adding your Facebook account should be optional as you can
only add your profile and not your page. When you add your social
accounts it will be easy for you to cross promote your pins on other
networks and attract new fans and followers. Your Twitter and Facebook
profiles will also benefit from this as you can attract your Pinterest
followers to these profiles. You can also add your Google and Yahoo
account details and invite people to join you. This is a quick and easy
way to get many followers.
4. Add and verify website: Verifying your website was a good
thing as it made the full URL appear on your profile along with a tick
mark which was placed right beside it. The full URL made your website
more prominent (which can encourage more clicks) and it was also good
for SEO as there was a live link on your profile. And the tick mark made
it seem credible. But now if you are serious about using Pinterest for
business, verifying your website, should be a compulsory step, as you
can then use the free analytics tool. With this tool you can measure
your results and see what’s working and not working, which can be an
important part of your Pinterest marketing campaign. You can learn more
about this analytics tool and how to use it by reading this post.
5. Upload a good profile image: The profile image is another
important part of your page. If you use a good profile image, it along
with your business name will make it easy for your users to recognize
your page. If it is your personal page upload a clear headshot of
yourself, if it is a company page, make sure you upload a good logo or
something your audience can easily recognize you by – this could be a
tagline, your company name, etc.
6. Add your location: Letting users know where you are located
will make it easy for them to find out more about you and to connect
with you as some people might search and connect with people located
locally.
An example of a well set up Pinterest brand page is Produce Your First Website’s.
They have all the features that have been mentioned above – a good
business name, a user name which is very similar to the business name,
profile image, verified website, location, Twitter and Facebook
accounts.
Make the most out of boards:-
Boards are an important part of your page, as they can help you
attract individual fans and followers and make it easy for you to share
pins on different topics.
7. Give your boards unique names: Make your board names as
unique as possible. Don’t just use the bland names that Pinterest
automatically gives you. You need to choose names that are both unique
and creative as it will make them stand out. Another important point to
keep in mind is that you need to limit them to a length of about two to
four short words. When you make them longer people won’t be able to see
the names in full initially and will need to click on the board and find
out more about them, this extra work could deter them. But if you keep
them short people will learn about them instantly and can follow them if
they are interesting.
8. Add good board covers: Another way to get boards to
standout is by adding good board covers. Usually the first pin you add
automatically becomes the board cover, but if you want your board to
look its best, choose your favourite pin from the entire board and drag
it around till your profile looks its best. You can learn about adding
board covers and various other Pinterest marketing tips in my free Pinterest marketing video tutorial. Board covers can also make your entire profile look good if you choose ones that resonate well with other boards.
A company that is making the most of Pinterest boards is 007 Marketing.
If you visit their Pinterest brand page you will notice that they have
created several boards with short easy to understand names that not only
look good individually, but also together. And they are definitely
doing it right as they have over 9,328 followers at the time of writing
this article.
9. Add categories: Categories give the pins on your board the
opportunity to reach more people, as when you add categories, they
appear on the categories section of Pinterest and people who are not
following you will see your pins too. This will help you get more pins,
repins, likes, comments and clicks (which will drive website traffic).
10. Work on gaining board followers: Try to get people to
follow your boards instead of focusing on trying to get them to follow
your entire profile. This can turn out to be a lot easier as people will
have the opportunity to subscribe to topics that interest them the
most. This can be highly effective especially when you pin images on a
lot of different topics.
11. Add the board widget to your website: A great way to get
more people to follow your boards is by adding the board widget to your
website. You can find the board widget on the widget builder page.
This big attractive button displays up to 30 of your latest pins on the
selected board. To make the most of it, display your most popular board
that helps project your brand image.
For example I have displayed the below board widget on my personal blog’s side bar. It belongs to my board ‘Painting With Words’.
If you visit my personal blog
right now you will see it on the right side bar. It has helped attract
followers to my board as I share quotes and poems and other literary
stuff on it which I also write about on my blog. So choose the most
relevant board on your page and display it on your website with the
board widget.
12. Rearrange and place your most important boards at the top:
You have the option to rearrange your boards by just dragging them
around. 5 of your boards can be placed right at the top. People can see
them as soon as they visit your brand page. These should be the most
important boards you want to drive the highest traffic to and get more
people to follow. So get them to standout by naming them properly and
adding attractive board covers.
13. Create several boards: Also create as many boards as you
can. This will give you the opportunity to share pins on various
subjects. You could also create many similar boards as you can then
reshare content. For best practices it is good to share a pin only once
on every board, therefore if you have many similar boards you can
reshare the pin over and over again. For example, you are a fashion
company and you have a scarf to share, you could first share it on your
main fashion board, you can then share it on a board only for scarves,
then on a board on accessories made of certain materials and on and on.
This way you can share a product or an image again and again without
having to share it on the same board.
Tiffany McCauley of The Gracious Pantry
uses this technique in a very effective way. She has several similar
boards which are unique in their own way and on these boards she shares
her pins several times and all the engagement she receives through this
help her recipes receive more traffic.
14. Pin relevant images to every board: Sticking to one topic
per board is an important part, as like I mentioned earlier that people
might follow one board just to view images and content on that topic. If
you start sharing images on various irrelevant topics on one board, you
could start bleeding board followers or even worse end up getting
flagged. So stick to one topic per board, the best thing is to just pin
images that are relevant to the board category you choose.
15. Add board descriptions: Board descriptions play an
important role – a good board description should be loaded with keywords
that will increase its visibility, it should also help users quickly
learn what they can find on that board.
Share:-
Sharing by pinning, repining, liking and commenting is the best way to stay active on Pinterest and get others to notice you.
16. Pin a lot: Pinning is a great way to promote yourself on
Pinterest. Your job is to scour the internet and look for the best
content and images to pin. So spend some time everyday finding some
great images your audience will enjoy and add them to your boards.
.
17. Combine it with repins: Don’t just pin images from site
after site – combine it with repins. A great way to find things to repin
is by following others and by visiting the different categories and the
popular and everything sections.
18. Like a lot too: In the midst of pinning and repining many
people forget about liking pictures which is a very important step that
can help you form bonds with other users. So make an effort to like some
of the images before you pin.
19. Don’t forget to comment: Just like ‘liking’, commenting is
being ignored too. The good thing about Pinterest is that there are not
too many distractions like messages and pokes, but that doesn’t mean
that you shouldn’t communicate with anyone. Commenting a little here and
there will do you a lot good. It would be nice to show people that you
appreciate their work.
It can also help you receive more exposure. As many people don’t do it – it will you an opportunity to stand out.
20. Stick to your brand, if necessary: If it is a business
page you need to stick to your brand. If you are a food company stick to
pins about food and other relevant topics, if you are a software
company, stick to pins on software, tech and other similar subjects.
They have to be topics your potential audience will enjoy. But if it is
your personal profile or if you have several products that interest a
wide range of audience, you can share pins on as many topics as you want
– just encourage people to follow your boards.
21. Don’t just share your work only: This is very important.
You shouldn’t just share your own work, you should share others work
too. This will not only give you more content to share, but it will also
help you build a brand and relationships with your competitors.
22. Share from many websites: Another important point is to
share from as many good website and blogs as possible. Don’t just keep
sharing from one or two websites just because you know the site owners.
Have a variety, visit as many websites as you can and share their
content too. This will help you establish new connections and friends.
23. Add good pin descriptions: Pin descriptions are important
too. I have seen many people not make use of this. Sometimes I just see
people adding a full stop or a forward slash (/) just because they need
to add something. If you want people to find out more about your pin
instantly, add a good description where you explain as much as possible.
Also add some hashtags and the link to the image or post to drive more
traffic.
According to a study, descriptions which are about 300 characters long are most repinnable.
Someone who writes great Pin descriptions is Jo Barnes. Check out her descriptions on the pins on her board ‘Social Media Updates’. You will notice that they are long and well written and end with a link that takes the reader to the web page.
Build Relationships:-
Social media is all about gaining trust, building relationships and
eventually converting these relationships into leads and sales. Below
are a few techniques you could use to build relationships on Pinterest.
24. Mention people: Mentioning others is another important
activity that is avoided just like commenting and liking. When you
mention people you have a chance to get their attention as they are
usually sent a notification. This can be highly effective in attracting
followers or getting others to notice you.
25. Give away compliments: One way to make mentions even more
effective is by adding a compliment. The next time you mention someone
in a description or a comment, add a compliment before it or right after
it. If you are writing about an image they created let them know it
looks good, if you like what they have shared, thank them for sharing
it. These comments can help you build relationships with them.
26. Ask them questions: People love it when you care about
what they think and that you take their opinion seriously. And the best
way to do this is by asking as many questions as you can. So whenever
you can ask a question in your pin description, this will encourage
people to leave comments and to share your pin.
27. Invite board contributors: The best way to build strong
relationships with your fans is by asking them to contribute to your
boards. This shows them that you like what they share and you want them
to be a part of your company – it will get them to like you a lot and
they will promote you even more. A board with a lot of quality
contributors can help you attract a lot of followers.
An example of a great board is Hubspot’s Pinteret Day!
which has a lot of wonderful contributors who share a lot of useful
pins to the board. This is a great place to find any news or tips on
using Pinterest. You will also notice that there is a lot of engagement
on the page. This works out well for Hubspot as they will not only get a
lot of content, but will also gather a lot of followers for their board
and page. Even the contributors will be able to attract Hubspot’s
followers to their profiles.
Promote on your website:-
You should also make an effort to promote your Pinterest brand page
on your website as this will make it easy for people to locate you,
thereby helping you attract more followers.
28. Add the follow me button: This should be done on each and
every blog and website as it is one of the best ways to divert visitors
to your Pinterest brand page. You can visit the widget builder section where you can find the follow button.
29. Add the profile widget: Another way to get website
visitors to check out your Pinterest profile is by adding the profile
widget. The profile widget is a lot bigger than the follow button and is
more attractive than the follow button as it can display up to 30 of
your latest pins. It can attract a lot more attention than the small and
simple follow button. Just compare the buttons below and see for
yourself.
Here’s the follow button for Social Marketing Writing
Social Marketing Writing
And here’s the profile widget
Which one do you think people will be more likely to see and click on?
Optimize your website for more shares:
You not only have to promote yourself on Pinterest, but you also have
to optimize your website so that people will be able share your images.
30. Add pinnable images: The only way someone can share your
web pages or blog posts on Pinterest is when there is an image. The
image has to be of a minimum size of 80 X 80 pixels for it to be
shareable. So make sure your images are at least that big – also try and
make them as unique and attractive as possible to get them to standout.
If your image stands out, more people will want to pin and repin it.
31. Add the Pin it button: According to a study by BrightEdge Technologies, web pages with share buttons are almost 7 times more likely to be shared than ones without.
So if you add the ‘Pin it’ button to your web pages or blog posts,
the chances of them being share will go up. This will be highly
effective in driving more traffic.
32. Add the hover over Pin it button: When you hover any image
on a post or page on Social Marketing Writing you will notice that a
pin it button appears on the left corner.
Try it right now –
hover over any image on this page. You can click on that button and
share the image. This button can also increase the number of pins you
receive. So make sure you add this button too. If you have a WordPress blog you can easily add the button by using the plugin Pinterest Pin it button for images.
33. Give your readers a choice: Like I mentioned earlier
social media is all about engaging your audience and one way to do this
on Pinterest is by giving your readers a wide array of images to pin
from a page. This method of choosing an image and pinning can drive high
engagement.
I have written how Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman makes the most of this in this post on Social Media Examiner.
34. Embed pins on site: Also, whenever you can, embed pins on
your web pages so that people can interact with them. Embedding a pin
can be way better than just placing a screenshot.
35. Label Images: The description that automatically appears
on a pin is the words the image has been labelled with. So make sure you
label images with appropriate titles so that effective descriptions
appear automatically. This should encourage more shares.
36. Add name and URL to images: You could also add your
business name and your website URL to your images so that people
instantly know where the image has come from. This will encourage them
to visit your site even if they locate the pin on another page. You
could also add your Pinterest brand page URL to get people to check you
out on Pinterest.
Cross promote on other networks:-
Cross promoting your pins on other social networks is a great way to
attract fans and followers from other websites onto your Pinterest brand
page.
37. Tweet your pins: Whenever you think your Twitter followers
might find a pin interesting – tweet it. This could help drive traffic
to your Pinterest brand page and it can increase engagement and help you
gain more followers, especially if you have already built a good
following on Twitter.
38. Add the Pinterest App to your Facebook profile and page: The
Pinterest app is a fantastic tool which can be added to your profile
and brand page. The app will not only display your brand page in the
thumbnails (tabs), but it will also share your latest Pinterest activity
on your timeline. People can click on this and visit your page and they
can also like pins if they want to. This is a great way to spread the
word about your Pinterest brand page to your fans.
An example is Donna Moritz’s Socially Sorted Facebook page
where you find the Pinterest App right at the top. This should help
divert some of her Facebook page fans to her Pinterest page.
39. Share images from your boards along with the link to the pin: The
next time you share an image on your Facebook page or your Twitter
account, add the link to the pin with the same image to your image
description. If you don’t have the image on your Pinterest page, pin it
and then share the pin’s link. This sort of cross promotion should help
you attract followers from other networks too.
Work on getting more followers:-
More followers should automatically increase engagement – as more
followers will lead to more comments, likes, repins, and pins. Most of
the above tips will automatically help you gain followers, but here are a
couple more you could use.
40. Follow others: A simple way to gain followers is by
following others. When you follow others a small percentage of them will
follow you back. You can continue following the ones who follow you
back and unfollow the ones who don’t.
41. Reward loyal followers: A great way to attract new
followers is by rewarding your most loyal ones. When you reward loyal
followers they will grow closer to your company and will promote you
more. This will also attract more followers who will want to be treated
the same way. A great tool for finding the most loyal followers is Curalate.
This tool helps me find out who is pinning and repinning the most
number of images from my website and how many of these are resulting in
repins.
After you pick your winners reward them with invitations to events,
invite them to contribute to your boards, give them gifts and
complementary products.
Engage Users:-
You shouldn’t put all your focus on selling your products on social
networks – it should be about driving engagement and building
relationships with users and this applies to Pinterest too.
42. Make engagement the main priority: That should be your
main priority while using Pinterest. Especially at the beginning, forget
about selling your products or generating leads. Put all your focus
onto sharing content, making people feel special and building an
audience. Once you have an audience who trust you, you can begin
selling. It will be a lot more effective this way.
43. Conduct competitions: Competitions are a fantastic way to
drive a lot of engagement. Well run competitions can help you get a lot
of pins, repins, comments, and followers and increase website traffic.
So make it a point to run competitions which will attract your target
audience.
44. Run offers: Running offers can also help drive a lot of
engagement just like competitions. For achieving best results, make them
Pinterest exclusive.
45. Ask people to share, repin, like and comment: The best way
to drive engagement is to ask for it – if you want people to like or
repin something, ask them to do it and they will take action. If you
want them to comment on your pins, ask questions.
46. Pin at the right time: Also make sure you pin at the best time so that more people will see your pins and will willingly take part.
According to Bit Rebels the best time to share on Pinterest is between 2 PM to 4 PM in the afternoon and 8 PM to 1 AM in the night.
Research your audience and competition:-
You need to constantly research and see what is working and not
working on Pinterest. Regularly check what your audience and competition
are sharing on Pinterest and how they are doing it right.
47. Check what people are pinning from your websites and other websites:
By typing in the URL http://pinterest.com/source/domainname.com/ where
you add the domain name to ‘domainname’ you can check what is being
pinned from any website. Use this feature to see what is regularly being
shared from your website and websites similar to yours and use the
information to create popular images.
48. Visit different categories and the ‘everything’ section:
The categories section is also another great place to look at the latest
pins being shared on Pinterest. Check what is being shared under the
categories in which you share your pins – a similar place to checkout
pins would be the ‘everything’ section.
49. Regular check what is trending: Check what is trending on Pinterest by visiting the ‘Popular Section’ – here you will find pins that have been repinned, liked and commented on repeatedly.
Observe and figure out why these pins are doing well – is it because
they are in season, is there something special about them, have they got
well written descriptions, etc. This way of finding trending patterns
will also give you ideas to market yourself through other social
networks and your blog.
50. Use the search feature: You could also use the search feature to find pins that come under your category.
51. Use tools like repinly to see what works: A fantastic tool to find out what is working on Pinterest is Repinly.
This tool will help you find the top Pinterest influencers, the most
popular pins, the most popular categories, the most popular boards, etc.
So use this to find the best Pinterest practices and use the same techniques to market yourself better.
Invest in useful tools:-
Here are a few general tools that should be part of your Pinterest marketing arsenal.
52. Image creation and modification tools: Pinterest centres
around images, if you create unique and outstanding images more people
will share them. This will increase engagement and will drive website
traffic. My favourite tool for creating these images is PicMonkey.
They have got so many amazing free features which make it extremely
easy to create images. You could also pay a monthly subscription fee to
gain access to advanced features. Here’s a fantastic list of Pinterest friendly image creation tools by Wong Ching Ya.
53. Screenshot software: Good screenshot software is also very important. If you want to use something free you could try out Awesome Screenshot, but if you can afford to pay for one, get Snagit.
I use this tool and I find it very useful as I take a lot of
screenshots to help display the many examples I share in my blog posts.
Snagit has a list of advanced features which can be found here.
When you see some news, something funny or interesting on the web, just
take a screen shot and upload the image onto your Pinterest brand page.
54. Camera: If your company or products are more
photo-friendly you need to invest in a good camera. This will work out
great for business in industries like food, fashion, fitness, etc.
55. Practice: It’s not just enough if you invest in the best
tools – you also need to practice. Practice will help improve the
quality of your images and photos and you will notice how the quality of
your images will play a key role in improving your Pinterest presence.
Set goals:-
Setting goals can help you achieve results.
56. Always have a goal: Before you begin promoting yourself on
Pinterest set some goals. Your goals could be to get more followers,
drive engagement, increasing website traffic, generating sales, etc. You
could have just one goal or several goals. Goals will make it easy for
you to achieve results.
57. Work towards achieving your goals: After you set your
goals do everything you can to achieve results. If you want to get more
followers share a lot of content, add the follow button or use any of
the techniques mentioned in this infographic
– if you want to drive more traffic, modify your website by adding
images, pin it buttons, etc. to encourage people to share your pages. So
make goals and work towards achieving them by implementing the right
techniques. That is the only way to succeed with Pinterest.
Measure Results:-
It’s not just enough if you work hard towards achieving your
Pinterest goals, you also need to measure results to check if your
techniques are working.
58. Use Pinterest analytics: Pinterest has a free analytics tool which helps you analyse how well your website is faring on Pinterest.
You can see how many people are sharing your images and check if it
is resulting in impressions and traffic. I have written everything about
how to use this tool effectively in this post.
59. See what’s working: When you analyse, see what is working and do more of the same.
60. And what’s not: If something is not working discard it immediately – the same methods will not work for everyone.
61: Modify your plans to reach more people: Regularly modify
your plans whether things are going good or bad. If something is not
working remove it, if something is working do more of it and see if it
can be modified to be made even more effective. Always check the graph
in the analytics tool to make sure that things are on their way up.
62. Be persistent: It’s necessary to be very persistent on
Pinterest. It might be hard for you to succeed at first, but if you keep
at it and work day after day you will eventually thrive on Pinterest.
Take it one step at a time. Achieve one basic goal and then move onto
the next and gradually create new ones and work towards achieving them
too.
So these are 62 ways to promote yourself on Pinterest, make use of
all of them or a combination of a few to promote yourself on Pinterest
and watch your business grow.
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