How to Use Pinterest for

Business

Julia Campbell

Social Media Specialist

J Campbell Social Marketing

Today You Will Learn

• Top 3 reasons why your business needs to be

on Pinterest now

• Why you need a Pinterest Business Account vs.

a Personal Account

• 5 ideas for great, shareable pins

• How to get started, get found and get followers

on Pinterest

• BONUS: A list of 102 Things to Pin on Pinterest

Julia Campbell has a long history of helping nonprofits and businesses find success online. After 10 years in the nonprofit sector as a development director and marketing coordinator, she founded J Campbell Social Marketing, a boutique digital marketing agency based in Beverly, MA.

Julia received her degree in Journalism & Communications from Boston University and earned a Master in Public Administration from Old Dominion University as well as a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Tidewater Community College.

A Beverly native, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, a mom of 1 and a social media marketing specialist, Julia helps businesses and nonprofits connect with constituents and customers by effectively harnessing the power and potential of online marketing and social media tools.

Julia’s clients include small community-based nonprofits and large universities. She also offers one-on-one coaching sessions, group seminars and college courses. Her blog was named one of the Top 150 Nonprofit Blogs in the world: www.jcsocialmarketing.com

Julia has been featured on MarketWatch, Alltop, Salon, Social Media Today, Forbes and Business 2 Community.

About Me

What Is Pinterest?

• “Pinterest is a tool for collecting and organizing things you love.”

• People use it to make wish lists, plan trips, organize events, start collections, interior decorating, plan projects

Top 3 Reasons Why Your Business Needs

to be Interested in Pinterest

1) Pinterest is growing leaps and bounds.

– Pinterest has almost caught up with Twitter in terms of adult U.S. Internet users (15% compared to Twitter’s 16%).

– Pinterest has >25 million monthly unique visitors.

– Nothing to sneeze at when you want more customers!

All statistics taken from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (PewInternet.org)

Top 3 Reasons Why Your Business Needs

to be Interested in Pinterest

2) Pinterest is where women are, and

women make purchase decisions.

– As a general trend, women make up more of

the population on most social net working

sites – but they make up 82% of active users

on Pinterest.

– Desirable demographic of women 35-44 years

old.

Top 3 Reasons Why Your Business Needs

to be Interested in Pinterest

3) Pinterest has a totally different culture

than the other social networking sites.

– Pinterest is aspirational, not of-the-moment.

– It is also transactional, not relational like

Facebook, Twitter.

Top 3 Reasons Why Your Business Needs

to be Interested in Pinterest

– What we pin reflects what we covet, what

moves us, what we desire, who we want to

be.

– Pinterest works more like a Vision

Board, rather than an off-the-cuff, in-the-

moment statement of what we are eating or

where we are hanging out.

BONUS REASON!

Pinterest posts (pins) last much longer!

– Pinterest pins have a shelf life of over one week!

– A tweet is 5-25 minutes; 80 minutes for a Facebook post.

– People pin photos on Pinterest to share with friends, to collect and to save for later.

– You can’t easily “save” Facebook posts or tweets. In this way, Pinterest is unlike every other social network.

Getting Started

• Pinterest Business

Pages vs. Personal

Profiles

– New Pinterest TOS asks

you to have a Business

Page, if you are using it

for work or promoting any

type of commercial

activity.

Getting Started

• Pinterest Business Pages vs. Personal

Profiles

– You can convert your existing Personal Profile

to a Business Page.

– Must convert entire Profile; can’t do individual

boards.

– You can create a new account at

business.pinterest.com

Getting Started

• Main benefits of Business Pages

– Account verification –check box in the bio!

– You can sell stuff .

– You can hold

contests.

– Insights!

– Promoted Pins

(coming soon)

Getting Started

• Add Pin It bookmarklet to your browser

(Google Chrome, Mozilla) for easy pinning

from the web.

• Add “Pin It” buttons to each page of

your website and to each blog post

(they should all have images, right?)

– http://about.pinterest.com/goodies/

Getting Started

• Add a “Pin It” button to every single

product if you have an online store.

Get Found On Pinterest

• Strategically fill out the About Us section.

– Use keywords, think of how people would search for you and your products.

– Verify your website.

– Link to Facebook (profile), Twitter. Go to Settings, Social Networks.

Get Followers On Pinterest

• Pin interesting, visually

compelling stuff!

• Follow others.

• Repin, Comment, Like – engage.

• Share select pins on Twitter and

Facebook.

– Remember that you can only share pins on a

Personal Facebook profile.

Get Followers On Pinterest

• Go to: www.woobox.com/pinterest to get a

free Pinterest tab for your Facebook Page!

What Should I Pin?

• 80% of people on Pinterest are just re-

pinning with no strategy!

• What is your goal?

• Drive traffic to the website?

• Email sign ups?

• Sales?

• Determine your goal.

What Should I Pin?

• To get results for your business, you must focus on original content that links back to your website.

• To get ROI you must pin images that:

– Link back to your website or blog

– Link to your email opt-in page

– Link to your product page

– Link to your YouTube or Vimeo channel (videos are effective pins!)

What Should I Pin?

• A list of 102 Things

to Pin on Pinterest

is at:

– http://jcsocialmarketi

ng.com/2012/08/102-

things-to-pin-on-

pinterest/

What Should I Pin?

ROI IS IMPORTANT BUT… don’t just pin your own stuff!

– It’s an interactive community.

– Share and repin.

– Good combination of original content and repinning or pinning content from others’ websites and blogs.

What Should I Pin?

– No silver bullet.

– No one size fits

all, perfect formula.

– It depends on your

capacity, your

knowledge, your

interest and your

time.

Ideas for Great Pins

1) Videos from YouTube/Vimeo– How-To use your product

– Testimonials & Success Stories

– Fun videos

– Behind-the-scenes

– Training videos

– Keep them short (15-20 seconds)

– Everyone can be a videographer with a smartphone!

Ideas for Great Pins

2) Images with text overlay

– Use your images and inlay text over them.

– Make sure they link directly to your blog posts or website!!

– PicMonkey(www.pickmonkey.c0m) to easily edit photos.

– Quozio (www.quozio.com) to make quotes or text to go with a blog post.

Ideas for Great Pins

3) Infographics

• Take valuable info and make it visual!

• A great way to d build yourself as an

expert who shares great resources.

• Use Infogr.am (www.infogr.am)

• Re-pin others’ infographics – can search

“Pinterest infographic”, “diy craft

infographic”, “clothing infographic” #pinning4good @pinning4good

Ideas for Great Pins

#pinning4good @pinning4good

• Great resources for business infographics:

– http://www.pinterest.com/infographics4u/busin

ess-infographics/

– http://www.pinterest.com/infographiclist/infogr

aphics-business-/

– http://www.pinterest.com/alyssagregory/small-

business-infographics/

Ideas for Great Pins

4) Your product catalog!

– Add “$7.99” etc. in the caption of your pin.

– Pinterest has a gift section on their home

page and in order to be selected to you need

to add a price.

– Pins with prices get 36% MORE likes!

Ideas for Great Pins

5) DIY and How To Pins,

Tutorials

Ideas for Great Pins

Successful Pins…

• Are visually compelling.

• Are of interest to your

online community.

• Have clever captions.

• Use hashtags #diy

#Halloween

• Use keywords and links

(they get hyperlinked).

#pinning4good @pinning4good

Successful Pins…

• Are vertical.

• Are colorful.

• Are eye-catching.

• Have words on them.

• Lead back to the blog

or website for more

info.

#pinning4good @pinning4good

Successful Pinners…

– Research what people are

already pinning and go from

there – find the community.

– Clearly identify goals:

• Drive traffic to the website.

• Increase brand affinity.

• Grow online community.

• Drive sales of a specific

product.

Successful Pinners…

– Plan boards strategically.

– Launch boards internally (with staff, VIPs, clients) then externally.

– Draw on existing online cheerleaders to spread the word!

– Have fun.

Pinterest Tools

GROUP BOARDS

• Great for getting in front of new people

• Showcasing your customers

• Companies you work with

• Promotion – running a contest, acknowledging best customers, online ambassadors

• Event committees

• Volunteering

• Another way to help establish authority

Pinterest Tools

SECRET BOARDS

• Use as an inter-office collaboration tool

• Social media content development board

• Event planning board (private)

• Cultivate ideas that you do not want people to see just yet

• Ideas for future presentations

• Ideas for blog posts

Pinterest Resources

• Analytics and Scheduling – check out:

– Pinster – www.pinster.me

– Reachli (formerly Pinerly) – www.reachli.com

– Pingraphy – www.pingraphy.com

• Find out who’s pinning your stuff!

– www.pinterest.com/YOURURLHERE.com

– www.pinterest.com/source/jcsocialmarketi

ng.com

#pinning4good @pinning4good

Pinterest Resources

• Cynthia Sanchez:

http://www.pinterest.com/CynthiaPins/

• Peg Fitzpatrick:

http://www.pinterest.com/pegfitzpatrick/

• 30 Pinners to Follow, 2013 Edition (TIME)

http://techland.time.com/2013/09/04/30-

pinners-to-follow-2013/

Move The Needle

Move The Needle

Go to http://about.pinterest.com/goodies/

Homework Activity

Move The Needle

Go to http://about.pinterest.com/goodies/

Homework Activity

Top 3 reasons why your business needs to be on

Pinterest now

Why you need a Pinterest Business Account vs. a

Personal Account

5 ideas for great, shareable pins

How to get started, get found and get followers on

Pinterest

BONUS: A list of 102 Things to Pin on Pinterest

Key Takeaways

www.onlinemarketinginstitute.org

Thank You!

Learn more at