10 Pinterest Tips for Small Business Pinners

Table of Contents

Are you ready to play even bigger on Pinterest?

Are you looking for great tips and strategies to maximize your efforts and your business through Pinterest?

If yes, then you are in the right place.  So how can a small business owner, realtor, mompreneur or expert capitalize the most on this new marketing tool? Here you will find my top 10 tips for using Pinterest to promote with pictures.

1. Install the “Pin it” bookmark to your browser

Without the “pin it” bookmark, pinning something from your site, or any site, can be downright time-consuming.

Fortunately, adding the “pin it” bookmark to your bookmark bar is easy to do. And, it makes pinning fun.  When you pin a webpage, using the pin-it bookmark, it will show you all of the pictures associated with that page.  Then, you can choose the picture you'd most like to pin.

To install the pin-it bookmark, visit: https://about.pinterest.com/en/browser-button

Pinterest tips for small businesses - Adding the Pin It button to your Bookmarks Bar
Adding the Pin It button to your Bookmarks Bar is one Pinterest tip for small business pinners that makes pinning easier.

 

2. Use keywords, hashtags and @replys

Like Twitter, people on Pinterest can search for items based on keyword phrases or hashtags.  Also, Pinterest users will be notified when someone as @replyed to a pin. Thus, it is important to include keyword phrases and hashtags in your pin descriptions. This helps to ensure that your pin will show up in any related searches.

Just remember, as with Twitter, using too many hashtags at the end of a description can be overkill and make your description hard to read.

@replys are also a great thing to use in the comments section of a pin.  Let others know exactly why you liked their pin and how it has influenced you.

3.  Ask fans to pin themselves in pictures with your product

This is a great way to build engagement with your fans and to learn which products are their favorites!

You can also take this a step further and turn it into a contest.  For example, the most unique location, or the funniest pose, will win a coupon towards their next purchase or their favorite product.

If you decide to go the contest route, then another great way to pick a winner is by the number of re-pins or comments.  This is a great way to get their friends involved, and it results in more notice for your products.

Likewise, tell your fans to @mention you when they post their picture.  Then, you can add their picture to a VIP board on your page.

4.  Find out if your website has been pinned

This is a great way to learn and track the articles, posts, pages, and pictures people most enjoy from your website.

To find out which pictures have been pinned from your website, simply type in the following url: http://pinterest.com/source/ADD YOUR URL HERE

5. Keep it social

We all enjoy pinning our own stuff or the items we come across in everyday life, however, it is important to remember that Pinterest is a social media platform.  Its main intention is to allow you to connect, comment and share.  Thus, keep it social and take time to comment on other people's pins, and to repin or like what others have posted.

On a similar note, if you haven't already, be sure to check out the Pinterest etiquette page at: http://pinterest.com/about/etiquette/.  These are guidelines that Pinterest has put together on how to maintain the positive, supportive nature of this new platform.

6.  Pin directly onto your blog – cross network

Another great feature of Pinterest is that you can pin a post directly to your blog.  If you like something you found on Pinterest, then you can include the picture in your next blog post.  Or, you can create an entire blog post around that image.

To add the image to your blog post, choose the “Embed” button to the right of the picture. Then, copy the code that appears.  If you want to change the size of the image, you can do that too. See pictures below for details.

How to add a pin to your blog post using the Embed option
How to add a pin a post to your blog using the Embed option
How to add a pin to your blog post using the Embed option
You can copy the code and change the image size when using the Embed option to pin to your blog.

7. Team Collaboration

If you are working with a team of people on a project, Pinterest is a great medium to share ideas. You can create a project topic Pinterest board and add your team members as collaborators.  Then, when anyone gets an idea or wants to share a related article, they can pin it.

Note: It is important to keep publicity in mind when using Pinterest as a way to share ideas.  All Pinterest boards are public, which means that anyone will be able to see what you and your teammates pin.  However, this can be a good thing, if you want to build public interest and hype, as you and your teammates brainstorm a new product.

8. Videos

Pinterest is not just for images! You can also pin videos.  For a quick how-to tutorial, visit: http://blog.pinterest.com/post/8670310296/video-pins
This is a great feature if you want to pin a “Did you know”  video, a “Do it yourself” tutorial, a “how to” lesson, or if you just want to post a funny moment!

9.  Test different captions

If you are NOT already using the captions feature on Pinterest, now is definitely time to start.  As mentioned in Tip #2 you can use it to include keyword phrases and hashtags.

Once you start using captions, it is time to have some fun and play! Keep track of your captions and test their effectiveness. Do certain types of captions cause more people to leave comments? Do others cause more repins?  This is a great way to start monitoring the effectiveness of your pins.

10. Use Google images to find the original source of a picture

Many of us have hundreds of images stored on our computers.  But, now that we can have fun sharing our pictures via Pinterest, it's hard to remember where we found them.

As a part of Pinterest etiquette, it is imperative that we only post pictures for which we can give proper credit. One way to quickly find the original source of a picture is to use Google images.

On Google images you can upload your picture and search for its origins.  It is amazing how well Google can read an image.  Not only can it tell what the image is of, but who designed it.

How to use Google images

How to use Google images to find an image's source

If you would like even more details on Pinterest, check out my book The Quick and Easy Guide To Branding Your Business and Creating Massive Sales With Pinterest.

Book - How To Get Started With Pinterest - helpful Pinterest tips for small business pinners

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Michael McDonald
Michael McDonald
11 years ago

Awesome tips for Pinterest as well as the social ettiquette. I definitely need to use all of those.

Jennifer Bennett
Jennifer Bennett
11 years ago

LOVE this post Kim as it is so easy to follow and understand!  I'm getting better and better with Pinterest every day!  Great tips! 

Kim Hawkins
Kim Hawkins
11 years ago

Great suggestion on having fans pin themselves in pics with products they love. As always, great #TIPS

lori
lori
11 years ago

Great information! I like the idea of using video. Something to add to my to do list. Thanks!

Joyce
Joyce
11 years ago

Still not sure how to strategically use Pinterest in my business but loved your tips.  🙂

Brad
Brad
11 years ago

I think pinterest is going to get pretty huge and it is important to try and get established as a business before other people take it over.

Patti Stanley
Patti Stanley
11 years ago

So enjoying your easy speaking and interesting way you present the social media topic.

admin
admin
Reply to  Patti Stanley
11 years ago

Music to my ears Patti 😉 Thanks for dropping by!

admin
admin
11 years ago

Thanks for dropping in!

Tony
Tony
11 years ago

Brilliant tips, thanks very much

Kim Garst
Kim Garst
11 years ago

Love hearing this Sourbabh!

Kim Garst
Kim Garst
11 years ago

Awesome Matt ;-)…can’t wait to see!

Kim Garst
Kim Garst
11 years ago

Glad it was helpful!

Brandy Anderson
Brandy Anderson
11 years ago

I am really excited about your 10th point on how to find the original source of an image! A while back I collected a group of images that I wanted to post on AppIt Ventures' social pages, but I failed to note the sources, so I've been reluctant to use any of them without attributing the origin. Problem solved!

Kim Garst
Kim Garst
Reply to  Brandy Anderson
11 years ago

Glad to see the info was helpful, Brandy!

Davis
Davis
10 years ago

Great insights. This article has terrific tips. Implementing this will definitely get you found. Pinterest has become a big social media tool to promote business.

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