Shareaholic reports that Pinterest comes in 4th place on the entire web for driving traffic. That said, is there a way you can use Pinterest for business and pin your way to success?

Photo by ShardsOfBlue via flickr

If you feel the need to compare the best scarves being released this winter, or want to know how to make a killer salmon quiche, Pinterest represents your best friend in the social media world. However, it’s not just a tool for individuals looking for pictures of cats, as you’ll see when you read on:

Create Unique Boards

It’s tempting for a company to create pinnable boards based on little more than images of their products. After all, that’s what most customers come to their social site to expect. Yet in terms of time spent on the site, Pinterest outperforms competitors like LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+, reports MediaBistro. Give visitors an excuse to spend more time on your business’ boards by introducing unique examples of how and why a visitor should consider your products or services. A bakery, for instance, can post pins of the amount of ingredients they use in the span of a single day by stacking piles of flour and sugar; a tree-trimming service could post pins of rare trees in gardens and yards across the globe. Give your visitors a reason to return to your Pinterest board, and not that of a competitor.

Integrate Pins Into All Social Platforms

The lines between each social media platform will grow blurrier and blurrier each day as websites try to attract the attention of other site’s followers. Facebook launched their hashtag capabilities in order to muscle in on Twitter’s audience and formulate national conversations between the 100 million Americans who log in each night, according to Facebook’s newsroom. Just as you can dual-post Google+ statuses to your LinkedIn account, so too can a business multi-task using Pinterest for business. Use a social integration application to ensure that your picture not only gets pinned, but gets posted, Tweeted, shared, and Instagrammed.

Pin Your Purchasing Information

In the event that your website drives most of the sales for your company, minimizing the amount of roadblocks in the path to checkout ensures a lower abandonment rate. Make sure each Pinterest board and each pin lets a customer know exactly how they can buy a product or place an order for your services. Remember, when using Pinterest for business, that the road to sales goes both ways in the event that you need to buy items for your business. If you need better efficiency and purchasing power, you can save time with business bookkeeping programs such as Quickbooks or Quicken, that can track your expenses and the revenue you see through social platforms like Pinterest. This can help you avoid spending that extra half an hour of your time trying to finalize a sale.

Using Pinterest for Business: Brand Every Pin

Just as publicists want each book they produce to have their name right next to the author’s, published content on Pinterest should also always include information on your brand, company, or business operations. Use a small logo in order to make sure that any time a person re-pins or shares your pictures, everyone who looks at it knows exactly what board and website to go to in order to find more information. Avoid large watermarks which make a picture unsightly and prevents users from sharing it in within their networks.

Finally, we can help.

Contact us today for a free 1/2 hour consultation. Let us help you uncover simple ideas for growing your business that you might have overlooked.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also want to check out these others:

Ideas for Growing Your Business When the Going Gets Tough
Turning The Hobby You Love Into A Successful Business
10 Reasons Why Positivity Is So Essential For Work / Life Balance
Why Should You Care About Starting A Blog?
Email Marketing: How to Keep Your Messages Out of Your Customer’s Spam Box
Combining Blogging and Social Media into a Truly Effective Strategy
5 Ways You Can Benefit By Using LinkedIn
How To Amp Up Your Visibility With Facebook

This article is published by Will Sherwood | The Sherwood Group |Website Design | Graphic Design | Marketing Communications: The Sherwood Group has over 30 years of experience working with all sorts of companies, small and large. Our clients range from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 firms, in nearly every business sector, from across the street to around the world (and yes, even Europe, China, and South America). Our goal is to create advertising,  graphic design, website design, and marketing communication that still looks fresh and relevant 10-15 years later. Our mission is to stir your imagination and leave your competition shaken and wondering,  Now what do we do?”  We are located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Do you need help growing your business? Click here to check out the social media marketing and website design packages from The Sherwood Group. We’ll help you capture new business and achieve your goals.

“Like” us and/or “Follow” us at these social media sites and we’ll return the favor:

LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

Please comment. We’d like to know if you found this article informative or helpful?