Chichester Copywriter’s Guide on How to use Pinterest for business

After attending a course on How to use Pinterest for Business, Katy of Chichester Copywriter was asked to set-up Pinterest for Annie Haak Designs, a popular jewellery brand that’s worn by models and celebrities. This project has really helped to strengthen the brand’s online presence and was both satisfying and enjoyable for Katy to coordinate. You can see the developing results here.

Inspired by this, Katy wrote her September Social Media Review article for What the Dickens? magazine on Pinterest for Writers. However, our social media marketing expert thinks that this article could be just as useful for professionals in other creative fields, whether they’re graphic designers, photographers, crafters or chefs. Here is the same article aimed at creative businesses in general:

What is Pinterest?

You can think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard – it’s where people share images online, either photos or videos, of what most interests and inspires them.

The social networking aspect of it is that you can follow people and pinboards that interest you and you also have the opportunity to “re-pin” other’s images (either directly from their websites or from other pinners within the Pinterest community) onto your own pinboards (like a Retweet on Twitter) or you can “like” other pinner’s images (as with Facebook).

How can creatives use Pinterest for business?

Engaging with Pinterest can help you to:

• Find and share inspirations e.g. you could create pinboards dedicated to motivational quotes and your favourite locations or famous artworks.
• Source feedback and generate discussions about your products and/or creations.
• Generate awareness about your creations, allowing customers/fans an insight into what makes their favourite creative tick.
• Share your latest projects and generate interest in your upcoming projects e.g. pin a storyboard showing a day in your life or stages of a project.

Top Pinterest Tips for Business:

• Be Pinterest ready – Make sure that your website/blog features images which can be pinned directly to Pinterest and add a Pin-it button to your website/blog to make sharing your images easier. You can also download the pin-it button and drag it to your desktop toolbar so that you can easily pin other images that you discover online.
• Utilise your contacts – Spread the word about your pinboards by inviting your email contacts or Facebook friends to like your page. From the Pinterest dashboard, click on your username and select “Find Friends.” You can even connect your Pinterest account to your Facebook fan page (or business/professional page) so that those who “like” you on Facebook can click straight through to Pinterest.
• Stay social – Don’t make your pinboards salesy – no one appreciates the “me, me, me” complex when using social media. Make sure to do your fair share of the social stuff (re-pinning and liking) because that’s what it’s all about!
• Variety is the spice of life – Create myriad pinboards with different themes. As well as having pinboards dedicated to your products and/or creations make sure to include pinboards dedicated to things that make you smile – let your personality shine through.
• Credit where credit’s due – Include a source for all images that you pin or re-pin for copyright reasons. This could either be a link to the website the image came from or the name of a photographer. You can even tag a fellow pinner by placing an @ before their Pinterest handle e.g. image via @ChiCopywriter.
• Think SEO! – Give any images that are pinned or re-pinned to your boards a description which not only defines the image but also contains relevant Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) keywords to make it easier for fans to find online e.g. if it’s an image of a book include the title, author and publisher.

How can Chichester Copywriter help?

Katy’s social media marketing services include one-to-one training on how to set up, optimise and manage professional Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn accounts, Pinterest accounts and blogs. All of Katy’s social media marketing training is:

• Research based – she’ll research your business, listen to your business goals and marketing strategy and use examples that are relevant to your business.
• Tailored to your needs – she’ll write the training content according to your level of social media knowledge (beginner or intermediate) and will go at a pace that you’re happy with. She’s just as happy to do a session on using Facebook for business as she is to train you how to use a variety of social media marketing tools to generate brand awareness.
• Theory to practical – after she’s shown you what’s what, Katy will swap seats and encourage you to start using social media in the session as she believes this is how you’ll learn best.

What’s more, Katy offers an account management service where she’ll set up social media accounts for businesses and then manage them on the client’s behalf, in line with their marketing strategy.

Discover more about Chichester Copywriter’s social media marketing services here or contact Katy today to arrange a free consultation. Gain more inspiration for your Pinboards boards by following Chichester Copywriter on Pinterest.