[I]’m the first person to admit I have an unhealthy Pinterest habit. Workwise, I use it to plan every single creative project I do, but I’ve had my eye off the ball when it comes to using all of the latest Pinterest business tools. I’m seeing more and more referrals from Pinterest and that’s without even trying. You too? Let’s get stuck in.
CONVERT YOUR PINTEREST PROFILE TO A BUSINESS ACCOUNT
I admit, I didn’t do this for the longest time. I verified my account for business about a year ago and that alone gives you access to all sorts of tools, like Rich Pins (which pull through much more detailed information from your website. eg. recipes or product details), Buyable Pins and Shop The Look pins as well as greatly enhanced reporting and analytics. You can, of course, pay to promote pins – no surprises there.
If this sounds interesting, head over to Pinterest’s own business area. Everything is explained in pretty simple terms.
To get your Pinterest business account verified, you have to connect your website, in much the same way as you do with Google Analytics. You can read about it here in their help section.
Top tip: I’ve found the easiest way to verify is to use your SEO plugin. eg. there is a field in All In One SEO and in Yoast specifically for your Pinterest verification.
First, go to your Pinterest settings area, find your website address and click on the verify button next to it. You should see this…
Make a note just of the number string between the quote marks. Then in the General area of your SEO plugin of choice, you’ll find a box for your Pinterest verification code. Job done!
CREATE COMPELLING PINS
There is so much good info on the Pinterest website itself. I feel like an idiot for not checking this out earlier. In particular, there is a really good PDF guide on creating compelling pins.
I’ve read it so you don’t have to. Here are the key tips…
- Use a vertical aspect ratio. The ideal aspect ratio for a Pin is 2:3. (600px wide x 900px high).
- Hero images with text overlays get the most traffic.
- Build your logo into the pin.
- You can use @ to tag people and #hashtags for keywords, just like you can with other social media.
- Make sure you include your keywords and phrases in the description.
Tip: If you are stuck for ideas for Pinterest graphics and struggle with the technical aspects of design, go check out Canva, where you can find hundreds of pre-designed Pinterest templates ready for you to adapt and use.
USING RICH PINS, BUYABLE PINS & SHOP THE LOOK PINS
Rich pins include your name, your logo and a link to your website which makes it easier for people to click through. They may also pull through keywords and metadata. Rich pins also pull through things like recipes. Again, you need to request these but it’s really easy. Again using my SEO plugin to validate my Rich Pins. Yoast has a special features area for this and All In One has a Social Meta profile section which prepares your site to be validated for Rich Pins.
If you are selling a product, you can add Buyable Pins which display a blue price tag. Pinterest now has its own self-contained shopping platform that interfaces with some existing systems like Shopify or BigCommerce. If you are already either of those, you’re good to go. At the time of writing this post, WooCommerce doesn’t yet have Buyable Pins support but apparently, it’s on the way.
It’s also worth mentioning the Shop The Look Pins, which allow you to add multiple tags to a one pin, with links either to the Pinterest shopping facility or straight through to your own website. This is one I’m definitely going to try.
SCHEDULING APPS
In a couple of the blogging groups I’m in, I’ve seen a lot of talk about Tailwind & Boardbooster, which are scheduling apps for Pinterest.
They both allow you to schedule pins and repins across all your boards. Really keen people use both apparently.
In short, Boardbooster allows you to set up schedules to repin and recycle your best pins and / or ones that didn’t get much attention first time round. You can also check your pins for broken links, automatically repin other people’s pins and manage promoted pin campaigns.
Tailwind also allows you to schedule all your Pinterest (& Instagram – bonus!) activity but it also allows you to batch pin and it tells you optimal pinning times and has really detailed reporting.
I’ve just read this helpful post on the main differences. I’m going to try both for free, but as I already use CoSchedule and that allows me to schedule content for all my social media, then I’m going to focus on that too.
Let me know if you are using Tailwind or Boardbooster already and what you think of it. I’m ready to kick things up a notch!
GROUP BOARDS
Finally, let’s talk about group boards. A group board works like a normal Pinterest board but the board creator also allows other people to pin, which will expose those pins to everyone’s followers hopefully getting more traction and re-pins.
When you find a group board, it is usually noted in the board description with details on how to join.
There are quite a few group boards for photographers and I’ve found plenty by going to http://pingroupie.com/ and searching for wedding photography, for example. Maybe even start your own board?
I’m really excited to start implementing some of these newer Pinterest features. I’ll be reporting back on results in my private Facebook group, so come and join us.
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Thanks for putting this together! I’ve been delaying migrating my Pinterest account & making it work for me…This has finally pushed me to do it!
Is converting to business account only for those have a business? I don’t have a business.
Can I just say Melissa, I am loving your detailed and helpful blog posts! You’re so full of valuable information. It’s much appreciated how generous you are with your knowledge! x