A beginner’s guide to Pinterest

If you’re not on Pinterest yet, you should be! With over 70 million users worldwide this social platform is one of the hottest sites for photography, yet so many businesses are still unsure about it.

In a nutshell, Pinterest is a visual pinboard site that lets you ‘pin’ or collect images and add them to your own boards. Many of you may think this is just another platform to shout about, but it can be a great money maker for small businesses if you know how to use it:

  1. Set up your account – Whether you’re an established brand, a non-profit organization, or a blogger, you can join Pinterest for free as a business. Simply fill out the details about your business and the person who’ll manage the account and away you go!
  2. Start following – Just like any other social platform building your network is one of the very first things you should be doing. Start off by following your competitors, let them know you’re online too and you can keep an eye on their Pinterest movements. Just remember that most accounts have multiple boards, so if you follow an account you automatically follow all its boards.
  3. Create your own boards – Start building and creating boards to collect and order your pictures. You’ll need a name for your board, description and a category name. If you need some ideas, take a look at other accounts to see how they have done it.
  4. Get pinning – Now you’re ready to get pinning! Use the search bar at the top of the page to find certain images and categories. When you see an image you want to pin and add to your board, hover over it and pin it! If you’re using Pinterest for your business, simply upload your photos using the + button. Others can then repin your image.
  5. Get social – Now you’re on Pinterest spread the word! Add the social links to your website and any offline material. Get friendly by liking other peoples pins, follow more boards and start attracting new followers.

Marketme

Marketme is a leading small business to small business news, marketing advice and product review website. Supporting business across the UK with sponsored article submissions and promotions to a community of over 50,000 on Twitter.