You may feel you have enough social media sites to maintain, but let me introduce you to one more to consider: Pinterest. Pinterest is basically a visual way of bookmarking and organizing what interests you on the Web. Through it, you “pin” images to your pinboards. Those of you in visual fields, such as photographers, florists, designers, architects and others, should consider using it.
For example, if you’re a florist, it’s a great tool. You can create pinboards of different flower arrangements, but rather than have one giant board devoted to flowers, consider organizing your pinboards further. You may want to have pinboards that focus on different colors, such as a pinboard dedicated to pink flower arrangements and another devoted to yellow arrangements. Or maybe it would make more sense to have a board for sleek, modern arrangements and another for more rustic or unstructured pieces.
Someone in the invitation business could create a pinboard dedicated to interesting fonts and another for invitation graphics.
Here’s what else to keep in mind on Pinterest:
- Your pinboards are public, and Pinterest is designed to be a community. You can follow others’ pinboards and “like” pins, comment on them or repin them on your own boards. Interacting with others will make it more likely that you and your boards will get noticed.
- The pinned photo retains the url of the site it came from. So if someone pins a photo from your blog, and four people repin it, a link to your blog post will show up alongside the photo throughout all the repinning.
- If you use Pinterest as purely a self-promotional tool, you’re unlikely to gain many followers. Certainly, if you own a bakery and created an outstanding tart, pin it to your board on fruit desserts, but be generous and pin plenty of material from others as well.
Do you use Pinterest for your small business? Do you want to use Pinterest? Tell us about it!
