Pinterest 101
Pinterest is not as complicated as it seems. Here I will go through my 101 to Pinterest so you can get set up and reaching your ideal client quickly!
Pinterest Profile
Ensure you have written your bio including keywords – Ask yourself who do you help and what do you help them with?
Add photo of your face or logo if brand isn’t named after you. Unless your a big brand like Coca Cola, a photo works better! The bio is only a short description of who you are so make sure it is concise and to the point. If you have a lead magnet or free resource be sure to add the link in.
Set up your business account
Ensure you have set up your business account, rather than a personal account. A business account will give you added extras such as analytics and you will be able to verify your website in the settings.
Even if you aren’t a business I recommend setting up a business account as it gives you more functionality and uses than just a personal account. If you have a personal account it is easy to transfer to a business account.
Brand
You need to make sure everything you add to Pinterest is on brand. Even other people’s content that you share need to within your brand and of value to your audience.
When your audience visits your Pinterest or sees your pin in the feed it needs to instantly tell them it is yours! Make sure across any marketing platforms you use and your website (if you have one) is easily recognisable as you, so you start to build your visibility!
PinTip - Use Canva to easily make sure you are stay on brand!
Consistency!
Be consistent! Pinterest will reward you if you pin every day rather than a lot of pins on one day of the week. You will show up in the audiences searches as well as be on the feed. To keep your reach and engagement, you will see better results if consistently pinning.
Also be consistent with your brand, look and colour. You will attract your audience if your pins are clear, consistent and good quality. Try using the same typography to ensure you get that consistent feel.
Have some Fun!
Business is serious but I am all about living for the moment and keeping business simple!
Pinterest is fun! You are meant to be addicted like me! Don’t get too hung up on all the in’s and outs. Enjoy the process of seeing what works and what doesn’t, engage with others, find content you like and have fun!
Pins – What are they and how do they work?
There are several ways in which people can discover your content.
People can pin your content. A Pin is an image or video that people add to Pinterest. People add Pins directly from websites or apps using the Save button. Any Pin can be saved and all Pins link back to their sources, which is how you can get referral traffic. E.g. They could pin directly from Instagram or your website.
An average pin has about 1-3 months average life span but it will stay on Pinterest forever so it could in theory be used time and time again.
If you are ever stuck on content to create or words to use, use the Search Tool as this gives you an accurate representation of what people are searching.
They use feeds to discover Pins. People can follow all of someone’s boards or just the ones they like best. As they discover and follow more people and boards, their feed becomes more relevant and personal to their interests.
Make sure you use the Pin description to put a keyword description, explaining what the pin is about and how is can help them. You can also use hashtags in the description as some people search by hashtag. But hashtags aren’t as popular or valuable as say Instagram so don’t use too many.
Boards
Boards are the collections in which you keep your pins. For example you could have an interior design board, an inspiration quote board and so on. Start out with 10, you can always add more as the seasons change.
Boards are Pins organised by interest and can share their boards with others. The same Pin might be added to lots of different boards across lots of interests, making boards a great place to discover new ideas or inspiration.
Keywords
Keywords within Pinterest are the words you use to describe the pin, feature, item and your business. Like hashtags work on Instagram these keywords will start to build up a picture on Pinterest so that when someone searches for a word your content appears in the search results.
Just like you would search in Google, start to type any of your key word ideas in Pinterest and it will give you further ideas on what people are searching for.
On Pinterest the main way you can optimise your content is consistently using relevant keywords. People use google and Pinterest in the same way by searching for a term or word. You want to ensure that you come up in the search results when they are searching for a specific word.
3 ways to help optimise your content –
- Create beautiful, valuable and informative content
- Use words or phrases that are easily searched by your audience
- Make it easy to share it!
Video
You will hear a lot of platforms and bloggers talk about how video is now a best practice. And it is the same for Pinterest.
When you create a video for Pinterest it should be high resolution even if it’s a small video if the video is poor quality your audience won’t click on it. Most videos will play without sound so you need to be able to convey your message without sound. Use subtitles or text overlay for this.
Keep your video short and choose an attractive cover image. Like with all your pins you want your audience to click on it. Ensure you are using clear descriptions and titles to help your video be discovered.
Lastly make your video informative or actionable. The best rated videos are the ones where they show you how to do something or inspire you to try something new.
For information on Idea Pins head to this blog
So thats it....
Remember each small thing you do today will add up over time. The changes you make to your profile or pins will add up to become big effects in the long term. Stick with it and track any edits or changes you make as the results won’t be instant.
