Pinterest, the social scrapbook

Created as an invitation-only network in 2010 by Ben Silbermann, Pinterest is a social media site for sharing “pins.” Pins are photos with embedded links that you can save on any number of customized bulletin boards (“boards”), like a scrapbook. As of November of last year, you can also create a business-specific account (Pinterest for Business.)

In fact, the top 5 uses of the site are business, marketing, SEO, social media, and…crafts. Food and wedding dresses don’t make the list, but if you have a personal account, you might be inundated by pins in those categories. Pinterest is also an excellent source of infographics, and there are a number of pinners specializing in infographics, social media, networking, and marketing. If you have business tips, for example, find a relevant image and pin it with a link to the tips. We’ll most likely pin this post to the Athgo Pinterest.

After creating an account, personal or business, you’ll need to get connected to other Pinners, create boards, and start pinning. Use the search feature often to find relevant pins, boards, or pinners and start re-pinning things your customers and followers will want to use. The more pinners and boards you follow, the more content you’ll find on the dashboard, but you’ll want to search for new sources of “pinspiration” often.

In the “Get Started” section, you can find instructions on how to verify your website (for the sake of legitimacy.)

This is easier if you have a bounty of images on your business’s website, or can find relevant images to use for pins. You can add links from external sources with the “Add+” feature, and Pinterest will search the source for viable images. The links remain on yours and other people’s boards, and constantly drive traffic back to the source.

Use sites like Google Analytics and Alexa to monitor the traffic your website receives, and you can learn how to optimize your Pinterest. Add the “Pin it” button to posts, and a Pinterest icon to your website to drive traffic from your website to your Pinterest.

Create as many relevant boards as you can to provide followers and customers what they would be looking for.

Read some of these case studies to see how other businesses optimize their Pinterest accounts.

Host Pinterest contests, share boards with other pinners, and ask followers on your other networks to suggest pins.

– You can follow pinners or any number of their individual boards. Make sure you check out a pinner’s other boards to keep your dashboard tailored to your interests.

– Keep your boards organized and well-titled, so they’re easy to find, search-engine optimized, and your followers know what to expect.

– Pinterest moves a little more slowly than Twitter, in terms of how often people engage with each other and how much action your dashboard will get, so to get the best out of it, pin often. You can re-pin upwards of 10 pins a day, for example (unlike on Facebook, where you wouldn’t post 10 status updates a day.)