Are you using Pinterest to promote your business and want to get more results? Maybe you’ve heard how Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Facebook and Twitter combined, but you’ve yet to see similar results for your business. If so, this blog post is for you. We have identified three major ways — text, visuals and interaction — that you can optimize your Pinterest business account to get the best results possible.
Optimize Your Text
Yes, Pinterest is primarily a beautiful, visual network, but users still search with words. If you neglect the text of your profile, you’re making your profile, boards and pins hard to find by the very followers you want to attract. Follow these 4 steps to optimize the text and descriptions of your Pinterest account:
- Optimize the About Section of Your Account: Tell users who you are and what you’ll be pinning, using appropriate keywords in your description. Make sure to include your website and links to other social networks. These links show up as icons directly below the description.
- Add Descriptions to Your Boards: Some users neglect to take the extra step to add descriptions to their boards. Don’t make this mistake! Adding a description helps people understand what it is you’ll be pinning and helps searchers find your boards.
- Categorize Your Boards: Set up a category for each board, since people will often search Pinterest pins by category only. Each board can only have one category, so select wisely.
- Add Descriptions to Pins: Always include a description with each pin, so that interested users can find the image. Use the appropriate keywords, but do not keyword stuff! No one wants to repin something that looks like spam.
Optimize Your Visuals
- Arrange Your Boards: You can rearrange your boards in any order, and we suggest putting your best and most complete boards in the top row of your account. Most users won’t scroll down to see all your boards to decide whether or not to follow you, so you should be showcasing your best, most appealing boards in the top row.
- Don’t Neglect Your Board’s Cover Image: Pinterest is all about visual attraction, so take care when selecting your board’s cover photo. By default, your board’s cover image will be the most recently pinned image but don’t count on this to be the best choice. The cover image is a cropped version of your photo, and it may not showcase the image most effectively. Take the time to pick and position an image that best represents your board.
Interact With Others
- Find and Follow Users: In order to find interesting images and ideas, start following users whose boards and pins you like. Use the search function in the upper left hand corner to locate these users. Often, those you follow will find your boards interesting and follow you right back!
- Repin Others’ Content: Once you’ve followed relevant users, you’ll find lots of great images in your feed. Repin relevant images to your boards. Repinning is like retweeting on Twitter — it lets people know you like what they’ve shared, and it allows you to share their content with your audience.
- Tag Users: You can tag other Pinterest users in your pins by using ‘@username’. This gets people’s attention and can start a conversation in the comment section of your pin.
- Comment on Pins: Start conversations! If you comment on others’ pins, you can engage users directly and draw attention to your own profile.
- Add Contributors to Your Boards: You can invite other users to pin directly onto a Community Board. Consider inviting staff, clients or industry experts. These boards can become some of your most dynamic boards since many are involved in generating new pins.
- Find Pins from Your Site: You can find who has pinned images from your website by searching: http://pinterest.com/source/yoursitehere. Consider ‘Liking’ those pins, following the users or commenting directly on the pin.
This blog post has given you three ways — text, visuals and interaction — to optimize your Pinterest marketing. Take advantage of the potential of Pinterest and incorporate it into your social media marketing today!
Please provide any thoughts or ideas in the comments section below. If you liked this post, please subscribe to our e-mail newsletter!
Related Resources:
About Mary Chevalier
Mary is Co-Founder of SalesBlend and works closely with clients to help achieve measurable business results. She is a certified Google Analytics professional. Follow Mary on Twitter or on Google+.