Do you pin... are you a pinner... Is Pinterest good for business?

Wow, this is my 100th blog! I have enjoyed writing each and everyone of them! Some have been more challenging than others with a fair amount of research required, like this one on Pinterest! 

It is really interesting when I have talked to people about Pinterest, a lot of us really do not understand how it works or more importantly, how it can work for them?

So, here it goes, lets see if I can unravel the mystery behind Pinterest!

What is

In Pinterest's own words, 'it's a tool for collecting and organising things that you love'... a 'virtual pinboard', a place to 'pin' all the things that you like and want to look at again!

For me, it's a place to gather inspiration, check out trends, see what new and hot, to show off my own work, to collect work that I like... the list is endless, but needless to say, I love it and oh yes, I forgot to say, it's pretty addictive too!

In fact Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media sites that we should all be aware of!

There is a 'pinning 101', the very basics on how it works and how to get started, so if this is all new to you I recommend that you take a quick visit here! just click this link PINTEREST 

Pinterest language

A Pin - an image added to Pinterest.

A Pinboard - a set of theme-based pins.

Pinning - the act of visually sharing content.

Repin - reposting someone else's pin.

Pin It Button - button that can be placed on websites to facilitate sharing on pinterest. pins added using the pin It button link back to the site they came from.

Pinner - the person who does the sharing.

So, is your business on Pinterest? 

If you already have an existing Pinterest account you can easily convert it to a business account, all you have to do is go to http://business.pinterest.com and click on the red 'Convert your existing account' button or if you do not already have an account you can join as a business as it will also give you this option. Fill out all the required information, is it pretty straight forward. There is also a downloadable ebook about How to use Pinterest for Business which is worth a read.

NOTE, if you want a personal account and a business account that is OK, you can have both.

Make sure that you verify your website, this helps to prove that you are a real business and so that you can lead people back to your website... very important! Sadly my website (powered by Moonfruit) does not sync with Pinterest, so make sure that yours does, as this is a truly great tool to have.

So let's re-cap on why we are doing this, the great thing about setting up a business account is that you can promote your products, generate sales and leads and use it for other commercial purposes without any worries!

Add Buttons, make sure that you add the Pin It button to your website, this will help people to share your 'stuff'. The Pin It button makes it easy for people to pin things from your website. Add the button next to the things that you want to share, then let the 'pinners' do the rest!

All this information on how to do this is on www.Pinterest.com

OK it's now time to start working on your boards.

Personally, I would start off by deciding which of the area's of your business is it that you want to target and increase sales.

I always believe in starting in manageable bites, so only target one area at a time, starting early for a 'holiday' is never an issue, it just means that you can have everything in place when the time is right!

As an industry we have many holidays and other celebrations that we could target, Graduation, Weddings, New Babies, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, Halloween, Christmas, Valentines...

Choose just one at a time and create a board for each, label it with a 
board name, description and category.

Let's use Valentines as an example.

Board name suggestions: Be creative with your board titles, the more creative the more attention they will receive but don't make them too long, otherwise they wont fit into the allocated space, cute Valentines Gifts, Fun Valentines Day for him/her, Valentines Fun ideas.

Description: Unique,fun and affordable Valentines gift ideas for that special person in your life!

Category: Choose the most relevant category and one that accurately describes your board.

Did you notice that I did not use the word 'balloons' in any of my description, the reason for that is that when someone is looking for ideas they may not think balloons, which is why when they do their search they will just key in words like cute, fun, gift etc. and your designs will appear within their search!

Now start pinning relevant products, balloons, decor and balloon designs from your website to this board but remember that just posting a whole load of balloon pictures won't work, you need to be creative with your pinning, remember we don't sell balloons we sell what the balloons can do for you or the recipient...think 'Social Expression', wish them a happy birthday, congratulate them on a new baby or how you can transform their special day with elegant balloon decor!  You can also upload images directly to Pinterest, but you must make sure that the image leads to a landing page on your website where people can buy or book your services from, otherwise your efforts are wasted.

The real secret to success is to build a good audience, we want to get as many re-pins as possible so that we spread the word to a much wider audience. Use real life picture, maybe some pictures of happy customers, pictures speak a 1000 words and our product says it all!

This is not the end of this blog, I intend to spend more time researching and working with Pinterest and I will post my findings very soon! 

But for now... Happy Ballooning!

Sue 
www.suebowler.com