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Pinterest has proven itself to be an essential part of a successful blogging strategy. In recent months, Pinterest has been enhancing their features and services to cater to businesses, which is good news for business AND for bloggers everywhere. In today’s article, I’ll be discussing what Pinterest is, why you should have a business account with Pinterest, and how to create a Pinterest business account.
Pinterest has come a long way from being a hangout of DIY moms and brides-to-be looking for inspirations for their weddings. All kinds of bloggers now have Pinterest as part of their blog promotion strategy.
Today, we’ll start with the basics. I’ll introduce Pinterest and why you need to have a Pinterest business account if want your blogging journey to be a successful one. We’ll then get into how to create a Pinterest business account from scratch, as well as how to convert an existing personal Pinterest account into a business one.
The Pinterest Help Center has a great presentation (with video!) with all you need to know about Pinterest.
In a nutshell, Pinterest is a “visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save creative ideas” (their words).
It’s like a virtual bulletin board where you can save practically everything you see on the internet as “pins.” When you’re looking for inspiration or researching online, it’s great to have a single place to keep and organize them visually so you can get back to them easily. That’s what Pinterest provides.
Like this, but virtual.
Image Created by Lia Kent | CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Okay, so how is this relevant to us bloggers?
At its core, Pinterest is still a bookmarking tool, but it’s gone beyond that into a not-quite social media with a powerful search function for images, to a blogger’s secret weapon. Why is Pinterest such a fantastic tool for promoting your blog?
Now that I’ve made it clear that having a Pinterest account is beneficial to your blogging strategy, we can now discuss what type of account will work best for you.
It’s super easy to sign up for a Pinterest account. You probably have one right now for pinning those outfit and home decor inspirations.
But if you’re using Pinterest for blogging, you’ll need a Pinterest for Business account. Here are some reasons why a business account is better than a personal one.
If you’re running a blog with the intention of making money from it, and you’re using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog, then that’s commercial use. Thus, you need to sign up for a Pinterest business account instead of a personal one.
It doesn’t seem like much, but displaying your blog name looks more professional than merely showing your name. Plus, this helps your profile to be found by search engines when people search for your blog name.
This is the most important reason for you to set up a Pinterest business account. Pinterest has tools that make life easier for businesses on Pinterest. Below are some of those features that are helpful for you as a blogger:
Their resources aren’t exactly password-protected, but it’s nice to feel welcome to conduct your business on Pinterest. In fact, Pinterest supports business owners’ goals and takes it so seriously that they created content and tutorials to actually teach them how to maximize their Pinterest accounts to achieve them.
The resources can be found here. They even have a blog targeting business owners.
You can only apply to use rich pins if you have a Pinterest business account. Rich pins are like Pins 2.0. They are pins that display more information about a pin, giving you more context. Currently, there are 4 types of rich pins: product pins, recipe pins, article pins, and app pins.
Unless you’re in the tech niche or food niche, or already selling your own products, the most relevant for us bloggers is the article pin.
Example of an article pin from the New York Times Pinterest account.
(Click To Zoom)
As you can see from the example above, article pins provide more information than a normal pin. It shows the headline, the source website, the date published, a short summary of the article, and a call to action (CTA) to “Read It” on the pin itself, which leads to the URL of the original article.
Rich pins elevate your content from all the other content out there. Using them helps you become perceived as a professional and not just doing this as a hobby. Plus, it makes your content more searchable both on Pinterest and on search engines.
To use rich pins, you’ll need to add metadata to your blog, then apply to use rich pins so that they appear correctly. Here’s a detailed guide on how to use rich pins from Pinterest.
As with rich pins, Pinterest Analytics is only available to those with a Pinterest business account. Pinterest Analytics allows you to see which of your pins perform best, how users interact with it, and how often your readers pin content from your blog.
A peek at Pinterest Analytics
(Click To Zoom)
Your website analytics would be able to give you information about how much traffic your blog gets from Pinterest, but it’s great to have a tool that allows you to see how your individual pins are doing in terms of how many times they’ve been displayed, how many times people clicked on them, and where these interested people are.
Facebook has Facebook ads, while Pinterest has Promoted pins. For a minimal cost, you can promote your pins such that they’re shown to more people.
Example of a promoted pin. Note the “Promoted by Shinola” note on the pin of the watch.
(Click To Zoom)
Promoted pins aren’t sneaky; they are indicated by “Promoted by” then the business name. Yet, they don’t interrupt or distract users; thus, they don’t have much of a negative impact on user experience.
If you’re only starting out and want to limit your costs, you might want to skip this for now. In the future, though, if it turns out your target audience is on Pinterest, this is a nice option to have.
Now you know why a Pinterest business account is the best option for you as a blogger. At this point, let me give you a step-by-step guide on how to set up a Pinterest business account from scratch.
Instead of going to the Pinterest.com homepage, join Pinterest from the Pinterest for Business page.
Pinterest for Business Homepage (Click To Zoom)
Enter your email address, password, business name (your blog name), business category (the safest would be “Professional”), and your website (your blog URL), then click Create account.
Pinterest Sign Up Page (Click To Zoom)
After that, you’ll be asked to select 5 topics to follow. Try to look for the general category of your niche and related topics. If they’re not on there, or if it doesn’t total 5, just follow the closest ones you can think of. You can always change those later. The more important part is coming up, which is your profile settings.
When you’re done signing up, hover your cursor over the profile icon on the upper right-hand corner of your Pinterest page, then click on Settings.
Go to Profile (note the red arrow) (Click To Zoom)
The first thing you need to check is your Search privacy setting. Make sure that’s turned off. Otherwise, turning on this option will hide your pins from search engines, and you don’t want that. You want to be found.
Search privacy (Click To Zoom)
Next, scroll down to go to Profile. Make sure your Business Name is the same as your blog name, your Picture is the same as what you use on your blog, your Username or URL is your blog name, and your Website has your blog URL. The About section needs to have a short description of who you are and what your blog is about. It’s an opportunity for keyword optimization, so keep that in mind when you fill out this part.
Profile (Click To Zoom)
Finally, you’ll want to confirm your website. The complete instructions can be found here. The main reason to do this is for you to get access to your Pinterest Analytics.
The very first Board you create should be your blog Board. This Board is specifically for your blog posts so that it’s easier for your followers to find your blog posts. Plus, your followers can follow your blog Board so they’ll see your latest articles on their feed.
To create a Board, hover your cursor over the profile icon on the upper right-hand corner of your Pinterest page, then click on My profile.
Click on the Boards tab.
My profile > Boards (Click To Zoom)
Then, click the red plus sign icon.
Create board (Click To Zoom)
The Name of your blog Board should be your blog name. Make sure that the Secret setting is turned off so your blog Board will show up in search results. Click Create to complete the action.
Of course, saving your own Pin is one of the two main things you’ll need to learn (The other is saving other users’ Pins. More on that later).
To save a Pin, go to My profile again, but this time click on the Pins tab.
My profile > Pins (Click To Zoom)
Then, click the red plus sign icon.
Save From Options (Click To Zoom)
You’ll have the option of saving from the web (i.e., via a URL) or from a saved image on your computer. Let me first show how to do it from a URL.
Save From Website (Click To Zoom)
Enter the URL of the blog post you want to pin from, then click Next. Pinterest will show you images from the blog that you can save. Click Save on your selected image. A modal window will then pop up.
Choose Board (Click To Zoom)
The window will ask you to “Tell us about this Pin” where you can write a description of the Pin. Aside from that, you can choose the Board to save the Pin in. To save it in an existing Board, hover your cursor over the Board you want, and then click Save. Otherwise, you can click Create board for a new Board.
Let’s go back a bit so I can show you how to save a Pin from a saved image.
Save From Options (Click To Zoom)
When you click on Your device, you’ll be asked to upload the image from your computer, as well as the URL to the page you want to direct pinners to.
Save From A Device (Click To Zoom)
The next window will ask you to “Tell us about this Pin” and choose the Board to save the Pin in, similar to the one I showed earlier.
Choose Board (Click To Zoom)
It used to be called “repinning,” but the basic action is the same. To save other users’ Pins from your feed, simply hover your cursor and click Save, or enlarge the Pin first and then click Save.
Saving Pins From Other Users’ Boards (Click To Zoom)
You can add or edit the description and then choose the Board to save the Pin in.
If you already have a personal Pinterest account, you can convert it into a business account. It’s not as complicated as it sounds, I promise.
Input your Business Name (your blog name), Business type (“Professional”), Website (your blog url) and then click Done.
Convert Personal Pinterest To Business
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Your Pinterest account is now a business account. You get to keep your boards, pins, and followers, too.
See? Told you it was easy.
In today’s article, we learned the following:
Pinterest is a must-have in your blogging arsenal, most notably to drive traffic to your blog. Here are some ways to increase your blog traffic with Pinterest.
Aside from promoting your blog and blog posts, do you use Pinterest for anything else? How has your Pinterest business account helped you in your blogging strategy? Tell me in the comments!
JoAnne is your average, everyday, sane stay-at-home mom who believes in the power of the internet to make dreams come true. She has an insatiable appetite for chocolate, as well as all things internet marketing. She keeps up with the latest trends in blogging, affiliate marketing, e-commerce, and more.
