Since its inception, Pinterest has offered companies an opportunity to engage their customers, and they’ve been adding features such as Rich Pins and Promoted Pins to make it even more appealing to businesses. Whether you’ve been pinning away for months or you have yet to join this visual social platform, these best practices will help you pin to win!

• Make sure you have a verified business account:

  If you have not yet started using Pinterest for your business, you’ll want to set up your profile as a business account. This involves verifying your website by uploading a file provided by Pinterest. If you’re not sure how to do this, reach out to your web team. You may convert an account you have already set up as a general user using the same process as well.

• Include links back to your site on pictures that you own:

  Beyond creating connections with your customers, Pinterest allows you to build quality links back to your site. Though you may pin images directly from your website, Pinterest also allows you to upload photos from your computer or smartphone. Though these photos may not be the best fit for your website, if you have taken them, or have permission from the staff member or customer who took them, you may manually add a link back to your site. Once you’ve uploaded an image, simply edit the pin and copy and paste the link into the field provided. Just be sure to use a link that makes sense with that pin. For instance, link pictures from your company holiday party to your “About Us” or “Meet Our Team” page.

• Do NOT link back to your site on pictures that you don’t own:

  One of the biggest mistakes businesses make on Pinterest is linking images that they don’t own the rights to back to their websites. Not only does this annoy users, considering the pin will not lead them where they expected, it is also a form of plagiarism. If you are pinned or re-pinning images from other sites, be sure to include the link to the original source!

• Engage with Other Users:

  Pinterest is a social platform, so get social! Be sure to follow other users, re-pin content that they pin, comment on their pins and so on. This will allow you to gain exposure and find content that your customers will value. These users may just repin your images (thus building more links back to your site) as well.

• Use the Pinterest plugin on Facebook:

  If your business is also on Facebook, connect your Pinterest to your Facebook account and use a plugin to preview your pins within the Facebook environment. Promoting across platforms lets you maximize your impact and reach.

Still need a little guidance to set up your businesses Pinterest account? It’s not too late to sign up for our Pinterest for Business webinar, taking place this Wednesday from 8pm to 9:15pm. Or if you prefer, schedule a consultation with the Technology Therapy team. We’ll help you develop a winning Pinterest strategy whether you want to implement it yourself or leave it to our team to manage, allowing you to focus on what you do best.