What Is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social media platform that acts as a virtual pin board.

Is it Really a Good Platform for business?

• 70% of users say they visit the site to find items to purchase.

• Pinterest sends more traffic to websites than Yahoo!

• The average purchase generated by Pinterest is double the amount of those started on Facebook or Twitter - about $180.

• 80% of pins are repins (as opposed to about 5% or Tweets that are ReTweets) – can you say viral?!

Is Pinterest a Good Platform for MY Business?

Getting Started on Pinterest

Visit Business.Pinterest.com to set up your business account.

Use keywords in your description.

Hashtags are not functional here.

Uploading a business profile photo is

quick and easy, but choose wisely. While

a logo may work for large companies,

given the audience that Pinterest has,

you may choose something a more

personal.

Make sure you verify your website after you set up your account.

Set up Some Boards

Create a board by clicking on the "+" button next to your name.

You might want to create only secret boards at first. You can make them public when they are ready for the world to see.

Start Pinning!

Get the bookmarklet: http://about.pinterest.com/goodies/#browser

If your pin links to a product or service for sale, add a price to your pin by simply including a dollar sign and price in the description.

Some Strategies for Success

1. Make it easy for website visitors to pin your images with plugins that show either a floating "share" button, or one that appears when a visitor hovers over an image.

2. Make custom “pinnable” images for your blog posts. Including the content description in the image itself improves performance.

Timing is (almost) Everything.

3. The most popular times to be on Pinterest (and, ostensibly, the best times to post) are early morning, late at night and Saturday mornings.

But experiment – your audience could be different.

4. Accept a few Group Board invitations and contribute! Try repinning from your company boards.

Keep Learning!

• On our blog: http://bit.ly/PinterestSSM

• Subscribe to our blog: http://bit.ly/SSMEmails

• Our ebook: http://bit.ly/PinterestbookSSM

• Official Pinterest for Business Blog: http://businessblog.pinterest.com/

• HubSpot’s Pinterest Blog Topics: http://bit.ly/HubSpotPinterest