Saturday, July 14, 2012

Pinterest What's that?


I have been asked from both on and off line friends about Pinterest. So I thought I would blog a little about my opinion on pinning and the importance of it to a business.



I read about 5 -10 articles on Social Media and Management per day. It has really brightened my opinion about Facebook and Pinterest. I mention Facebook only because I used it a lot last 2 years. This year with all the changes for fan pages on FB. It's just not the same as it was 1- 1/2 years ago . I have found that using Pinterest has increased my views in my shops and sales by the same amount as it did last year using Facebook. You can read more on my opinion on the following blog here; My personal Note, located on my Online with Lornajane Blog I talk a lot about the changes I have made during this spring and summer.

My Pinterest Profile. Creating a warm welcoming helps people feel welcome to follow. 

Don’t get me wrong I still use Facebook. Just differently now, only posting my highlights of my weeks and projects. As well as promotion treasuries for the etsy community. I Keep updated photos, links and still answer any questions. But with the changes it's just not as successful. FOR me anyways and what I do and I know others do. 

I want to talk about Pinterest and the Etsy combination. I recently just helped my mom sign up because she was sent an invite and loved all the "pretty pictures" I than explained to her about the site and what you can do with it. 


Our promo123love's board with over 400 pins and 200 followers with 12 pinners as a community 


So quickly she became over whelmed. So I can imagine some of you are overwhelmed too!!


So with some long sleepless nights and lots of late night reading, I have found some awesome blogs and sites that I keep in my Let’s be Social Pinterest Board. I encourage some of you to look at them if your wanting to make a branding image of yourself and your business.

Some maybe, encouraging facts about Pinterest, because of Facebook's Now charging for promotion Pinterest is coming up on its tail end and capturing its Etsy seller audience.

Some of my 90 something boards, full of DIY's,  personal travels, my favorite sites, Social Media updates etc. 
There are over 19,261,216 increase in users in just 1 year. WOW was what I 1st thought that is a huge jump for the 448,000 of last April of 2011. 

There percent of users 80/20 80 percent being women. WE all know ladies have the shopping bug. These are your potential buyers. (as well as the 20 percent men). 

With proper titles to your pin and pins that lead to direct links are most attractive to the buyer eye. Clean clear photos. People want clean crisp boards. 

When I first started pinning I pinned almost anything I saw. But quickly learned that there is alot of pinning "rules" out there. Your followers when log in see what you have pinned with in the past 24 hours. If you have some one that follows you that only follows 20-100 people and your a power pinner. Just think do would you want to see the same thing over and over. Would you want to click on a link that doesn't lead anywhere? 

I call this Taste full pinning. I try to pin at least 2-3 times a day, I mix up my pins. Do i actually read my pins YES!! I do I go and look at the blog or website before I pin something. Did I do that before NO I didn't I just liked it so I pinned it. I have cleaned up most my boards but still have some work to do.

Here are some of my pinner advice:
  1. Select appropriate pins for your branding image on you and business is all about. If you sell "art" make your "own" creations board. As well as a few other art boards. Share your favorite artist, share what kind of mediums you use.
  2. Etsy- there is so much on etsy, so many team boards going are out there too!! lots of pinning going on. My main focus has been our board as you can see it has the most pins. I also pin across my boards. I have a "vintage etsy finds board" I add Jewelry to my jewelry board. I also have a body products board, etc. - So I pin threw out the day and add mine, yours and than some.
  3. Pinning with out price tags, to do so as you pin delete the price ( including the price tag )up to the shop name at the least. This will make the price disappear. I have found if you are repinning an etsy product from someone else, this doesn't always work if they have a price on it already. Most the time it will still have an amount on your re-pin. 
  4.  Label you boards- If you have a board that is all DIY than make sure you select that section. When some one does a search you can pick either pins, people or boards. A lot of times people choose to go to boards and check out other pinners, and how they have things set up and what they have. So its important to use your words. 
  5.  About Section -A warm greeting, just a little something that you feel describes you and your image. This should be engaging for followers to want to keep following you or gain new followers. You can connect your information such as your etsy shop, Facebook link etc. right under your profile greeting. I suggest doing so this leads them to your shop or website. 
  6. Social media linking- If you have a blog new buttons are out there you can apply to your blog so that your followers can find you on Pinterest. Even Twitter and Facebook as well. 
  7. Key words - Remember to use your words. If you are logging in threw Twitter you can use a hash tag to send to your desired twitter location as the same time you are pinning. Example: Pinning a abstract art piece- I would put #art #abstract #..... than pin in my Art Interest board.
There is so much to Pinterst it can be fun and very well worth your time to get on there and get out there!!

So grab some coffee, tea or wine and lets get to pinning. If you have questions please dont hesitate to ask me, or in the team boards there are some pinners on our team and I would like to create another pinning thread with the help of our leader Tina whom has some awesome Pinterest boards. 

Happy Pinning & hope to see you there! 

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