In our social media series thus far we have discussed determining which social media platform is best for your small business, how to create and design a Facebook fan page, and today we are discussing the wonderful world of Pinterest. I remember getting the invitation to beta test Pinterest a couple of years ago and I immediately fell in love with the platform. At the time a plethora of people and some still are very much in love with Tumblr. Tumblr lacked in several areas, primarily, giving people credit for the image. Pinterest virtually solved this problem, even though, there are still dead-end pins sometimes.
Creating A Business Pinterest
I only have one Pinterest account and its a business account versus having a personal one as well. If you want to have multiple accounts I think that is fine. I have a hard enough time managing a personal Facebook, twitter, and Instagram; I don’t need to add managing a personal Pinterest too. You can create an account in less than 30 minutes. You have the option of creating an account linked to existing social media accounts: Twitter, Facebook, and Google +, or using your email. Make sure you add your profile picture, biography, and link to your website. Make sure you also verify your website too.
Establishing Boards
More and more people are using Pinterest as a search engine for their needs. At first people were using cute catchy phrases for their boards but since Pinterest has changed their algorithms and other things that don’t help you get discovered. You need to be straight forward on what your board is. For example, if you are a hairstyle you can create boards such as: Dutch Braid, French Braid, Frozen Braid, Natural Hair, Crochet Braids, Box Braids, Hair Health, Healthy Hair Tips etc.,. You don’t just want one braid board. You want multiple boards giving your audiences chances to dig deeper. You can also design beautiful pinterest cover photo’s like I did awhile back.
Descriptive Text and Tags
All images should come with descriptive text, letting viewers know what this pin is all about. You can use a mix of words and hashtags. Don’t just say this is the Elsa braid from Frozen. Write: Elsa braid from Frozen with shoulder length wavy hair. 
Rich Pins
As of lately the new buzz word going on is “rich pins”. Rich pins are pins that include extra information right on the pin itself. Right now, there are five types of rich pins: movie, recipe, article, product, and place. If you are a blogger the article one pertains to you and the product one for the business owner. You can follow these easy steps on creating rich pins for your articles, products, or recipes.
Visually Appealing Images
The best images on Pinterest are simply beautiful; they are also vertical. This is something I recently learned. Vertical imagery is taking up the most real estate on their site versus horizontal images. It’s also important to make the image beautiful. It has to catch peoples eyes in order for them to want to pin it. Using great font and graphics are essential. You can use DIY Online Graphic Design Tools to make your pins stand out from everyone else’s.
Plugin for Pinterest
Allowing users to pin directly from your site is really important. If you hover over the images on our post you can see a “Pinterest” icon pop up. This allows you as readers to pin the image, and the text will automatically be included. In addition to, a link to the specific place the image is located. You can install jQuery Pin It Button on your WordPress blog or shopping cart. This is different from the share it icons you already have. It makes it easier for your readers or shoppers to share versus them installing Pinterest on their toolbar.
Pinterest is a huge driving source for this site and ICB Consults. I wrote Small Business Tax Write Offs in 2013, yet it still brings new traffic to my site daily. Are you using Pinterest to drive traffic to your site? How is it working for you? If you want to check out some books on the subject check out: Pinterest Power
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