Pinterest may not be the most obvious choice when choosing a social media platform for your business, however, with 200 million monthly users it’s certainly not one to overlook.
For the uninitiated, Pinterest is an image-sharing platform that acts as an image-based search engine, enabling users to discover inspiration and ideas relating to their hobbies and interests. Users save images, known as Pins, to their Pinboards and interact by commenting on and saving each other’s pins.
For businesses offering aesthetically-pleasing products or services, such as hairdressers, it’s the perfect place to showcase your talent, products and business. Not only this but it can increase brand awareness, drive website traffic (as most Pins feature a website link) and help grow your community.
Here’s a quick guide to help you grow your business using Pinterest.
- Make your website Pinnable – Adding the Pinterest ‘Save’ button to your website is one of the easiest, and most effective, ways to make your business discoverable on Pinterest.
- Understand Rich Pins and how to use them – Pinterest offers four kinds of Rich Pins: Product, Article, Recipe and App. Essentially, Rich Pins feature additional details taken from your website. For example, a Product Rich Pin will include pricing, stockists and availability, while a Recipe Rich Pin will include cooking times, serving sizes and ingredients lists.
- Boost engagement with high-quality, beautiful images – Pinterest is image-based, so creating beautiful, high-quality images that grab your follower’s attention and make them want to share and save is vital to your business’s growth on the platform.
- Write searchable captions for your Pins – Creating simple captions using key search terms relevant to your business is crucial to ensure that your pins are appearing in your audience’s searches. For example, if you’re a hairdresser in Hertfordshire search terms like ‘hairdressers in Hertfordshire ’ will make it easier for potential customers to find you. Including brands you use or special services you offer will also help.
- Create your Pinterest aesthetic – A cohesive Pinterest aesthetic not only showcases your brand’s personality but looks more professional and makes you more recognisable to your followers. An easy way to do this is to create Pinterest board covers, which are specially-designed images that are designed to match your business branding and create a uniform aesthetic.
- Build your Pinterest community – The best way to encourage your followers to pin is by being an active pinner yourself. Pinning every day will ensure that your followers see new content from your account whenever they log on and will be more likely to engage. Creating a group board and inviting followers to Pin is another great way to boost your following and create a sense of community.
- Key an eye on your metrics – We all know that an engaged audience is more valuable to your business than thousands of followers (read more here), however keeping track of your Pinterest metrics, which you can do with a Pinterest Business account, will give you an idea of what’s working for your audience and plan your content accordingly.