10+ Pinterest Tips and Tricks for Business Users

Pinterest has HUGE potential for your business…IF you know how to use it!

According to Statista, nearly half of all social media users use Pinterest to find or shop for products. That makes Pinterest the #1 social media platform people use for product research and purchases. Not bad, right?

OK…maybe I’ve tweaked your interest. But how do you use Pinterest for business? This article shares 10 Pinterest tips and tricks for business users!

But first…

What is Pinterest, and How Does it Work?

On the off chance you haven’t jumped on the Pinterest wagon, here’s a brief rundown: Pinterest is a virtual pin board, just like the corkboards we had in our rooms as kids – and that you may still have in your home or office. I have an old one with all my children’s artwork from over the years on it.

Pinterest has taken this same concept and created a social networking site that allows users to create photo collections online – like an online scrapbook. It’s primarily a photo and video-sharing website where the members are allowed to create albums pertaining to a theme or pattern.

Pinterest is a great opportunity for brands because it can be a portal for their products, services, and content. It’s a chance to lead with content and let social interaction take a secondary role.

Brands are able to see what people care about instead of who they care about. The market research alone is invaluable from a branding perspective! Are you there yet? If not, this is how you get started.

If you are on Pinterest, you probably want to know some Pinterest tips and tricks that will help you maximize your presence there.

So let’s jump in!

10+ Pinterest Tips for Businesses to Get More from the Platform

Following are my best tips for how to use Pinterest for small business, how to promote on Pinterest, and how to get more followers. Whether you’re brand new to Pinterest or a long-time user, I know you’ll find some helpful tips below!

1. Build Content-Rich Boards Around Your Niche.

Via Modern Honey

You want to build content-rich boards and curate your content just as you would on any other social network.

Pin your products and your content to themed boards on Pinterest with shortened links that allow you to track your Pinterest traffic.

Make sure you’re presenting your products, services, and content in a visually-appealing way because this is what will draw people’s eye. They aren’t reading the subtext, in other words!

Stand out, be creative and most of all, be unique.

I recommend having at least 8 boards when you’re starting out, as this will give you two complete lines of boards on your homepage (see above).

And do NOT leave your boards empty! Add multiple blog posts and products or services to each board so people know you’re a great source of relevant industry information.

Finally, make sure you’re pinning both your own stuff, and other people’s. This doesn’t mean you should pin your competitors’ stuff! But it does mean you want to be a great resource in your niche…which means not just pinning your own stuff over and over again.

2. Brand Your Business.

Starbucks does a great job of branding their pins.

Did you know you can have either a personal or business account on Pinterest?

As a business owner, one pinterest tip I strongly recommend is making the switch to a business account, if you haven’t already. Businesses get access to much better analytics and the ability to run ads, so it’s definitely worthwhile.

When setting up your business page, it’s important to think about branding. Some ways you should do this include:

• Use your business name as your Pinterest username
• Use your brand colors, fonts and other aesthetics for your boards and pins
• Include your brand URL
• Use your logo as your profile pic, OR use a high-quality headshot of yourself if you’re the “face” of your business (no pun intended!)
• When writing your description, briefly talk about who you are, as well as your interests. This section should be short, while still providing a good description of your business and how you solve a pain point for your ideal customer.

Finally, make sure you include your logo as a watermark on every image you pin from your site. If you’re going to all the work of creating amazing, eye-catching pins, you want to make sure other users know who they belong to!

3. Spend Some Time Commenting on Pins.

Screenshot courtesy of Digital Information World

This is a very underused strategy, in my opinion.

Pinterest isn’t just about pinning and re-pinning. It’s also important to engage with other people’s pins, and respond to comments on your own pins.

Not sure where to start with finding and responding to comments? Fortunately, Pinterest has a central location where you can now see all comments on your pins.

Click here to go to your engagement tab on Pinterest.

4. Use Keywords to Show Up in Search Results.

When creating content for Pinterest, my tip is to make sure you’re using the keywords most people would use to find your stuff.

For example, if you want to be found for the keyword “travel”, you would obviously use the word “travel” somewhere in your content.

Some key places to use your chosen keywords include in your:

• profile/business description
• board titles
• board descriptions
• pin descriptions
• and in the content of the page you’re linking to (e.g., your blog post, product page, etc.)

While using general, broad keywords are important (for instance, “fashion”, “lifestyle”, or “marketing”), it’s also super-important to really drill down and use longer, more specific, niche keywords (e.g., “spring plus-sized fashion”, “lifestyle tips for 2020”, “Instagram marketing for dentists”).

There are no keyword research tools specifically for Pinterest, however the usual tools will work for Pinterest too. For guidance on this, check out my post, A Step-by-Step Guide to SEO Keyword Research Using FREE Tools.

You can also simply start typing some topics into the Pinterest search bar and see what Pinterest suggests (see screenshot above). This can be a great way to find out what other people are looking for on the platform!

5. Use Pinterest’s Browser Extensions for Easier Pinning.

Pinterest offers browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Downloading the extension gives you a pin-it button right in your browser’s toolbar, which makes is SUPER easy to quickly pin things you see while surfing the Internet.

Once you’ve installed the extension, you’ll be able to simply right-click, choose “Pin this Image” from the dropdown and be able to choose the board that you want to pin it to.

If you see a great pair of shoes, you’ll be able to pin that image to a board on your Pinterest account; and not only will it pin the graphic but it will automatically link back to the originating source!

6. Pin Videos.

Pinterest doesn’t just allow you to pin images…you can also pin videos!

Use your video pins to tell stories about your brand, do short tutorials, or motivate or inspire your followers.

Video pins can be uploaded as .mp4, .mov or .m4v, can be anywhere from 4-15 seconds long, and ideally should have a 2:3 ratio aspect.

Some video pin best practices recommended by Pinterest include:

• Start with a strong “hook”
• For promoted videos, aim for 6-15 seconds
• Use captions or text overlays for users who don’t watch with sound
• Using a cover image that clearly shows what your video is about
• Use keywords in your pin copy to get found in Search

7. Optimize Your Graphics.

First, let’s get really basic: Make sure you’re using graphics in your blog posts that are clearly related to your content. In other words, don’t use a graphic of a camel if you’re talking about how to grill a great steak!

Next, make sure you’re using the optimal sizing for your pins. As mentioned above, Pinterest recommends using a 2:3 aspect ratio for your pins.

This translates into the following dimensions:

Next, make sure you add a text overlay to your graphic so it’s clear what your pin is about – both to other users and to Pinterest. Pinterest can actually read the text on your pin, but only if the text is very clear. For this reason, avoid really fancy, curly, scripty fonts.

Finally, try using multiple images on your pin graphic. According to Pinterest, doing this can result in 30% higher clicks and 20% higher checkouts!

For more on optimizing your images, see my post How to Create Pinterest Images That People Love to Share.

8. Use Pinterest’s Mobile App.

If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to download Pinterest’s mobile app for your smartphone.

Since most of us now spend more time on our mobile devices than we do on our computers, the mobile app is a must! It will allow you to browse, pin, re-pin and take photos to pin right from your phone.

9. Create Multiple Pins for the Same Piece of Content.

If you want a steady stream of traffic from Pinterest, you need to constantly be creating new blog posts and corresponding pins…right?

Wrong!

Rather than exhausting yourself by creating tons of new blog posts, consider creating multiple pins for the same blog posts.

Create pins that will appeal to different audiences, or that include different images. Play around with different fonts, layouts and text, and then see what happens: you may find one format or design far outshines the others!

10. Post Regularly Rather than All at Once.

Pinterest has indicated that they prefer us to post pins regularly rather than posting a bunch all at once.

Since most of us don’t have the time to sit down to create and post pins several times each week, I recommend scheduling your posts ahead of time.

Pinterest lets you schedule your pins up to 2 weeks in advance, so you can sit down just twice each month to plan your pins.

Alternatively, you can use a tool like Tailwind (pictured above) to schedule your pins based on when you’re likely to get the most engagement.

Posting regularly is one of my BEST tricks to boost Pinterest followers. Pinterest loves fresh content, so make this a priority!

11. Claim Your Business Website.

If you haven’t already, this pinterest tip is an absolute MUST!

Claiming your website gives you key benefits including having your website URL featured on your Pinterest profile, having your profile picture shown next to all your pins, and giving you the ability to use Rich Pins.

Additionally, claiming your site gives you access to analytics so you can see how people are interacting with your pins, which topics your target audience is interested in, and which of your pins are most popular.

Go here to claim your website now.

12. Take Advantage of Seasonal Trends.

Seasonal content on Pinterest is HUGE.

People flock to the platform to find products, tutorials and recipes for specific holidays like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and Mother’s Day.

Content related to the changing seasons is also super popular: for instance, “Spring fashion”, “Summer cocktail recipes”, and “Ski gear”.

One of my favorite ways to make sure I’m regularly posting seasonal content is with Tailwind’s SmartLoop feature. Simply add your pins to a “Seasonal” SmartLoop, and it will automatically re-post all your holiday-related content at the right time of year.

This means steady posting and engagement, all year long!

13. Use Rich Pins to Show Extra Info on Your Pins.

Rich pins are simply pins that show some extra information or context. There are currently 4 types of Rich Pins: articles, recipes, products, and apps.

Each type of Rich Pin will include a different type of info. For instance, product pins will automatically include the latest price and availability of your product, while the recipe pin will include ingredients and cooking instructions.

Rich Pins are free to use, and are easy to set up. For instructions on how to use them, visit Pinterest’s Rich Pins help page here.

14. See Which of Your Content Has Been Pinned.

This is a cool little Pinterest hack. Want to see what content from your website has already been pinned? Or wondering how to find pinners on Pinterest who have already pinned your stuff?

Here’s how: Go to Google and cut and paste the following text into the search bar:

www.pinterest.com/source/yourURLhere

Replace “yourURLhere” with your website or blog URL, and then hit enter.

You’ll now see all the pins from your site, like this:

Pretty cool, right?

15. Use Relevant Hashtags

Using hashtags in your pin descriptions gives your pins a greater chance of showing up for those keywords in Search.

When you use hashtags, users can also click on those hashtags to find other pins that are also using those hashtags.

Pinterest recommends making sure your hashtags are specific and descriptive, and using no more 20 hashtags per pin.

Note: If you haven’t been using hashtags up until now, don’t worry about going back and adding them to old pins. Adding hashtags doesn’t “freshen” your old pins. New pins that have those hashtags will show up before your pins (even if those pins have new or updated hashtags).

Final Thoughts

If you’ve been having trouble understanding Pinterest for business, I trust this post has helped. Above all, focus on regularly adding value by creating and sharing AMAZING, relevant content with your audience!

Again, these are my best 10+ Pinterest tips and tricks for business users, but I would love to know if you have some I haven’t covered. Please feel free to share below!