Pinterest: What You Need To Know And How To Get Started

 Article written by Michael Dagvu.

With each passing day, social media’s impact on society keeps growing. Given the fact that most businesses model their enterprises to revolve around human experiences, social media has been gaining currency in the corporate world.

At present, it’s almost impossible to find an entrepreneurial establishment that does not have a social media presence. Luckily enough, there are a plethora of various social media companies out there that we can all dedicate a fraction of our lives to post about the intricacies of life.

Each platform is designed to cater to specific audiences and to function in a certain way. Ultimately though, the objective is always to connect with both friends and strangers. Because of the varied optics at play, each platform radiates a different vibe to users.

Effectively, this means that there are different levels of engagement among users. Thus, the failure to connect with a particular audience on one platform may not necessarily mean that the same rule applies to every other option out there.

Whatever the choice of social media platform, to become a maestro, the most important thing one needs to be aware of is the target audience. The next item on the agenda should be how to reach specific members on each platform.

Familiarizing with Pinterest

By design, Pinterest is a stand-alone graphic social network that aims to inform through the sharing of picturesque content. How does it work? Simple. Users share images from all around the web by pinning them on a couple of virtual boards. At present, more than 1 billion boards have been created on Pinterest.

Interestingly, once users click on the pins, they are redirected to a website outside of Pinterest…and that, is where the fun begins. As an entrepreneur, the goal is always to draw users towards a particular service you’re selling to the masses.

With Pinterest, content is judged purely off face value. The elegance of a picture, the pulling power of a headline, and the descriptions that follow can massively draw visitors to your website.

In 2014, Pinterest was cited to be the fastest growing social network. In that year alone, it grew by a whopping 97 percent. At present, the site has more than 200 million users.

Remarkably, a good percentage of users are millennials.  In light of their good showings in recent times, the social media company is set to have an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2019.

To truly comprehend the magic behind Pinterest, one should first forget all conventional knowledge one has about how social media platforms work. While the site is a social media platform by definition, it really doesn’t act like one.

The site operates off a set algorithm that determines how content gets suggested to users based on their activity on the site. The algorithm also takes into account which other websites users visit. The design element that Pinterest embraced in order to set itself apart from the competition has been impressive. This is especially true when one considers the fact that Pinterest earned nearly $500 million in revenue in 2017. At present, the company is valued at more than $12 billion.

The Distinction

Ben Silbermann, the co-founder and CEO, backed up the assertion by many that Pinterest is not like other social media sites. He made the comments during Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference and alluded to the fact that Pinterest works more like a handpicked catalogue.

Typically, social networks like Facebook and Instagram are all about the upload of content for likes and comments. On the other hand, Pinterest users pin items on a board in order to reference it later on. For most users, the objective is to simply collect useful and inspiring content.

Just last month, Pinterest added a new “Following” tab in the app. The feature introduced a completely new approach to browse content in one’s feed. The company revealed that it’s now easy to see pins from people one follows.

At present, most social media sites do not have a streamlined chronological feed. The latest changes on Pinterest are intended to bring back the fun in social media. Noticeably, Pinterest has blurred the lines since it still functions like a curated app whilst operating on a social media base.

Pinterest is greatly visual-centric since it is personalized on what one searches, what is pinned, and who one follows, just like Instagram. The key distinction is that unlike Instagram, the site is not overly obsessed with the number of comments and likes one registers. From a numbers perspective, the data shows that every day, about 2 million people pin product rich pins.

Impressively, despite the focus on sharing links to blogs, websites and retailers, Pinterest facilitates uploads from one’s camera roll. Essentially, Pinterest offers the best of both worlds, the conventional power of social media without all the drawbacks and a solid platform to grow your business.

Ready to get Pinning?

By sharing content that one finds appealing with others, one can receive more engagements from other Pinterest users. The more followers one amasses over time, the more likely one can build their brand and funnel traffic to their website. We’ve outlined the steps below to help you get started.

1 - Create Your Account

All one needs to do is fill out information on the registration page, a process that can take about 15 seconds to complete. A great way to grow your following right from the start is by making use of a company email address shared by multiple employees.

Once the email phase is done and dusted, proceed to completing the profile section and choose a fitting profile photo. Logos seem to work best in most situation. Make sure to always have one at the ready. If you don’t, you can make use of sites like Canva that have eased the logo design process to being only a couple of clicks away.

2 - Creating Your First Boards

In essence, boards serve to reflect the company’s personality. In order to appeal to the masses, it’s always advisable to incorporate a mix of both professional and casual boards. Importantly, the casual boards should not be simply random reflections; instead, they should be loosely connected to the nature of the company.

3 - Integrate Pins

Websites often have a “pin it” button that embed Pinterest in their setup. Thus, if one has the opportunity to do so, they should definitely go for it and increase their interactions with others. Since it’s social media, one can engage in some promo work by notifying friends and family to check out their pinned content.

4 - Assess Pins

Before posting pins, it’s always good practice to confirm that the pin links are fully functional and that they redirect to the right sites. Ideally, pins need to be spaced out in order to take advantage of Pinterest’s cyclical design that facilitates pins to remain in view for days or weeks on end.

The figures show that about 93% of active pinners use Pinterest to schedule purchases and 87 percent of pinners admit to purchasing something simply because they saw it on Pinterest. Thus, it’s quintessential to ensure that the pins shared are accurate.

5 - Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Google, one of the giant tech companies of our times, allows companies to stretch their limits by presenting them with the opportunity to creatively achieve higher rankings in search engine result pages (SERPs). It’s essential to always use make frequent use of #hashtags and keyword-rich, eye-catching captions.

You can also improve rankings by pinning original images and content from websites whenever you have the opportunity. When done over time, a pattern develops and most of the traffic will be driven towards those select sites. It’s that easy!