Pinterest is a social media platform like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
It is a place where you end up finding ideas for your interests.
A pin denotes each idea, and a pin can be an image, GIF, or a short video.
The collections of pins form a pinboard.
In simple terms, Pinterest is a photo album in which you collect your favorite images.
You can combine all the images related to one theme and from one board.
It is possible to have many boards related to different-different themes.
Introduction:
Pinterest was started in 2009 by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp.
Pinterest Inc. operates it out of its office in San Francisco, California, USA.
The company has made changes so that Pinterest is more of a place for visual search and e-commerce.
Some describe Pinterest as a “visual search engine.”
How to start using Pinterest:
There are two options to open an account on Pinterest: An individual account or a business account.
If you are opening the account for the first time, you can sign up through Facebook or Twitter accounts. There is an option of opening the store with your email id also.
If you want to reach out to more potential customers for your products or services through Pinterest, you need to opt for a business account.
You can start with a business account, and if you already have a personal account, you can convert it to a business account. You don’t need to open another account. You need to click on the three dots symbol on the screen’s right-hand corner and opt for up-gradation.
When you have a business account, you must fill in all the details in your profile.
It would help if you chose your areas of interest to follow the related accounts, pins, boards, and Pinterest topics.
You need to click on the “following” icon to keep yourself updated on new posts of the accounts chosen.
If you have a business account, you can access analytics to give you all the details of impressions/clicks.
Important terms:
There are few important terms which one needs to know to understand and access Pinterest for maximum benefits.
Feeds:
There are three feeds in Pinterest-home, following and explore
Home feed: shows what posts you have created or what posts you like.
The following feed: you click on the “following” button to follow what interests you-posts, pins, boards, etc.
Explore feed: shows the trending topics.
Boards:
Board is a collection of pins saved by you.
You can divide all pins into a different category, and accordingly, you can make various boards.
You can create a new board by just clicking on the boards in the menu.
Once you have a board, you can click on the edit board to add new pins.
Creating a beautiful Pinterest board cover is of great help in attracting more people.
If you put regular quality pins on your board, it will help immensely in building your community.
Pins:
Pins are the high-quality images that form the base of Pinterest.
One can link all the pins to an online store, website, or blog. It is up to you if you want to link it or not. It is always advisable to connect if you are on Pinterest for your business.
You can choose the pin from the same platform or the browser or upload it from your computer and then put it on whichever board you want to put in.
We need to choose only a portrait image for the pin as it will be easy to scroll and navigate by mobile users. We must not forget that the majority of people access Pinterest using the mobile app only.
Do write a description, called caption of approx. 160 to 200 characters for each image you upload.
If you can create one long image having multiple images, it will have more impact.
Different types of pins:
Rich pins: add extra details to pins.
Article pins: highlights the headline, author with the story description under the pin image.
App pins: shown install button that users can use to install your app.
Recipe pins: it shows the cooking time, ingredients, serving method all in one post.
Product pins: have the product’s real-time pricing and information about availability and the place where one can buy.
Promoted pins: can be used as the ad to help you promote the product or services to the right audience.
Importance:
Pinterest is all about visuals having ideas that inspire people.
Some describe Pinterest as a “visual search engine.”
You can search by putting a keyword just like you do in google search. The only difference is that you don’t need to switch to another page; you can keep scrolling down till you finish all the relevant pins.
Suggested keywords/ topics also help you in your search.
It is a search engine for images.
If your post is of high-quality visuals, it will more likely be shared more by people.
There is an impression that Pinterest is all about women-related topics like cooking, recipes, food, clothing, home décor, gardening, dresses, etc. 80 percent of the users are indeed female. But there are still many topics concerning men also.
Education content is quite popular among all sections of society.
You can educate people about your product or services through visuals. This way is much more useful than long blog posts full of details.
One can have numerous benefits in using Pinterest, like getting new leads, increasing sales, enhancing blog traffic, raising awareness about your product or services, etc.
If you create and share useful content, more people are likely to become your followers.
And one criterion for good content in Pinterest is producing good quality visuals.
First of all, see what is trending right now and then position your products or services.
Conclusion:
There is no doubt that the Pinterest platform is of great use for business. Its vast potential remains still untapped. There is a huge opportunity to increase brand consciousness and increase sales.
Are you among the one who is using pinterest now, please tell about your experience?
Or are you the one who has still not tapped the potential of pinterest, so when do you plan to start using this social media platform.
Please share your valuable comments, and if you like, please forward them to others.