I’m sure you’ve heard everyone talking about how AWESOME Pinterest is, and that as a blogger you really NEED to be on Pinterest. And ya know, they're right. If you aren't utilizing Pinterest for your business you're missing out on A LOT of traffic, that traffic could turn into regular visitors and customers of your business if you play your cards right.
If you've been stuck on some desert island with only a ball named Wilson to keep you company, and have NO idea what Pinterest is,I’ll be outlining everything you need to know about Pinterest here.
Consider this Pinterest 101.
Welcome to class my dear pretty pinterest pinners in training!
1. What is Pinterest?
The good people of Pinterest describe it as:
"Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save creative ideas."
These “creative ideas” are called “pins”, and each pin leads you to the original source or creator, and is saved to a pin board. It’s a great way to organize and bookmark things of interest, and gets your creativity flowing whether it be that new instant pot recipe or a new paint color for your bedroom.
But it’s not just a place to look for that next awesome mega chocolate chip cookie recipe, it’s also a place to connect with others, who may have created that awesome mega chocolate chip cookie recipe. So, there’s also an element of a social media platform there as well.
You can "follow" other Pinners like on Twitter or Instagram, however, Pinterest sets itself apart from these other social platforms in that it runs on keywords and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) similar to Google. And remember those pins you can pin to your boards? Those can be repinned by other pinners, in fact, more than likely the pin you found, you unknowingly repinned from someone who wasn’t the creator of that pin. So, one little pin can have a pretty far reach.
It's much more than a place to find that awesome mega chocolate chip cookie recipe , Pinterest could help you grow your business!
By using the right combination of images and keywords, you could grow traffic to your site in a HUGE way. And we all know that more traffic means a further reach, which leads to a growth in your email and client list, which leads to a growth in your community, which leads to a more interest audience willing to purchase your service or product, which means more income for you!!!
See what one little image and link can do on Pinterest for your blog or online business?
You get the added benefit of using pretty images to draw people into your content, AND you get a little help from others, because your content is getting repinned (or promoted) across Pinterest. Which is basically free advertising! That’s a lot of awesomeness in one little package.
2. Pinterest Lingo
I went into a little bit of the lingo associated with Pinterest in Number One, but let’s get a little more specific shall we?
Pin:
Pins are the items you share. They consist of a picture and description and link back to an outside source - an app, a buyable item, an article, or a recipe.Some pins may look different than others; those are called Rich Pins.
Rich Pins:
Rich Pins are basically turbo-charged pins. They offer more information than other pins, in the form of a bolded title and a specialized description based on the type of pin it is. Making sure Rich Pins are enabled for your site is one of the most important things you can do for your blog or business.
Board:
A board is a collection of specific pins. They make it easier for you (and your followers) to find the pins that they're looking for. If you're a food blogger, some of your boards may be:
Dessert Recipes
Thanksgiving Dinner
Baking Tips
Group Board:
Group boards are boards that are contributed to by more than one person. They are a great tool for growing your traffic. Most group boards require an invite or some sort of application process - but the individual rules will be explained by the board owner, usually in the board description. Sounds scary, but I promise it’s totally not.
Profile:
Your profile is kind of your own grand central station of all the ideas you’ve saved. It houses your pins and pin boards, your Bio. This bio is where you discuss who you serve and how you serve them, and hopefully a link back to your site.
Home Feed:
The screen you're taken to after you log into Pinterest. It shows you what people you're following are pinning and Pins related to your searches or content.
Promoted Pins:
Promoted pins are paid ads on Pinterest, much like Facebook Ads. You can target certain locations, demographics, and devices and reach customers who are searching for or have shown an interest in what you have to offer.
How can all this Pinteresty goodness be applied to my business?
Simple, Pinterest is seeing some MAJOR traffic, 200 million monthly users in fact.
That’s 200 million potential readers to consume all that awesome content you’ve been working so hard at creating.
And think about this, the average lifespan of a Tweet on Twitter is 15 minutes. A post on Facebook 6 hours. Instagram, 24 hours.
The lifespan of a pin that links back to your content, about 4 months.
Crazy right?! And that pin that you added to Pinterest or that someone pinned from your site months ago, will continue to bring traffic without much effort on your part. You just have to ensure that the description and the image are superb and pretty enough to make others want to save it and visit your site. This also ensures that your pin has a good ranking within Pinterest.
So, you get MONTHS worth of traffic out of a small snippet of your time. In other words, Pinterest can save you time and build traffic to your business. And all the online entrepreneurs REJOICED!
See, Pinterest ranks pins much like Google ranks sites. The better your pins rank, the higher they will appear within Pinterest search results. Making sure your pins rank highly will drive traffic to your site over and over again. That’s why it’s important to make sure your pins are super shareable with awesome images and using the right keywords.
Pinterest packs a powerful punch for your business, but it’s also fun to play around with. If you’re new to the game, set up an account, play around with the tools, get inspired.
Go forth and pin you pretty pinner you!
If you’re interested in learning how you can have an awesome Pinterest profile without spending all the precious time you could be spending creating for your business, check out my Work with Me page . Let’s chat. I’d love to help you grow your business, and help you find simple and achieve defrazzlement.