Pinterest is the visual social media platform on the block and, with more referring traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined, many businesses are jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon to reap the benefits.

In this Firefly series “Pinterest for your Business” we will discuss tips that will help you determine if your business can benefit from a Pinterest account and give you a few tips on getting started.

What is Pinterest?

If you are not familiar, Pinterest is a virtual pinboard; it allows you to organize and share photos of all of the things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other users to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. People use pinboards to plan weddings, decorate homes, and share and store favorite recipes, products, photos and more.

Pinterest is different than other social media in that not every business is going to be a good fit for the platform. However, businesses that are a fit for this “new visual social media” platform will be at the reach of their customers all over the world.

Today, we will be discussing Part 1 of our series, which will be a Pinning 101 guide to help you get started on Pinterest.

Part 1 – Pinning 101

1. Pin – A pin starts with an image or video you add to Pinterest. You can add a pin from a website using the Pin It bookmarklet or upload an image right from your computer. Any pin on Pinterest can be repinned, and all pins link back to their source.

2. Repin – You can repin any pin you’ve found on Pinterest to your own board. When you repin, the user who first pinned the image will also get credit. A repin keeps the source of the original pin no matter how many times it’s repinned.

3. Follow – When you follow someone, their pins show up in your Pinterest home feed. You can follow all of someone’s boards or just the ones you like best. To manage who you’re following, go to your profile and click Following.

4. Add Pin It Button to your site – In order to make it easier for users to pin images from your site, a button will need to be placed on the site. There are a few options for this:

Install a “Pin it” button into the design of your site right along with your other social media icons, linking users right to your Pinterest profile.

Install a “Pin it” button on photo gallery pages, content pages, blog posts, etc. This allows users to repin any photo easily and quickly, increasing engagement.

5. Board – A board is where you organize your pins by topic. You could pin Social Media infographics for your business to your Marketing projects board, for example. Boards can be secret or public, and you can invite other people to pin with you on any of your boards.

Want to learn more?

Download our infographic by clicking below to get more information about Pinterest and see if your business is a good fit for the new social media bandwagon!

Stay tuned in this series to learn more about Pinterest Marketing. Next in this series we will discuss the gender, and age demographic and how it affects business’ being a good fit for the social media platform.