Demystifying Pinterest for Business: Part 2 of a Q&A Interview OSP 057

Here, at Oh So Pinteresting, we are all about demystifying Pinterest for business owners and marketers. In last week’s episode of the Oh So Pinteresting podcast I brought you Part 1 of a 2 part conversation I recently had with Sebastian Galbraith, co-owner of Honey Tree Bespoke Stationers.

Like many business owners, Sebastian has recognized the power of using Pinterest for his business but has some questions on how to best utilize it. In last week’s podcast episode, Striking Gold with Pinterest Hashtags and Comments, Sebastian had questions about  engaging with Pinterest users by commenting, he had run into some problems with the Pinterest commenting system.  He also discovered that he stumbled on to a very powerful use of hashtags on Pinterest.

Note: Please see the latest recommendations for using hashtags on Pinterest.

In this episode

Strategies to connect with leads on Pinterest

Users are flocking to Pinterest to plan weddings and other important events and often pin products from e-commerce sites to their boards. Sebastian and I talk about how he can use this as an opportunity to connect with future brides who have shown an interest in his products.

Pinterest VS Google

Pinterest is evolving more as a search tool than a social network. We discuss different ways that Pinterest has replaced Google for both of us.

How to refine and organize your Pinterest boards

I’m often asked if it is possible to organize and reorder Pinterest pins on a board. Unfortunately, at this time there isn’t.

There are ways to get your pins in the order that you’d like. You might remember Caribou Coffee was able create a story telling effect with their one of  their boards. To get this effect, they had to start off with a plan of the order they wanted their pins to appear then pin them in reverse order.

Pinterest account follower number VS board followers

When looking at a Pinterest account, you’ll often find that the overall follower number is very different that the number of followers for each board. Don’t be too concerned about the follower number. It’s better to have more followers that are interested in the boards that feature your products and services and that are most relevant to your business rather than a higher overall follower count.

 What a “Like” means Pinterest

Likes on Pinterest differ from likes on Facebook. Likes apply only to pins and not to accounts. Business on Pinterest can use them in different ways. For example, you find a pin that you think is interesting but it really doesn’t fit with your business account. If you like it instead of repinning it, the owner of that pin will get a notification that you liked it but it doesn’t have to be assigned to a specific board and your followers will not see it in their home feed.

Other business accounts use the like feature to curate pins lots of pins at once. They then move pins to appropriate boards a few at a time in order to not flood their followers with a lot of pins at once. (I prefer using secret boards for this.)

Group boards for business accounts

There are some advantages for using group boards on a business account but there are some things to be cautious of as well to protect your account from spammers. Sebastian and I chat about ways to invite people to group boards and who would be ideal to team up with.

The best tool for Pinning Instagram pictures to Pinterest

Pinning Instagram pictures to your Pinterest can be a great way to cross promote the platforms and give your Pinterest followers a behind the scenes look at your business.  Unfortunately, Instagram pictures are not pinnable from a mobile device or directly from the desktop version. From the desktop/web version of Instagram, a  a Google Chrome extension called ShotPin makes pinning a snap.

Connect with Sebastian and be sure to tell him you heard him on the podcast.

Honey Tree Bespoke Stationers

On Pinterest

On Instagram

Tools: ShotPin  * Must be used with Google Chrome and desktop version of Instagram

Big announcement! 

Registration for the next session of the Oh So Pinteresting Pinterest for Business Workshop is open! This workshop is designed to show you how to use Pinterest for your business to grow a following and bring traffic back to your website. On top of 3 training  sessions, a private Facebook group and 3 months of email support there are new bonus materials that you won’t want to miss.

The next 3 week live interactive session begins April 30, 2014. There are only 20 spots available for this workshop and at the time that this is being written there are only 10 spots left. Click to get your spot today!