Tips for Using Pinterest to Build Your Business

As a business owner, you’re always on the lookout for new and effective ways to build your business. For these methods to be effective in regards to the big picture, they can’t consume your time or your budget. Small-business owners can feel the pinch, in particular, when they come face-to-face with the need to market their business against the constraints of a tight or nonexistent marketing budget. Pinterest is an image-based social media venue that provides professionals and individuals the opportunity to share pictures and information with other Pinterest users around the world. When you use this venue wisely, it can become a valuable part of your business-growing plan.

Think Outside the Box
Most Pinterest users pin pictures and images, but you’re not limited to doing that. You can also pin Slideshare presentations to demonstrate your product or describe your service. Likewise, videos can be posted and played directly from Pinterest if you post them from YouTube. Don’t over-think this opportunity; if the chance to post a slideshow or video comes up, take it. If not, well-chosen images are equally effective. Think quality over quantity.

Get the Most for Your Time Investment
Each image you pin should come with a caption or description. You get 500 characters for your description, making it a lot easier to explain things as compared to Twitter’s 140-character limit. Increase the chance of having your pins picked up in search engine results by optimizing them for certain keyword searches. Likewise, include links and hash tags to direct followers to your site directly from Pinterest or through Twitter.

Build Your Brand with Boards
On Pinterest, you’ll create boards of similar pins. These boards are kind of like virtual bulletin boards, and you’d be wise to use them to help build your brand. If you run a plant nursery, create boards for the different plants you specialize in. Branch off with related boards, such as gardening tools, pest solutions and recipes for garden vegetables.

Streamlining and Tracking
There’s no need to spend hours pinning to market your business. 15 to 20 minutes, three or four times per week should be sufficient to keep followers interested. On days when it’s not possible to pin, use the free tool on Pingraphy.com to automatically schedule your pins. This tool can also help you track your pins so you know which ones are resulting in the most traffic.

Drive Traffic to Your Website
When users double-click on your images, the embedded link will lead them back to a website. Preferably, you want users to be led back to your business website or blog. Embed “Pin It!” pins on your blog or business website so you and others can pin your blog posts, product descriptions and other useful information.

Pinterest can serve as an effective part of your social media marketing plan, but it should only be one part. When it comes to marketing, it’s unwise to place all your eggs in one basket and expect to reach your full marketing potential. Choose two to three social media venues, and since Pinterest is image-based, you might want one of the others to be text-based, like Twitter. Continue to use these tips for using Pinterest to build your business as you work toward expanding your business and customer base.

Guest post by Lucy Harper from Touchpointdigital.co.uk, a full service internet marketing agency to help facilitate your digital marketing and communications goals.