How to Use Pinterest to Grow Your Business

Today we’re talking all things Pinterest. Before I jump into Pinterest let me say this:

Choose 2-3 Social Media Platforms you find your ideal audience on for your business and run with those platforms. The other social media platforms you need to have and be “social on” but that doesn’t mean those are the ones you spend your precious and valuable time on. Spend time where your ideal clients are! For me my top three are: Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram. This is where I put my time and energy and the other avenues I will drop in from time to time.

So today I’m hoping you are wanting to learn more about Pinterest and what it can do for YOU! Pinterest is close to leading in the ranks of being a top search engine site. Do you know what that means? Yes more SEO. I know but if you want to kill it over on Pinterest, you must be pinning and using your account wisely!

Pinterest Marketing Tips

Lets get started:

1- Set up a Business Account- This may sound simple, but it’s true. Put it under your business name so that way people will recognize you as a business not as a random person. Keep your bio short, simple and to the point. Yet use keywords i.e. as your location/what you do/services you offer. This will help in your SEO with pinterest which I am talking about towards the end of this article!

UPDATE: to date I have close to 16K followers!!!!!!!! I’m telling you this method works from a real live person doing this!- ME!

2- Verify Your Website- This step is super important. Simply go to settings and hit “verify website”. This means you’re legit!

3- Apply for Rich Pins– What is a Rich pin? It’s a pin that enables you to have more information on your pin itself. Enabling viewers to easily view the source of your pin —> which is YOUR site!

Apply HERE.

but…

There are several ways to verify your site for rich pins after you apply.

The easiest if you are a wordpress user:

a- Install the plug-in YOAST. This is an SEO plug in that’ll do all of the technical stuff for you! Simply install and activate this plug in. Then go to the social tab under settings. Check off the “add open graph meta data”. Now you’re good to go! Told you it was easy.

b- Go to Pinterest’s Validator for Rich Pins– enter a link to a post, it doesn’t matter what post and let them validate.

c- Now click apply. Then the work is left up to Pinterest! You’re done and on your way to RICH PINS! Yippee!

4- Create Boards- Ok this maybe a no-brainer, but you should strategically set up your boards, not just do it on the fly! Your very first board should be YOUR work from your website. If you are creating multiple boards with your work have those lined up first on your profile.

I then have additional boards that I keep in alphabetical order. I’m a little OCD…but I think it keeps things neat and in order and viewers will notice this.

UPDATE: Don’t waste your time getting boards in alphabetical order, most don’t go see your profile anyway!

When naming your boards- think SEO (I’m talking about that a bit more at the end of this post). Don’t label it e-session pictures. Does the average person know what an e-session is? NO! Name it what the average person would call it. Engagement Pictures or Rustic Engagement Picture Ideas.

To break down SEO more here is a great interview with Feuza of DIY SEO/GET FOUND on the BASICS of SEO.

Oh and I almost forgot this tip–

if you have created a board for “Senior Girl Poses” have the cover of that board (on your profile) using one of your pictures! Just a little tip!

How to Use Pinterest for Marketing

5- Pin to Your Boards- Yes pin.

You can’t create boards and let them become stale and never pin to them. Pinterest likes you to be actively engaged. If you have a board that has only 3 pins to it and you never pin on that board, chances are you should probably delete the board. It means it’s a topic you aren’t engaging with.

Pin others work.

Go to their website and pin from their website, pin from your website, but pin from others as well. Which brings me to a HUGE issue…PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR WEBSITE HAS A “PIN IT” BUTTON!!!!!!!!

This tells your viewers what to do and reminds them, otherwise they won’t pin from your website. When someone pins from directly from your website pinterest loves that!!!!

You can also use Tailwind – which I use as well! This is great for scheduling pins to be pinned throughout the day when you can’t literally sit their and live pin. This is a HUGE time saver and energy saver – worth every penny for me.

6- Follow Others- Find others on pinterest that inspire you and follow them. Find clients, family members, fellow photographers, business owners, graphic designers, website developers, businesses etc. Follow those who inspire you and you want to connect with.

From time to time I’ll go to someone I’m following, whom I really like, and see who is following them or who they are following. You can connect with a lot of others that way and it’s really neat to see your pinterest feed come alive with new fresh pins/work.

7- Spend time being Social- Spend time being social. I try to spend 10 minutes 3-4 times a day pinning on pinterest. I try to only pin great pins. Pins with great content, great picture/image and the source of the pin is good. I steer away from pins that aren’t eye-appealing.

By me doing all of the above last month I averaged close to 1000 new followers on my pinterest account. I’m not joking. This pinterest is no joke. I have some pins with over 10K re-pins. How awesome is that? Talk about drive traffic to your website!!!

Pinterest for Business Tips

Now how can this help your business and help it to grow?

Remember Pinterest is one of the largest search engines out there now…many people go to pinterest before google now. No lie. Ask. I’ve taken a survey before and it’s true!

When pinning your work think SEO. Use keywords in your description of the pin, don’t use hashtags and don’t be spammy with your keywords!

Be legit.

If you are pinning a picture from an engagement session, don’t say e-session. Someone that isn’t a photographer doesn’t know that “lingo” and will not search for that. Think of what they will search. Most likely it will be “engagement pictures or engagement session”.

Use words/phrases that the everyday person is searching. It’s hard to think like that but you have to… to be successful! Include the type of session, the venue/location.

When I worked with an SEO expert she told me that if your pinterest business page pulls up in the google searches and you are on page one of google with pinterest that’s AWESOME! It doesn’t have to be your website that high but if your pinterest is that high that’s AWESOME!

To break down SEO more here is a great interview with Feuza of DIY SEO/GET FOUND on the BASICS of SEO.

Create Photography Session Boards. Create a board for a specific shoot where you can make it private and share with that client.

Help them gain inspiration or the vision you are creating for their session. This makes them feel special and shows them you’ve spent time thinking and planning their session.

If you are hosting mini sessions create a board where those mini session clients can go to and see ideas for outfits, tips on what to wear, tips on prepping for the mini session or the vision you have in location or set up. Creating client boards can be a HUGE asset to any session. Think of seniors…you both can pin to this board to create a vision for clothing/location/looks.

Be careful that they don’t pin a bunch of props and poses they want. Remind them, as you set this board up and share with them, that this is for inspiration, not to copy someone else. You are trying to make this session as unique to this client as possible, not pinning to see how many poses we can re-create from someone else!

Lastly.

Use it as a tool. Use it as a tool in your business to help others. If you can keep in mind to help others your business will grow no matter what!

TIP: As Social Media Examiner says heed your pin dimensions and this changes from time to time as to what dimensions are working the BEST!

PS a few extra things that Pinterest loves for you to do.

-pin popular pins

-pin related pins

-pin organically from a website

Be sure to hop over to Erin Blackwell with the Business of Beauty for tomorrow’s post on using Facebook. I’m excited to read this article myself!

Wanting to stretch your photography skills and techniques? This e-course is for you if you’re up for the challenge. Forget the 365 embrace this 30 day course and revitalize your creativity while learning new techniques, not just aimlessly shooting!

Have questions or need help? Reach out to me at any time: erin@sixthbloom.com

Hi I’m Erin a Southern girl from South Mississippi, owner and chief editor of Sixth Bloom a blog helping mom-tographers as well as up and coming photographers become successful! You will find me living life to the fullest with my mister (aka husband) and our new little addition Miss Elle in our 500+ sq foot cottage as we build our dream house on our two acres! We are blessed beyond measure, love to travel, involved in ministry at our church and in between all of that I run three successful businesses!