Pinterest for business – is it for your small business?

Have you heard about the latest social media craze called Pinterest?   If so, do you

time to use pinterest for business -

think it is time for pinterest for business? If you haven’t seen or heard about it yet, it’s about ‘pining’ pictures or graphics to boards, like a cork board, only on a platform that anybody can view.  Used by many as a way of sharing information such as recipes, kids pictures, hobbies etc now the business aspect is starting to have an affect. So much so that some  are website owners are recording record numbers of traffic from clicks on ‘pins’, as along with the picture and description, the website address of the pictures source is added as well. Get the picture?

Pinterest for business

Jason Fox in his article asks ‘Time to use pinterest for business?’ has this to say:

“The goal here is to gain brand recognition, drive traffic to your website and be successful at converting the new visits into leads.”

You are going to do this with the use of Images.  You need to put images that relate to your business on Pinterest and it is through this visual cue that your clients can become interested in your product or service and coming looking for more information.  This can be real easy if you are a Florist or Clothing Manufacturer, but maybe a bit more difficult if you sell Accounting.

 

Along with some useful tips you can also download the ebook  ‘How To Use Pinterest For Business’  so click here to read more, and don’t forget to read the comments for a neat solution on images to use for a pool cleaning business.

Pinterest tips and tricks

I came across this excellent article on Mashable, Pinterest: 13 Tips and Tricks for Cutting Edge Users. Here’s one idea

Add a “$” or a “£” to the Pin description and Pinterest will automatically add a price banner to the photo. The Pin will then appear in the Gifts category. Within the Pin, remember to link to the website where fans can purchase. Just remember to remove the Pin once you’ve sold out!

 

Graphic designers insights

As Pinterest is so visual, it’s important to get a graphic designers eye so check out this post  Q&A with Seattle Graphic Designer Chad Syme, Pinterest Superstar by Seth Kolloen.

Aesthetics are very important when choosing to pin an image. I’ve even gone searching for better images of things I want to re-pin from other users. With regard to the overall aesthetics of any image I would say I look for images that are large, well-composed and well-lit. For some of my board I have more specific aesthetic criteria for the images. For Package Design I like packaging that’s been photographed on a white background; for Food and Drink I like the images to be well composed, with good lighting, color and contrast; I prefer Fashion Design images to be of the whole outfit, preferably on the runway or in a studio setting with little to no cropping. I like the subject of any image I pin to fill a greater portion of the image area with minimal empty space. When I or someone else is scrolling through one of my boards I want it to be a visually pleasing experience. Every image in a board of mine needs to feel like a piece of a cohesive thought. If I pin a crappy image, even if that image is of something cool, when it’s mixed in with a bunch of great images it breaks the experience I want to have

Boards in action 

Click here to see  a friend of mine’s great boards in action. Louise is a graphic designer so her boards have a cool look and show a great cross section of pins from design to business.

To get pinterest working for your business it’s all about uploading great images and connecting with people.  The upside is greater awareness of your brand and more traffic to your website. Pinterest for business is now becoming mainstream, be an early adopter and reap the benefits. And if possible add a ‘pin’ icon along with facebook and twitter so that others can pin your pictures to their boards to increase the love.

WARNING: as with all images be careful of copyright issues.

oh, and here’s my pinterest site http://pinterest.com/amandahoughton/   🙂