I use a range of social media to market Epheriell and Create & Thrive, but by far, the most social media traffic to both sites comes from Pinterest. (Alas, of course, it’s hard to tell how much traffic comes from Instagram, because people can’t just click links, but we’ll put that aside for now).
I’ve been focussing on my Pinterest account for the last month, and have gained about 2,000 followers in this time (and growing rapidly). Considering I’ve been on there for a few years now, and only have about 7,550 followers as of writing this, you can see that this has been quite a rapid jump in follower numbers in a relatively small period of time.
So – what am I doing differently now than what I was doing before?
Just a few simple things, actually, that you can easily put in place yourself.
Make Pinning a Daily Habit
This is the biggest change I made, and if you do one thing, I advise that you do this. My pinning habit prior to this was haphazard at best – I’d pin new blog posts and the occasional product, and once in a while I’d re-pin a few things, but it was pretty sporadic.
Now – I pin every single day. Not only that, I pin 2-3 times a day, for about 5-10 minutes a time. Honestly, it’s super-easy and quick to do, especially once you establish the habit. The best thing to do would be to pick a few moments in the day when you know you’ve got a bit of ‘wait’ or down-time, and you can use your phone (I do almost all my pinning on my phone, because it’s quick and convenient, and I prefer the app to the website).
For me, this means I pin:
- In the morning in bed while I’m drinking my first cup of coffee.
- During the day if I’m on a train, in the passenger seat of a car, sitting waiting at the doctor’s etc…
- In the evening – often while watching TV (during the ad breaks for example) or just before I turn my internet off on my phone for the night.
Most of this is re-pinning, rather than pinning new things. More on the latter below. I actually find re-pinning quite relaxing and enjoyable – it’s basically just looking at pretty pictures, after all!
Pin with a Plan
It’s important to have a goal and a plan in place when you start pinning. What are you trying to achieve? Who are you trying to reach? You need to know your target market/ideal customer, and from there, you can work out what sort of content they are going to enjoy – and re-pin themselves.
For example, I actually have at least 3 ideal customers whom I am trying to reach with my pinterest account. First – fellow makers who want to sell their work. Second – women who would buy my jewellery. Third – men who would buy my jewellery… specifically, my wedding rings.
I have pinboards that appeal to all three of these demographics. For my fellow makers, I have a Crafty board where I pin DIYs. I also have a range of boards where I pin info to help them with their biz, such as Social Media Tips for Handmade Business and Quotes and Thoughts for Creatives. I also have a board that showcases workshops and studios, because we all like to see where and how others work. For my jewellery customers, I have men’s and women’s style boards, an Eco Wedding Inspiration board, and a range of other boards that all reflect the ‘Epheriell style’ – which, thankfully, is very close to my own personal style. I’m guessing if you make things, the same goes for you.
I also pin stuff just for me – I choose to use a personal pinterest account rather than a business account, because I can more easily grow it. Because you can separate your pins into boards, I think that gives enough separation between the different businesses. Of course, if you just have one business, it make sense to have a business account!
Pin New Things
While re-pinning is awesome, and will definitely help you to gain new followers, you’ll really benefit from pinning new things. There are a couple of reasons for this.
First, you obviously want to be pinning your own work. Product photos, blog post images, instagram photos – you want to leverage your pinterest followers and market your business. That’s the whole point, right? So, you want to make pinning these sorts of things a habit, too. I pin instagram photos right from my phone – it saves all instagram photos to a folder in my picture gallery, so I can upload them straight from there to pinterest. I pin images from my own blog posts when I publish them, and I pin new and old products on a regular basis – a few times a week.
Second, you want to be pinning new things so that you become a bit of a taste-maker. People like to follow pinners who share fresh and new things with them. Be the person adding new content, not just the one re-pinning old content.
Third, you want to be building your brand – and by pinning new things that align with your brand, you’ll be doing just that. Use the boards you created in the previous step as a guide to help you search for new content to pin.
Cross-Promote Your Pinterest Account
Make it easy for people to find and follow you on Pinterest.
Put links on your blog/site. Share pins on other social sites (like facebook and instagram) and link back to your pinterest account/boards. Obviously, if you’re sharing other people’s images elsewhere, you need to credit them/tell people where to find the original image so they can follow up if they want to.
Entice people with what you’re sharing over on pinterest, and hopefully they’ll pop over and follow you to see more.
Once you have a pinterest account and a decent amount of boards set up, my top advice really is to be consistent.
Of course, this goes for all social media, but you have to decide what works for you, and how much time you have to spend on pinterest each day. I hope this post showed you that it doesn’t have to be complicated, or take up a lot of time. It can be quick, easy, and, of course, it’s bloody good fun, too!
Not sure what Pinterest is all about, or how to get started? Check out our Create & Thrive Guide to Getting Started with Social Media (This site/resource is no longer available) for a practical guide to getting started marketing your creative biz with Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
