This may, or may not be my final post on Pinterest, you just never know, plus stuff changes all the time, so we will just wing it.
Now take some advice from someone with short pink curly hair who just went through days of torture getting their shit together on Pinterest, DO NOT DO WHAT I DID when I first started out. That is, just randomly pinned away with no thought process or sense of direction. Take your time and do it right and it will save you time in the end. First, make a list of boards that will fit your product AND fill the needs of your peeps. ( We reviewed that before). Get all those boards up and ready to go. Include one board with the name of your business and fill it with just your items ( yes, the exception to the rule), but if someone wants to see just your stuff it is right there, and make it your first board. DO NOT just fill your boards all at once, no no no. Spacing your saves out throughout the day will get you more exposure, I just experimented for my 2 week free trial of a pin scheduler, and gained 30 followers, it works. I won't go into all the nitty gritty details of the schedulers, but the basic idea is you space out your pins over a course of days and hours. I am not into analyzing every last detail, but spacing out your pins is definitely a must. I tried Tailwind for free for 100 pins. It works well, it has a little bit of a learning curve, and there are a lot of bells and whistles, that I didn't really need. The interface is a little overwhelming, but the Chrome extension is nice, you can also choose more than one board at a time. Buffer has a similar set up as Tailwind and you can use it free for 2 weeks and put up to 100 pins in queue. The interface is a little less intimidating, and it also has a nice extension that enables you to pin right from your Etsy listing. Viralwoot also has a free trial for 100 pins. I did not like it, it was awkward, and you had to do too much copy and pasting for me. But give it a whirl, it's a free trial. Finally, I tried Boardbooster, it creates mirror boards for you to pin to, and then pins to the real boards when you schedule it. I would try all of them, you get a ton of pins you can schedule for free, and you do not have to give any credit card info. Now you have scheduled pins, you have some followers, now let us check out this analytics section in Pinterest. In the top left you will see Analytics, it is a great tool! Under overview, you will see how many people are looking at your stuff, and who has engaged. Etsy sellers, you DO NOT have to confirm your website, it is taken care of when you pin from Etsy. Slide down a bit and you will see your top pins. An R next to them means it is a rich pin. An Etsy pin should be a rich pin because it is a product and includes a price. Now go back up to your profile, and hit more. You will get more info on views, repins, and clicks to your website. You can even see what pins are your all stars. My favorite feature however, is people you reach, this can be found under the Analytics tab at the top left of the screen. This tells you exactly who is looking at your items and where they live. My viewers are split between the East and West coast. This means I want to pin early in my time zone until late to capture the time difference. But my FAVORITE of all feature here, is interests. This will tell you EXACTLY what your people are into. Now use this in a common sense way. I do home decor, I am not pinning about makeup tips, however, my people love inspirational quotes. So, a board on motivational quotes that include some of my artwork would be a perfect addition to my other boards. In conclusion, save only what is consistent to your brand, no pink unicorns if you are goth and vice versa. Make sure your pics are great. Make sure every Etsy listing has a nice description under it. Make sure everything you post has a working link. This is my pet peeve, I just went to look at something and it led to me to hooka pipes, not cool if you are at work. Do not pin all at once, space it out and use a scheduler. Be creative! Create boards for gift ideas, gift guides etc. Most of all have fun! Happy pinning ( er, Saving) Dawn
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So we have figured out that Pinterest rocks, and you need it for your business. So let's get started. You will want to have a business account, and you should use your business name. Here is the link to get you started. I suggest you use your business email, so mine is The Quirky Image, you really want to keep your business stuff separate from your personal stuff . If you want to use your existing Pinterest account that is personal, just make all the non business boards hidden, it makes it look more professional.
Now, set up your profile, scroll down and fill in the blanks. I learned a neat tip along the way, don't just use your business name, put a - and add in some keywords to describe your business. So, in my case, it is The Quirky Image-Rustic, Farmhouse, and Coastal decor. See, you have my name, what I make, and keywords all in one little spot. Now, for your pic, do not use a logo!!! YOU are the business, put a nice smiling picture up there so folks can relate to a real live person. Fill in the about section, your location, your website name etc. now at the very end Save your settings! Now on your page you should have your business name, your smiling face, your website link, and a brief description about you! Next up, I will be explaining how to set up boards, what you want to save ( no, it is not all about you!), and how to keep your brand strong across your boards. See ya then! So, you have your business account all set up with all the tips from my previous posts and you are ready to start going to town! Now, before you do it all wrong, like I did, here are some more tips and tricks. Your goal is 100 pins per board. To create a board, you simply tap on your profile, and tap the + sign, and create your board. Now you want to name the board, I would use something that utilizes a search term, like Rustic Home Decor, or Christmas crafts for kids, etc. Home decor, DIY, crafts and recipes are huge on Pinterest. At the same time, don't create something that has nothing to do with your business or brand. My home decor has nothing to do with recipes, but if you make kitchen items, then you can find a way to link them together. Once you create your board, tap the little pencil looking guy on the top left, this will let you describe your board, put it in a category, and make it public or secret ( more about secret later). Now you can pin ( sorry save). Now do not go nuts and save only your items! You are providing a service to folks, it is all about them. So, I have a funny sign..... This is on a board for Bathroom decor, in that board I also have all kinds of bathroom decor ideas, 20% of the board is my items, 80% is other folks stuff. I go through Pinterest for ideas, but I also just go to Etsy and look for cool ideas. Now when you save your pin, there is a little space underneath where you can write something, do it!! I copy the first few lines of my product listing and add it in. So, now this guy is saved and described on a board. Now don't stop there, what else describes this item? It is Funny Home Decor, it could be on a Housewarming Gift Ideas board, Rustic Decor, etc. Just don't pin it all at the same time, space it out or Pinterest will see it as spammy. There are some awesome tools to help you with scheduling your pins, I HIGHLY recommend that you use one of them, or you will forget what has been saved where. I will address that concept in my next post on advanced Pinterest concepts.
Final word of advice on this post, keep your boards in line with your brand! There will be more about that later, but basically, if your shop brand is all about black and goth, your boards should follow that theme, folks will be really confused if they see pink unicorns on your boards. My brand is bright and colorful and cheery, most of my boards incorporate my brand colors of pink and blue and maroon. Well, that should get you started, there will be more to come, and if you want to know something more, let me know!!
When you first start an online business people tell you to hit social media with all you got. So you use Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogs, and the list goes on and on. The problem is, you need followers for those, and that is hard to get sometimes. Pinterest on the other hand requires that you just share good content and then that little share has the potential to be shared forever.
What confuses most folks is what to pin ( or share) as it is called now. Think of Pinterest as a search engine, people are looking for something and you are going to give it to them. Your boards should be 80% OPS ( other people's stuff), and 20% your content, otherwise you just look spammy.
This little guy has 26,675 views in 30 days. All natural, no crazy stuff on my part. Now, what kind of board could this go on? I have a beach decor board, a funny home decor board, a board with my business name, and 2 group boards. I have plans to add more boards that this could fit in, like gifts for beach lover, or funny gifts. The more boards, the more the chance of being found, and the more pins ( or saves) you will get.
So that is the why you want to use Pinterest, I will be posting more on business accounts vs personal accounts and all that fun stuff. Happy pinning! ( or saving )
Here is how it all begins, a little coffee, my laptop, a design idea and a blank piece of select pine wood. This particular design was requested by a customer who wants to run in every state. ( You go girl!)
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AuthorHi! My name is Dawn and I am the owner, designer, and creator of The Quirky Image. I just retired after 25 years in the medical field, and am living the dream in sunny Florida with my husband. Archives
March 2018
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