Tech Corner with Greg Enslen, 02/19/13: Getting Started with Pinterest, Part 5

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    Tech Corner with Greg Enslen, 02/06/13: Helping you keep up with the ever-changing tech world…

    Getting Started with Pinterest, Part 5

    Pinterest is a fascinating and useful website that allows users to share pictures and topics they find interesting. Last time, we learned how to organize and rearrange boards, select specific board cover images, and take advantage of mobile apps.

    Using Pinterest to Promote a Business

    Pinterest can be a lot of fun, but serious Pinterest users can also use the service, much like Twitter and Facebook, to promote themselves or their business. Many companies, bloggers and other professionals use Pinterest pages to talk up their products, share photos of new or improved items for sale, discuss specials and promotions, highlight new service or product offerings, or to engage with their customers by soliciting feedback or “growing a following” for their products.

    Is it Right for Your Business?

    Pinterest lends itself to visual industries – home decor, art, design, women’s apparel, photography, food and drink. Businesses in these industries might find Pinterest to be a natural fit for them, whereas a lawyer or someone in the insurance industry may find it difficult (or more challenging) to convey aspects of their business in a visual format. For businesses that fit, Pinterest can be a great way to get the word out. Artists and others with a portfolio of work to share may benefit greatly from a visual representation of their work…

    Public Feedback, Good or Bad

    Pinterest is public—and so are your pins and comments, so a business needs to be comfortable with having their photos repinned and commented on. And while a business can edit or delete comments on pins on their own page, they cannot control repins or the comments they might gather. Pinterest is a social network, so a certain level of comfort (and tolerance) is needed for a business to be able to put itself out there for the world to see.

    Promote Your Business!

    pinterestbiz-3_600Pinterest can be a time sink for a business owner, but there are a few quick things that one can do to improve the “business return” from a Pinterest page (Google for directions):

    • Pin items from your existing website—visitors on Pinterest will see the items and be drawn back to your website. And repinned items can bring in even more traffic as more pinners who know nothing about your business will start turning up on your web page
    • Add a “Pin it” or “Follow” button on your business website to encourage visitors to share your information on Pinterest. Buttons should be placed where they will encourage the most sharing.
    • Want to check and see what’s being pinned from your website? Follow this naming convention: “http://pinterest.com/source/x” where “x” is the url for your website. For my website, it would be “http://pinterest.com/source/gregenslen.com/” Using this tool, I can see who has been pinning photos from my site to Pinterest
    • Link to Facebook! Linking accounts and setting it up correctly (it might take some Googling) means that anything you pin will show up as a Facebook post

    Next Time

    Whew! Next time, we’ll learn some final advanced Pinterest techniques as we wrap up this series—but don’t worry, there will be more Tech Corner after that. If you enjoyed this article and would like to see more, drop me an email at this NEW email address, techcorner@gregenslen.com or use the “Contact Me” page on my website.