Guess What - You Can Use Pinterest for Business Now!

In May 2012, Pinterest had almost 10 million active users and was valued at $1.5 billion. By February, 2013, its valuation jumped to the $2-2.5 billion range. 

Before pinning

• Audience. Your business’s role on Pinterest is determined in large part by your target audience, or your customer base. What does your target market want to see?
• Boards. How shall you define the boards?
• Sharibility. Don’t forget to ready your website (and your blog!) by snagging and integrating the Pinterest share buttons.

Begin to pin
Develop a strategy to go with your Pinterest activity. For instance, what kind of time should be devoted and how often should the person behind your business on Pinterest engage with your followers? 

• Check sources. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that what we’re sharing belongs to someone else. Take a look at the source before you repin something to determine if it’s valid. And, if you pin something original, you may want to add a watermark specific to your business to preserve the image’s origins.
• Product placement. If you’re going to be displaying pins of your products, don’t forget to add the price to its description as well as backlinks to a purchase page.

Tracking pins
Your business will have a very real “Pinfluence” so it’s important to track your impact. You can use basic tracking tools like PinReach, Pinalytics and Reachli—all of which are free! Keep an eye on who is pinning and repinning your images. This is especially exciting when you notice new customers engaging with your content. Here’s how to capitalize on each new interaction:

• Thank you shout-outs. Use the @Tag to mention other users that have repinned your business images. It’s always nice to be recognized!
• Use special offers to drive pins and repins. Draft a blog that highlights your new place on Pinterest and allude to special offers that come with new interactions and repins. You can note special offers in the image description or you can house the special offers on your site. When you’ve matched people with Pinterest profile repins, include some fun promotional products in their order, things like a fun mood frame magnet, can cooler or beanie.
• Offer promotional codes and reduced rates. Instead of gifts, you could also offer a one-time reduced rate.

Celebrate pins

Up your engagement by engineering a contest for your customers and followers on Pinterest. Ask them to snap a photo of something they created with products from you. 

Ask followers to vote on winners by repinning submissions. Then, when the votes—or repins—are all in, send some applause the winner’s way with a cool gift like a digital photo frame so they can continue to enjoy their photos—and think of you!

Thanks to Mark for all of his great ideas!