We’d like to thank everyone who took part, who asked questions, who replied to queries and who shared their knowledge.

1. How Do I Build My Pinterest Profile/Presence/Followers

A1 I would also say have a clear idea before you start pinning what marketing goals you want to achieve with #Pinterest #blogchatie

— Marie Ennis-O’Connor (@JBBC) February 28, 2013

Look at what’s popular in your industry,Quotes v popular-if you’re in tourism,are travel quotes popular? yes! A1 #blogchatie

— Lorna Sixsmith (@WriteOnTrack_L) February 28, 2013

 

A1 identify pinning goals/objectives, who will you reach, and know how u are already being Pinned#Blogchatie

— Kelly Lieberman (@Tribe2point0) February 28, 2013

 

@katzwizkaz Good tip A1 – pin little and often, don’t pin so much in half an hour that you almost spam your followers #blogchatie — Lorna Sixsmith (@WriteOnTrack_L) February 28, 2013

The main tips provided for growing your Pinterest presence included:

• Pinning Little and Often
• Using tools to aid your pinning
• Find what is popular  and appreciated by your target market (e.g. quotes)
• Pin images that are beautiful
• Pin blog posts and articles that are useful to others
• Infographics and instructographics are highly pinnable and repinnable
• Some infographics are becoming too long so be conscious of that – people lose interest if they go on ‘forever’
• Partaking in shared boards (discussed more later on – see below)
• Ensure the image is named appropriately on your website or your blog post – so the appropriate description comes up when someone else pins it.

 2. What Pinterest Tools Should I Avail Of? How Should I Use Them?

@writeontrack_l yes – PinGraphy is very helpful and @pinsterme – offers this as well#Blogchatie — Kelly Lieberman (@Tribe2point0) February 28, 2013

A2 Plugin ‘Pin It Button For Images’. I reviewed it on my blog: spiderworking.com/blog/2013/02/1… I love it! #blogchatie

— Amanda Webb (@Spiderworking) February 28, 2013

Pinalerts is a handy way of getting email alerts re people pinning your website – can get it as it happens, daily, weekly #blogchatie

— Lorna Sixsmith (@WriteOnTrack_L) February 28, 2013

3. How Can Shared Boards Help My Business Profile?

@writeontrack_l A3: Shared/collaborative boards are great but they only make sense if there’s a mutual interest in the subject. #blogchatie

— Aida of Nubia (@AidaofNubia) February 28, 2013

@writeontrack_l: @spiderworking @thesmarttrain #pinterest isnt about self promotion, gotta show personality & share by repinning #blogchatIE — Kristin Kane (@waterclosetsoap) February 28, 2013

@writeontrack_l @michellebouse secret boards good way to collaborate on ideas with others if shared or to save your own ideas #blogchatie — Marie Ennis-O’Connor (@JBBC) February 28, 2013

@kellypaull @michellebouse excellent tool for collaboration but remember one person can make a secret board public at any stage #blogchatie — Lorna Sixsmith (@WriteOnTrack_L) February 28, 2013

4. Tips for Making Images/Pins More Successful on Pinterest

A4 I have some pretty bland text images with the title of my blog post on them. I think they work better for click throughs #blogchatie — Amanda Webb (@Spiderworking) February 28, 2013

A4 copy matters – so use key words and a creative description for the Pins#Blogchatie — Kelly Lieberman (@Tribe2point0) February 28, 2013

@writeontrack_l I use hashtags only if they make sense. They categorize pins for quick search. #Oscars was popular this week. #blogchatie

— Aida of Nubia (@AidaofNubia) February 28, 2013

the # is clickable within pin’s description – when clicked, it searches and pulls up other pins that use the the same #blogchatie #pinterest

— Marie Ennis-O’Connor (@JBBC) February 28, 2013

5. Sharing Tips For Running A Competition On Pinterest

@spiderworking Yes, and hashtags are used in competitions a lot too #blogchatie – helps with campaigns and publicity

— Lorna Sixsmith (@WriteOnTrack_L) February 28, 2013

@writeontrack Yes there are a lot of competitions that do not have terms well defined #blogchatie

— Krishna De (@KrishnaDe) February 28, 2013

You can see all the other pinterest #blogchatie tweets here. There’s a weekly #pinchat too – run by Kelly Liebermann at 9pm EST on Wednesday.

The next #blogchatie is on Thursday 14th – we’ll be posting details on our facebook page.

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Pinterest seems to have set people’s board covers automatically so if you haven’t set your own board covers, Pinterest will have set the board cover to the first pin ever pinned on that board.

You should check your boards page and have a look at the dominant image. Consider the following points and perhaps you need to alter it.

• Is it a good representation of that board?
• If it is a very full board with lots of images, having the first pin as the board cover may mean it looks outdated.
• The board cover only shows part of the image (you can pull it up or down when selecting the board cover so the optimal part is displayed) so perhaps the pin isn’t shown to its best advantage.
• Is it a colourful, vibrant image? Would it encourage others to follow that board? If not, change it.

Check out our post ‘How and Why – Setting Your Pinterest Board Covers‘ too if you’d like to find out how to select the board covers quickly and easily.

If you would like to take a course in improving your Pinterest presence, do sign up at We Teach Social and we’ll let you know when our first one is starting. There will be a chance to win a free course of your choice too.

The post Pinterest Tutorial – Why You Should Set Your Pinterest Board Covers appeared first on Write On Track.

#1. Do Not Confuse Ownership

Don’t include your url in a descriptor on someone else’s pin!  I was really surprised when I happened to spot this repin of one of my own pins.  I was chuffed to see the comment that stated there were great tips in my article but somewhat bemused to see someone else’s url under the comment. When I clicked on it, it brought me to their website, yet when the pin was clicked, the source was still my article so that hadn’t been tampered with. However, by putting the url under the comment, it suggests that person wrote the article rather than the comment.

#2. Do Not Repin Indiscriminately

There are spammers out there, even on pinterest so don’t repin articles without checking links (It’s a good idea to check pictures too but people do appreciate it is timeconsuming to check all your repins).  However, each repin acts as a recommendation for the content so it is important to check pins that are clearly linked to articles, not just to check that it isn’t spam but also to check that you endorse the content.

 #3. Do Not Pin Too Much Of Your Own Material

Repin or pin other people’s material too, not just to share but also to share quality pictures / ideas / articles with your followers not to mention showing your personality via a variety of pins.  Many argue that the 80/20 rule is a good one to follow, 20% of your pins being your own content.

 #4. Do Not Pin At Length

Pinning and repinning constantly for an hour (or even half an hour) will fill up the page for your followers and is particularly noticeable  if the pins are all your content and are similar in theme.  Seeing a page filled with pins that are similar almost feels like being spammed so do pin with caution particularly if each pin is being tweeted or shared to your facebook profile.

If pinning from your own website, use a scheduling tool such as pingraphy to spread the publication of your pins throughout the day.

If you see lots of pins you would like to repin and you wish to spread them out, like some of them and then go to your ‘likes’ page later and repin them then. Alternatively you could repin them to a secret board and then repin them for public view later.

#5. Do Not Make It All About Your Niche

Pinterest is a great place for each and every company to show their personality, their passion, what they get up to behind the scenes. Whether businesses are made up of a single sole trader or thousands of employees, they can engage with potential clients and customers by including boards showing their community work, what they do behind the scenes or their hobbies.  My own pinterest boards will reveal my enthusiasm for crochet, my appreciation of interiors and my love of scenery as well as including many social media themed boards. Hubspot, a large social media company, has numerous boards focusing on social media but also includes ‘orange’ boards (their signature colour), marketing cartoons and unicorns!

#6. Do Not Ignore Your Boards Page

Remember to re-arrange your seasonal boards as nothing suggests a neglected pinterest account (and business) more than seeing Christmas themed boards at the top of your boards page in January or Hallow’een boards in November.

If you have set your board covers too, it’s a good idea to re-arrange them occasionally too, partly to update them and partly as if someone clicks on your board in order to see the board image pin and then can’t find it as it is so far down the page. This is something that is easy to forget so it’s worth while spending an hour every now and then resetting your board images.

#7. Don’t Forget To Be Sociable

Apparently pinners only spend 0.5% of their time actually commenting on pinterest.  Social media is about being sociable and while repinning someone’s pin is also acting as a compliment, do take the time to comment on those pins that offer something extra special be it extraordinary photography, beautiful design or a well researched or written article.

If your pins are being tweeted, remember to check into twitter to see if anyone has responded to your tweets/pins with a reply.

#8. Don’t Forget Your Quality Images

Remember to include quality images within your blog post – preferably ones that are either strikingly beautiful or demonstrate that your content will be useful to the readers.  Those images are what you are using to drive traffic back to your blog so they need to be good.

It is also important to name each of your images appropriately. If you pin this post, you will see that the title will come up automatically in the descriptor box for you, this is because it was named thus when I uploaded the image.  If it had been named ‘pinterest’ or ‘fence’ or some other one word term that might be meaningless, I’d be relying on the pinner taking the time to write in the description which they may not do. Spend the extra seconds on it for more success with social sharing of your blog posts.

There you have it – 8 Tips of what you shouldn’t do on pinterest. Have I missed any? Do let me know in the comments if you can think of any others.

If you would like to learn how to use Pinterest more effectively for your business – we are now teaching Pinterest at beginners and advanced level on our sister site We Teach Social. The courses are delivered online (direct to your inbox) so you can do become proficient in Pinterest use from the comfort of your own home. All it takes is a little time each day for  5 weeks.

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Check out this Pinterest infographic which shares the data from a BlogHer survey which found that women trust Pinterest more than any other site. If you are interested in learning more about marketing with Pinterest, take our Facebook poll to help us determine how best we can help you.

Read More On  Pinterest For Business 

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Some Pinterest Tips for Business Users:

• Initially pinners were signing up using their personal details but I notice that now people are signing up using their business name.  It is important to remember that true pinners pin pictures they like and not just their own products and I think this should go for businesses too. To date, I have followed almost everyone back that followed me but I didn’t follow one jeweller back. Why? Because he only had 2 boards filled with what looked like stock pictures of diamond rings. He was clearly using it for promote his product rather than showing a regard for his favourite jewels.
•  I believe that people will prefer to engage with people rather than businesses on pinterest. Having said that, pinterest gives a business a real opportunity to demonstrate their personality through images.
• If you don’t want to set up a business account for pinterest, you could set up a couple of boards for your business and the business name will show up in the search box (I have boards relating to both businesses as well as lots of general ones).
• People who know you will follow back whether you have few or many boards and you can start off by following all your facebook friends on pinterest.  However, if you are following people you don’t know and you are hoping they will follow you back, then do build up some pins and boards first.
• If you are pinning continuously, it may be best to disable the automatic tweets and facebook updates from pinterest and just share the ‘best ones’.  I tend to pin for 10-15 minutes at a time to spread the love and prevent anyone becoming too irritated at the flow of pinterest tweets.  I do find that I can receive lots of tweet responses to pins though, particularly in the evenings so people are intrigued enough to look, particularly if your description lures them in.
• Be careful about what you pin, particularly if you are using it for business and/or business personal pictures.  If potential clients or customers are following you, they may lower their opinion of you if they see racy pictures or suggestive underwear.
• Pin pictures that relate to what your brand means to you and what you want it to mean to your customers.
• Bloggers are using pinterest to source images for their posts so this will increase the chance of them being seen by more people. As mentioned earlier, the image will carry evidence of its source particularly if the blogger embeds it into the post. This should drive more traffic to your website. Marie will discuss the issues of copyright in a post later on today but you can use watermarks on your pictures or you can insert some code into your website which means the images cannot be pinned.
• You can allow others to pin to your pin boards so it can become a collaborative effort – get clients involved.
• Put your website address in the bio of your Pinterest account.
• Show people what they can do with the products – include lifestyle photos.
• Create boards to publicize events or days when people give gifts, e.g. Mother’s Day and create a board of suitable Mother’s Day gifts.
• Remember to re-arrange your boards so different ones are over the fold at different times.  If you have an Easter board, move it down to the bottom of the page once Easter is over.

If you have any more questions about pinterest, do post them in the comments and we will answer them in our blog post on Friday.

Do add any comments if you have any tips to share with our readers. Thank you, Lorna and happy pinning.

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What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is an online virtual scrapbook or pinboard and the beauty is you can have as many pinboards as you like and you can share them with other people.  See  our previous post for an explanation of how to set up Pinterest and how to ‘pin’ pictures on it.

How will it boost my business?

• Pinterest is a little like an online ‘word of mouth’. People can pin pictures they like from websites and blogs (there will be a post on copyright issues regarding this coming up tomorrow) and they can repin pictures they like on other people’s boards.
• According to Hubspot, Pinterest is turning more browsers into buyers than other social media tools.
• Pinterest is a wonderful tool for any creative business to showcase their voice through images.
• Pinterest allows you to send visual messages about your business – be it product or service.
• Companies such as Etsy have had huge success with pinterest driving thousands and thousands of people to their site. Etsy has over 45,000 followers on its pinterest account.
• People can search for terms such as ‘bridesmaid shoes’, ‘Christmas’, ‘Wedding dresses’, ‘curtains’, ‘wallpaper’, so you do need to take care when naming your boards and describing each picture.  It could be a good idea to use the keyword analysis tool to optimise your pictures.  However, you can see how the possibilities of getting your product passed around as ‘repinning’ can really help to get the word out there.
• Each pin works as a link to your site so will count as a backlink.  Each pin from your site should continually carry the source, ie your website, and if others embed the picture into their blog post, it will show the source as well as link to it if the picture is clicked upon.
• It is proving to be addictive! Women aged 25-44 are the most popular users but with the growth in infographics, more men seem to be partaking in it.  One week recorded 11 million hits – a phenomenal amount for what is a relatively new media platform.
• It is shareable.  It can link with your website, facebook and twitter. At the moment, it will show on people’s personal profiles on facebook (not business pages) so friends can see their pins and their activity.  You can also link it to your twitter profile which can be a business one so each time you pin a picture, a tweet will be sent out.
• Pinterest can indicate trends or the success of new products. Repins may suggest how popular a product might become.
• Infographics are becoming very popular too so you can create a visual image of any company or industry data and share it by pinning.

How do I join?

You can apply to Pinterest to join and this can take a little while. Invitations mean that you can start pinning straight away so if you would like an invite, do leave a comment below and we will email you one.

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