Pinterest For Business

When considering social media that drives traffic to your website and business, most people automatically think Facebook or Twitter, and may in fact be underestimating the power of other social media sources, such as my personal favourite – Pinterest, which happens to bring in up to 50% of my website traffic each month on 3 different websites.

Pinterest is newer than some of the other established social media platforms and gets a reputation of being popular for brides to be, foodies and new homeowners, and yes, there is no doubt Pinterest is popular with these audiences, but it is also extremely powerful for business owners.

With the ability to ‘pin’ your favourite inspiration to different boards. It is essentially a giant, digital pin board, except you can have as many pins and as many boards as you like, accessible from any Internet enabled device.

And like other social networks, Pinterest is indeed social. You have the ability to follow other ‘Pinners’ and see what they are pinning to their public boards. You can also follow interests to ensure your feed is full of the type of stuff you want to see. If you see something you like, you can pin it to one of your boards for future reference. In return, others have the ability to follow you as well and re-pin anything you pin.

What are the benefits of Pinterest for business?

Pinterest reaches a massive worldwide audience. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and many other social networks, the articles, images and links you share have a better chance of being seen and found by people who are not necessarily following you. Of course, like any social network, the more followers, the greater the chances, but there are plenty of ways to be found on Pinterest.

Individuals have the ability to search pins, boards or users when typing in a search term. If you happen to have a relevant board or a pin with a detailed description that uses this search term or similar, random users may discover you and repin or follow you.

This cycle continues, with your pins then reaching larger audiences. In fact, it’s not too hard to go Pinterest viral if you happen to have a popular topic covered. And this in turn can bring a nice increase of traffic to the pinned article, so if this happens to be an article from your website, you may find yourself getting a lot of new click throughs direct from Pinterest.

How do you make Pinterest work for your business?

You may have read advice for other social networks about the importance of sharing content from others as well as your own. Pinterest is the same.

When setting up your account, it is beneficial to set up some general interest boards that may relate to your website, but are not specific to it. For example, if your business is kitchen installation, consider boards relating to the home, such as Kitchen Design Inspiration, Dining Room Inspiration and even a simple recipes board.

By pinning good quality content from others, it increases your chances of being found on Pinterest. This means there is a greater chance pins from your own website are going to appear and potentially be clicked and visited, bringing you traffic and making Pinterest for business your new friend!

Holly Connors is a freelance writer and blogger at Simplify Create Inspire, with a focus on simplifying life, saving money and getting organised. She also writes a family travel blog with her husband. Holly is a mother of 2 with a career background in psychology, although more recently dabbling in the world of self-employment and sales, enjoying the less conventional side of earning a living. You can also find her on Facebook, twitter or Pinterest.