Just Pin It!

Just Pin It!

Pinterest. Some people may not even know what that is, and some may think that it is a website full of teen girls obsessing over hair, nails, and makeup. Interestingly enough, you would be wrong. According to a study done by Mashable, 50% of Pinterest users have children. Now, most business would never think of Pinterest being beneficial to them, but they are wrong. When it comes to social media networks that have SEO value, Pinterest is one of the best. Pinterest may not be the first thing that people go to when thinking of marketing for their business, but soon enough, it will be and when that happens, businesses need to know about the Do’s and Don’ts of Pinterest.

Don’ts:

1. Limit the amount of boards you have on your Pinterest. Let me tell you a story. When I was given the task to pin onto Harness TechED’s Pinterest page, I was horrified. I didn’t show it, but I was. When I took over, we had 73 boards on our Pinterest page and I was scared. I never knew what to pin to, people didn’t know what Harness TechED was really about. We had food boards, Cub baseball boards (Ew!), and we had multiple boards about the same things. So, I went in and I cleaned. We now have 22 boards and it’s great. I know what to pin, and I know how to pin. When people look at our Pinterest, they know exactly what Harness TechED is about. The analytics on our page has gone up a ton since I cleaned it out, and we are driving more traffic back to our website, which is what Pinterest is really about.

2. Don’t forget about it. Pinterest it like Twitter. You can never over Pin, just like you can never over Tweet. There are 20 million pins and repins sent out on Pinterest every day, so it doesn’t matter how often you pin, your pins will never be “spamming” your followers feeds because of the amount of new content shared every minute.

3. Don’t be afraid to take risks. Pinterest is something that you shouldn’t be afraid to use. You can post things that you wouldn’t normally post onto Facebook or Google+. It’s more current, it’s younger, and it’s different. Pinterest is something that you want to dive head first into and not tip-toe into. The demographic is so large that you can post a wide range of things, and you will get results.

Do’s:

1. Create the right boards. For example, if you are a business that focuses on social media marketing, like Harness TechED, you do not need to create a board about food. Yes, food is a very popular board on Pinterest, but it doesn’t give people the right idea about what your business is about.

2. Be creative. Being creative doesn’t necessarily mean creating your own content when it comes to Pinterest. Pinterest is based on Pins, which are searchable based on keywords and hashtags. So, you can search a keyword that is relevant to what you are wanting to pin, and you can then repin it with a description of your own. Don’t use the already made description. Create your own, but make sure to tie it back into your own business.

3. Have fun. Pinterest is a tool that can be used in many ways. It can be used to look up the latest “Prom-do,” or it can be used to search for businesses or services. When pinning for your business, make sure to make the content interesting not only to others, but to yourself. Pinning is one of my favorite parts of my job, and you can make it one of your favorites, too.

Now that you’ve learned about Pinterest and all that it can do for you…What’re you waiting for? Make an account and start pinning! #TurnTheLightBulbOn

By: Harley Crawshaw | @harley_crawshaw

About Tom Harness

Tom Harness is the owner of Harness Digital Marketing, a digital marketing firm that works with businesses and organizations on Social Media, SEO, and Email Marketing. He is an entrepreneur and business owner with 20 years of combined experience in Education, IT, and Business. Tom is a U.S. Army Veteran and a Southern Illinois University alum. He also enjoys craft beers, his beloved Chicago Cubs, and his family.

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