I have been using Pinterest for years and I have been loving it every since the first day I used it. It so easy to dip into it, find something you like and share with everyone else. While Pinterest is great for personal use, I have also realised how important Pinterest for small business could be as well!
Its not just all about pinning up nice dresses and cakes, though that is a great way to use it too! Pinterest can also be a very powerful tool for your business – big or small!
I use Pinterest a lot for my site and my printable reward chart business. If you are looking to take your Pinterest to another level here are my top five ways to use Pinterest as a small business:
Opportunity to showcase your products
Clearly this is the most important for many small businesses. One of the best features about Pinterest is that you can transfer your personal account into a Pinterest account. By doing so you can give yourself a better platform to showcase your products with your audience.
Images can tell your customers so much. Use your products in context, show off your services. This way you can give people extra insight into your business, and its products.
Showing a more personal side
You can use the boards to help your customers get to know you; what makes you laugh, what drives you on, and even what makes you want to run away and hide. Take a step back from your industry, and think about what you could pin that is relevant to that industry, but perhaps not directly related to your business and its products.
For example, my business focuses on kids; so my pins are often about parenting. Customers love to see your human side. I also have a board on there about my slightly eccentric children.
It takes only a short time to find something on the net that makes you smile; and then you can share it, and with it, a bit of you at the same time.
Interacting with your customers
If you allow customers to post to a particular board, you could even run competitions that help build your brand. Perhaps with people pinning photos of people using your products, and you choose the best of a particular theme. Pinterest is all about sharing after all. This makes it interactive as well, not just a showcase for your views.
Another great thing about Pintrest is the chance to create group boards. These boards include more than one contributor and it’s perfect for reaching a wider audience within your niche. By creating or participating in group boards you get access to someone else’s audience and vice versa, thus giving you and your products more visibility.
Product Research
If your products are very visual, create a board with some alternatives for those products, and get feedback from your customers about which version works best. As long as you are not giving away too much in the photos, you can get some great discussions going. Feedback could help you to tweak products here and there, and make your customers feel more involved with your brand; potentially breeding their loyalty.
Motivating yourself
I post inspirational quotes on Pinterest – just because it helps me to motivate myself. And hopefully, when people discover these pearls of wisdom, it helps to get them motivated too.
If you found this post on Pinterest for small business useful, then you may also like these other posts from KiddyCharts and throughout the web –
The Frugal (But Not Cheap) Way to Start a Business... | The Diary of a Frugal Family
Do you use Pinterest for small business? I’d love to know Do come and say “Hi” to me our KiddyCharts Pinterest page!
Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!