Pinterest: Creating boards that attract business
Pinterest: Creating boards that attract business | via #BornToBeSocial

Pinterest: Creating boards that attract business

Pinterest: Creating boards that attract business – Have you set up your Pinterest account for your business and wondering what kind of boards to create to attract potential customers? Here are some tips and guidelines to get you started.

Before going into the type and content of boards to be created, here is a quick explanation on how to create a board on Pinterest in two easy steps!

Step 1 – Go to top right corner of your Pinterest page and select “Create a board”

Click on "Create a board"

Click on “Create a board”












Step 2 – Enter Name, Description & Category

If you want to create a Place Board, select “Yes” for “Add a map?”. If you decide to create the board as a “Secret” (private) board before publishing it publicly, you should select “Yes” for “Keep it secret?”.

Fill in your board information

Fill in your board information

You are ready to start pinning!

Initially, create at least 5 boards to fill up the first row when your Pinterest page is viewed on a PC. When viewed on the Pinterest mobile app, your boards will show up in single or double columns, depending on the screen size. Having 5 boards ensures the screen is showing a reasonable amount of content on first view, whatever the screen size. For your page to attract followers, you should create more boards, at least 20. My recommendation is to create around 40-80 boards.

Board name and description

Adding keywords to your board titles and descriptions will increase the chances of being found not only on Pinterest, but will also boost SEO on other search engines. Be specific in your board title. Use keywords that people will search for. All boards should contain a description, even if it is only a short one. The description can contain up to 500 characters. If you ever need to change a board name, you need to know that board URLs include the name of the board. If you change the board name, the URL to that board will change and will break any links to that board. This does not apply to pin URLs that can be moved between boards without breaking their links.

Create a secret board first

If you want to test how the board content will look before publishing it, pin your content to a private board. Once you are happy with the content, you can publish it by setting “Keep it secret” to “No” (Edit board). Warning: once a secret board has been made public, it cannot be changed back to being private.

What kind of boards should I create to market my business on Pinterest?

When you start creating boards, it is critical to understand your audience’s online interests and behaviours. The power of Pinterest, as for any marketing channel, lies in knowing your clients and speaking to them. In their book “Pinterest Power”, Jason Miles and Karen Lacey, came up with the following list of questions that provide a framework to create pinboards that will address your clients hottest topics:

  1. Why would people be interested in your niche? Make a list of as many reasons as you can think of.
  2. Do they have fears and frustrations that could be addressed?
  3. What do they enjoy most about this niche?
  4. What different end goals will they achieve with your product or service?
  5. What are they most passionate about in relation to these end goals?
  6. How can you help them achieve these passions and goals?
  7. Will there be other hobbies or interests these people might share?
  8. Are they generally affluent or thrifty?
  9. Are they conservative or progressive?
  10. Do they share a worldview that resonates with you?





Board ideas for your business

Once you clearly understand your audience by answering the questions above, you can decide how to best market your business to them. Do not fill your page with boards that only relate to your business activities. You need to have a good mix of board topics that resonate with your audience. Here are some key types of boards to include on your Pinterest page.

Business board

Create a board that is dedicated uniquely to your business. Pin any content related to your activities such as links to your blog posts, your products and services on this board first. Repin it to other boards later (not at the same time to avoid the same pins appearing side by side in the feeds of your followers). This should be the first board people see on your Pinterest page.

Place Pin board

Place Pin boards are especially well-suited to travel and tourism businesses, but with some creative thought, they can be turned to the advantage of any business. Put your business on the map. If your business is located in more than one town or area, share pictures from other branches. You sell products that you source from different areas? Show them on a map! You work with partners in different geographical locations? Pin their images and their location on a place pin board.

One or more community boards

Collaborative boards are a great way to get more followers. You can turn any of your boards into a group board. All you have to do is invite people to join (Edit board). It is always best to contact invitees via e-mail before sending the Pinterest invitation. That way, you can clearly explain the scope and purpose of the board, as well as specifying the type of pins to post. Note that, in order for this to work both you and the invitee need to follow each other.

Niche boards

Refine your board topics. Do something different from other businesses. Highly targeted niche boards, stay relevant to people’s interests and tend to gain loyal followers. Take a look at your boards. Are there any specialisations within that topic that you can dedicate a board to?

Tell a story

Take and pin pictures behind the scenes to show your customers how you work or show them internal initiatives. Perhaps you are helping out to clean up a local river or your team is participating in a local sports event. How are you improving the lives of your customers and clients? Tell their stories.

Share Tips & Demonstrate

Provide information and tips that Pinners want to know. For example, how to plant a herb garden, how to take good pictures, DIY tips, etc.

Popular topics

Besides creating boards that resonate with your intended audience, there are certain “generic” types of boards that do particularly well on Pinterest. People go to Pinterest for inspiration for many aspects of their daily lives such as travel, beauty, fashion, DIY, recipes, photography, art, party planning, design, infographics, gardening, to name but a few. By adding some variety to your boards, you will have a greater appeal not only to your target audience, but to a wider community as well.

Seasonal boards

Make sure to have a holiday board for each major holiday or season. Easter and Christmas boards are very popular, as well as summer boards – summer is just around the corner, so get started!

Organise your boards

Finally, make sure that the boards you have created are well organised with attractive cover images that make it obvious, in one glance, what the board is about. You can order them in alphabetical order, by topic, by most popular. However you decide to organise them make sure it is easy for your followers to figure out.

Since I am in the business of social media, and in particular Pinterest, my business and Pinterest boards are at the top, closely followed by other social media boards. Lower down are boards in areas of interest that are not necessarily directly linked to my core business and at the bottom of my page are group boards that I do not own, but that I contribute to. To change the position of a board, just hover over it and pick it up with your mouse to move it to the desired spot.

BornToBeSocial's boards on Pinterest

BornToBeSocial’s boards on Pinterest

Over to you! What boards are you going to create? What stories can you tell? Do you have any other tips to share? Leave me a comment below. I would love to hear from you!



Pinterest: Creating boards that attract business | via #BornToBeSocial

Mary Lumley | BornToBeSocial | Pinterest Marketing, Consulting & Training | Conseil Pinterest
Pinterest: Creating boards that attract business | Pin to Win Business!

Leave a Comment:

2 comments
Les Petits Pois sont Bleus says 3 June 2014

Bonjour,
Merci pour cet article si instructif. Je constate que j’ai déjà appliqué la plupart de vs conseils ! Ouf !
Je garde votre blog dans mes favoris, alors à bientôt,
Val, Les Petits Pois sont Bleus

Reply
    Mary Lumley says 3 June 2014

    Merci Val! Ravie de figurer parmi vos blogs préférés – merci pour le repin de mon article 🙂

    Reply
Add Your Reply