Since the beginning of the pandemic, Pinterest has exploded in popularity. In 2020, the site and app saw an increase of 100 million monthly users. It now has 478 million users every month.
“If Pinterest were a country, it would surpass the United States as the third largest in the world,” Pinterest says on its website
Revenue is also soaring for the company. In the first quarter of 2021, Pinterest saw $485.23 million in revenue, up more than $200 million from the same period in 2020.
Throughout 2020 and early 2021, Pinterest has put a major emphasis on businesses. The Pinterest Business website has endless amounts of information to help businesses get started, stay engaged, and help build brand awareness.
The Shopping Boom on Pinterest
Over the years, Pinterest has been known for DIY ideas and getting cute project ideas. While it’s still great for that, the site has boomed to become a place to shop.
- Nearly 9 in 10 users on on the platform plan purchases and find inspiration for gifts
- About 25% of time spent on Pinterest is spent shopping
- 85% of users have bought something based on Pins from a brand
Pinterest says that most of the searches on its site are NOT related to brands.
“Reach your audience early, before they’ve made up their mind,” Pinterest says. “They find what they love. You grow your business.”
For example, if you’re searching for a refrigerator organization, you may be surprised to find a brand like Whole Foods with some excellent tips on Pinterest.
This graphic may not have a direct tie to Whole Foods, but when you click on the image, you’ll navigate to their website for an in-depth blog on where to place certain items in your fridge. Next thing you know, you’re making a shopping list and thinking of going to Whole Foods.
Whole Foods also uses Pinterest to offer real-time information on product availability through a business feature known as Rich Pins.
How to Get Started on Pinterest
It’s FREE to create a business account. Pinterest has a detailed step-by-step guide on setting up an account, including how to link your personal account to the business account.
If you have a personal account, but want to convert it to a business account, you can do that as well.
Be sure to check out the Terms of Service for Pinterest Business accounts as they are a bit different from personal accounts.
If you have a personal account but want a business profile, you can convert your personal account to a business one on a desktop and keep your Pins and followers. You can switch back to a personal account at any time.
How to Post to Pinterest
Once you’ve gotten started, it’s time to get Pins posted. Posting to Pinterest is pretty straight forward — their help area online has robust topics on getting started with Pins and Boards (and any other question you could imagine).
We recommend using a tool called TailWind — this makes it easy to schedule Pins and even has options to create pins with TailWind Create.
You’ll also want to consider adding Pinterest extensions on your web browser that make it easy to Pin images from other websites to your boards.
Pinterest Tips and Tricks
You’re on Pinterest … now what?!? Here are several tips and tricks to help you get started and step up your pinning game:
Captivating Content
While good images are crucial, descriptive copy will help people find you. A 2:3 aspect ratio is best for images. If you’re looking for an easy way to take your existing images and create the 2:3 image size, Canva can do this for you.
Your post should include content that tells people what they’re seeing. It should make them want to learn more about you. You’ll want to consider text overlays as well as including your logo on the image.
Pin Often
Pinterest says pinning once a day is more effective than creating a board and filling it up. You’ll reach a wider audience with regular posting.
Plan Ahead … WAY AHEAD!
If you have Christmas-related content, you may want to consider posting that in the spring and summer. As of the publishing of this blog (May 2021), Pinterest already has a 2021 holiday guide on its website.
“Pinners are ready to go big for holiday 2021,” Pinterest says. “They’ve already started planning — and Pinterest is their first stop for new ideas.”
Optimize for SEO
Instead of thinking about Pinterest as a social media network, think of it as a visual search engine. Keywords are the foundation of discovering pins, so include these important terms in your company description, pin names, and descriptions. Hashtags are helpful as well since Pinners can follow ones they’re interested in.
Make it Easy to Make a Purchase
While Pinterest can increase your brand awareness, it can become a place for brand loyalists to shop.
“Build a strategy that takes consumers from awareness to purchase,” Pinterest says.
Hootsuite provides a great example of the social media sales funnel to take users from awareness to interest to decision to action that can work well for any business with a product on Pinterest.
You can also advertise on Pinterest, targeting placements based on keywords, user interests, location, and other key demographics.
Pinterest provides users with an advertising guide and best practices.
Repinning and Engagement
While posting your own content is a top priority, take a look around Pinterest. Are there other brands similar to yours posting something that you like? It’s OK to repin it. When you Pin other people’s Pins, they are more likely to visit your profile and repin your content as well. Other good content may also mean people spend more time visiting your profile and exploring your other boards.
Engaging with others will also show that you are real — there’s a human behind that logo of yours. Pinners appreciate that time you take showing your interest, which can then turn into long-term shoppers for you
Making Time for Pinterest
As with all things social media, staying dedicated to Pinterest takes time. If you take a half-hour each week, you can get things scheduled ahead of time so that it’s not a daily item for you. You can also then spend a couple of 10-15 minutes segments of your week to Repin items that interest you and engage with others.
Want to explore how Pinterest can be part of your social media strategy? The Social Ginger can help! Schedule a FREE Discovery Call with us today.
