Should I be on Pinterest?

There are a lot of social media platforms available, and while it is important for every business to have a social presence, it’s impossible to be everywhere. This means that you have to choose the social media channels that are most appropriate for your business, then put in the time to make them a destination for fans and followers.

One social media site that is perfect for painters is Pinterest. While some see Pinterest as a place for recipes and crafts, the truth is that Pinterest is a visual platform, so any topics that can be captured in beautiful images work well on Pinterest. That means Pinterest is a perfect place for painters to show off project pictures and blog posts.

MB Jessee has been devoting more attention to our Pinterest page in the past two months, and we’d like to talk about Pinterest strategies that work.

 

Profile

To get started, make sure your profile is filled out completely. Include your business name, business logo, and a short, optimized “About” section.

Boards

Your Pinterest page is divided into boards, which are collections of related pictures. One key to making boards is to make them specific. For example, you could have an “Interior Painting” board and funnel all pictures to that one location, but it’s better to have that broken down (for example, Kitchen, Living Room, Bedroom, etc.). In addition to these boards, we also created other boards that define us – Keeping It Green, Classic Victorian Houses, and various boards about the San Francisco Bay Area.

 Pins

Within boards are individual pictures called Pins. You can add pins directly from a website, by uploading a picture, or by using a Pin-It button (which we’ll cover later). When you upload from a website, the URL is added to the pin so if a user clicks the picture they are brought to your website. If you upload pictures from your computer it’s important to go back to the pin, click Edit, then add the URL.

In addition to pinning your own project pictures and blog posts, it’s important to pin a range of other content from other websites and Pinterest users. The goal is to give your followers the best experience by filling your boards with content they are interested in. Eye-catching photos, informative articles and infographics all work well.

 Pin-It Button

Another thing to do is to add a Pin-It button to your website. After installing it, when a user hovers their mouse over an image, a Pin-It button will appear, making it easy for visitors to pin your image.

Group Boards

Once your Pinterest page is established, you can get more publicity with group boards. Group boards are boards where multiple people are allowed to pin images. One place to find group boards is Pin Groupie. Once you find a good group board, ask the owner if you can join by commenting on one of their recent pins. Then every week when you add pins to your page, also add pins to your group boards.

 

Embed Pins
Another Pinterest strategy is to embed pins or boards within blog posts. You can find instructions on doing that here, and the result will look like this image.

Other Pinterest Strategies

Some other Pinterest strategies include:

• Adding a Pinterest follow button on your website.
• Adding Pinterest to your email signature.
• Promoting your Pinterest page on your other social media pages.

 

At MB Jessee we’ve used these Pinterest strategies with much success – 387 percent month-over-month growth in Pinterest referral traffic in the first month alone, and 200+ new Pinterest followers in the first two months after upping our Pinterest game.

The methods we’ve discussed are tried and true, so they should work for you too.

Matt Jessee is the founder of MB Jessee, a residential and commercial painting company that serves the San Francisco and East Bay areas. Matt began his painting career as an apprentice, and in 1995, started the company with a goal to provide a painting experience customers would tell their friends and family about.