What small businesses do you see using Pinterest effectively? What are some of the best practices of company’s using Pinterest?

I see Pinterest being an incredibly valuable asset to creative small businesses and wanted to get some discussion going.

@kc_kreative In additional to Etsy adding their own page, they’ve also implemented the Pinterest button on all of their pages, meaning if someone goes on a page where they find something they love, they can push it out to Pinterest, where it’ll gain even more attention. It’s the perfect platform for Etsy to embrace and their partnership could be huge in the social space.

@sbush Pinterest will be HUGE!

I have been using it as a sort of bookmarking tool thus far. You can see my page here.

I like to think of it as a visual bookmarking site that you can share, but it has a deeper meaning for arty types. If your target customer base is the arty or crafty crowd, or just people who love all that stuff, then definitely get on it.

That’s why Etsy has incorporated it.

As for strategies, I am still working on it!

Russell Allert

@sbush There has been a lot of discussion about Pinterest throughout the forums. The most popular has been http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/clubs/blogging/forum/topic/pinterest/. 

The opportunities for Pinterest use are extensive and I agree with the other posts in here. I have found it useful for bookmarking and tracking infographics and articles I want to reference later or those I find especially beneficial.

I think interior decorators could make a killing using Pinterest since many of the most popular “pins” have to do with home redecorating, organization, etc.

Very interesting exchanges.

I was on a webinar earlier today and Pinterest came up as one of the platforms to watch in 2012 — that got me interested! I will check it out (especially if it works well for infographics) and the info from here will certainly start me off on the right track. Thanks everyone for sharing!

@alexandrabriggs and @heather great links, thanks. I have also read that Pinterest is a good way to promote nonprofits.

@newraycom Thanks for that, Ray. I am liking the site more the more I use it. 

Thanks for the insight into the potential uses for Pinterest.  I love the way you use the board @russellallert as a bookmark.

i love it and  so  do many of my  customers…

its perfect  for my  business…we sell to women  mainly…mainly  home  furnishings and  garden  iron   and   we are  all so  visual…our store  covers  shabby, industrial, traditional  and  architectural  salvage and  garden  things  and all that is on pinterest  big time……the main word i hear about pinterest is , addicting….

..our  customers have  really responded to me pushing  pinterest..and  they have  joined my  boards a lot.. last week one said  our store was a great place to  get  parts  for your pinterest projects….i hear about it  in the store every day…

my  boards  have   under  10%  links  to my  site….   but other  folks   good  pictures  help us  too…for instance  we  sell old  doors and windows for  the popular  diy  projects…..and i have a pinterest  board on using  those things….so  they  use it  to  see all the  wonderful ideas out there.. building interest in the  things  we are selling…. the  best thing is its  fun and  very  sincere…im  very interested in what i pin…

. its  so new…who knows  where it will lead…. i put prices on  at  first  then  rethought it and took them off….  i try not to look too  commercial..can i post my site?  if not please delete  http://pinterest.com/annatgreenoak/

@annfurnivall Really sounds like you have found your niche platform. I’m not saying that all of your board should be brand pins but some should be . One of  the services I provide through Socialyt is online presence assessments. I find that many small businesses are forgetting why they are using social media and that is connect with their customers to pull them in with their brand message. My #1 tip for brands is:  If you are trying to convert a consumer into a customer do not forget to tell them what you do! Good luck with your endeavors. http://j.mp/An3mzq

Thanks everyone for sharing those valuable observations about Pinterest. I was hesitant because you know how much time you spend working on them and how they then come and go.

@annfurnivall Thank you foe explaining why no reply for them, I will just have to wait for them to get round to me

Fun and addicting! You could pin for days straight if you wanted. After appending my social media marketing plan (with the addition of Pinterest). I went on last night, and started  company, personal and collaborative boards. You can view them here http://j.mp/y4B1b5. I have also wrote this blog if any of you are interested in reading how you can use it in your social business http://j.mp/zOzfz2. Believe me I’m all about fun (in moderation!), this is a great opportunity for small businesses to leverage the integration of the internet and I hope that they will  

Cheers,# http://j.mp/An3mzq

Ok so I am looking for suggestions- I work for a company that does online file sharing and web meetings. We’re think about expanding on to Pinterest but I am really at a loss of what we would use it for. Like what would we post that would apply to our business? Any suggestions?

@marylarson  WOW  THATS A LOTOF  PINS…i knwo  weddings  are  huge on there and  clothes…… IM JUsT  STARTING AND hope i  can  make it  work better and  better   for us….. i know my  customers  love it and  lots  are  following   but  its not  very  focused   just on the store  right  now…kind of mixed…

@Laurachristianson I will be sure to follow your as well!
UPDATE:Have you joined our PINNING party? 158 people have. Unfortunately, due to the nature of Pinterest in order to be added as a contributor you will need to provide an email address (contact form here http://j.mp/w93a6X). Since Pinterest only lets you see the number of followers and not individual names of the followers on the boards. Sorry for the inconvenience! http://j.mp/x2a1SU Can’t wait to see your PINS! #http://j.mp/An3mzq

Just a word of caution…both Mashable and NextWeb had poor reviews and blogs on Pnerest this past week…

@annfurnivall

Wow, Ann – you have a lot of beautiful boards!  You asked, “whats the point of all  your collection of  infographics?  do you  sell them…or  do  you  just like them?  or  do  you  offer  similar  services?”

The company I own provides social media marketing services, and each of the boards I’ve created relates to one of our core services. So the boards are not only an idea generator/central repository of social media statistics for me, but they showcase infographics I think others would be interested in.

I use the statistics from them (and snippets from the infographics themselves) in social media workshops I teach, and I post an infographic on our company blog every other week. People respond really positively to images, and infographics are currently a very hot item in the world of social media. 

@charlynshelton-socialmediainterpreter — Yeah, I saw those negative reviews. I read everything I can get my hands on about Pinterest — the pros and the cons.

@naomitrower – One of my clients is a real estate agent. I’m going to check out your boards to see what you’re doing.

@ann at greenoak, i think you are EXACTLY right. guys just don’t get it yet. well, unless they are guys who like to decorate, appreciate good design or enjoy cooking cupcakes that look like cute little lhasa apso puppie dogs. i, too, think pinterest is brilliant – and that little by little people will figure out new and creative ways to use it. some really nice boards here already! thanks for sharing. 

I started using Pinterest to showcase how others were using my EasyLunchbox containers for their lunches. (My Lunch in EasyLunchboxes board) I don’t pin much of my own stuff. Then I started boards for pinning recipes, crafts, decor, and other things that most of my fan base would find interesting. The more you can share that is truly of interest/help to your fan base, the better! I think it’s fine to have one board that’s all about your own product, but concentrate on pinning other stuff mostly. And do fill in all text/description areas for the best results with good keywords  http://pinterest.com/easylunchboxes/

@annfurnivall – Google does pick up keywords on Pinterest. In fact, I am reviewing my board titles and descriptions now. Changing the way I have them listed to use more of my important keywords. Your comment actually prompted me to search for my own boards and pins and I found that they are not coming up as often as I’d expect! Thank you for that So I’m editing them and hopefully, when Google crawls it again, my stuff will come up more  
Be sure (in your Pinterest settings page) that ” Hide your Pinterest profile from search engines” is OFF. 
I am adding prices and links back to my site on just a few of my pins that feature my product. I don’t want to make it look like a catalog, but if it’s random and just a few, I think that should be fine.
Just came across this fab bit of advice on  http://momadvice.com/blog/2012/01/how-to-be-a-pinterest-superstar/Here’s one of her tips: Source Yourself- Not sure what is being pinned on Pinterest from your site?  It is simple to see what your users are pinning on Pinterest.  I just go to http://pinterest.com/source/momadvice.com/ to see the pins from my site. You can do the same thing by simply replacing the last part of that URL with your own web address.What happens when you source yourself? You can see exactly what people love on your site and it helps to guide the content on your site in a direction that can help with your traffic grow. It was through seeing the pins from my own site that I could see what people wanted more of. When I witnessed a wall of coffee pins, for example, I knew that I should create more fun coffee drink creations. As I created more of the content our readers loved, I created more pins and, in turn, created more readers.

cool idea on the  source  check…..also on pinterest  i put  my website on everything  from  my website…. that seems  more subtle and  ok  than  putting  the  price on  everything  ..to me….

and i do put my   pinterest on  a facebook post  about once a week…my  customers are all about  rehabbing  so its  usually  well recieved….i got  lots of my  customers on  pinterest by inviting them….and  lots have  become  followers   of  my  boards…i have about  2200 fb fans  and  about  400 pinterest  followers, been there about a month…

i know  we say it  should  be    social,,,,but i look  at it a little  different,,, really they  joined  my page  becasue they love   the  product  not  because they want my jokes or  to hear   about my kids etc….. so  most of my posts are pretty  close to   what the store  really is about…

id like to hear  your  comments about another thing….i put  so much  work in facebook and have so many  fans and  its  going  great and  very  upbeat and  definitely  bringing  customers to the store…….there is only so much time  the  fans  have for  online     and  i  dont want to   take   them away  from   our  faceboook  to   get into  our pinterest….i dont want to dilute our  facebook…. to me its  tops….

thanks  rebecca….its  just perfect  for our business….but it  could  be  better!!! .

pinterest is a ball…there is  something f or everybody…

You’re welcome @kpogge ! In fact, I just put together a board of my own today with some really great tips  http://pinterest.com/easylunchboxes/pinterest-tips-hacks/

Thanks for the feedback  @easylunchboxes!! I really appreciate it and for sharing your new page as well! I’ll definitely take a look 

@kpogge  I think that sounds like a good idea. However, you do want to follow the 19:1 pinning rule. 19 pins non-business to 1 pin business. Be sure to fully read the Pinterest rules for self promotion. You do not want to be banned for non compliance.

Here’s the official pinning etiquette rules: http://pinterest.com/about/etiquette/ I don’t see a 19:1 rule and in doing a search I only found that referenced in blog posts that were not officially Pinterest. @violamyers – do you have an official source for that rule? Maybe I’ve missed it?

Also, I noticed they prohibit nudity, but there is plenty of nudity on Pinterest – people have whole boards of it calling it “Art” in the Art category. Pinterest is huge and it’s going to be tough to police it now. We should all still try to play by the rules though. Just like we do with Facebook, even though a lot of people don’t follow their guidelines. Better safe than sorry.
 

HERE is an incredible new article by Beth Hayden  which has some amazing marketing ideas. Some of her (many!) great tips include how to use boards collectively with people on your team, special clients, or top fans. It addresses a lot of the concerns voiced above re: over promting your own brand and ways to get around that by being a trusted source and leader on a particular topic. Don’t miss this one.  http://www.copyblogger.com/pinterest-marketing

According to Mashable & Experian Hitwise, Pinterest is now one of the top 10 social networking sites. Reportedly 3.3 million users logged more than 421 million page views in October 2011.

The network is only 2 yrs old, but Shareaholic says it drives more combined referral traffic than Google +, YouTube, reddit And LinkedIn.

80% of users are women, but men are slowly but surely finding lots of reasons to be excited about Pinterest.

http://www.webpronews.com/marketing-with-pinterest-2012-02

Pinterest is hype and we still need followers.

It is a new channel and I will not put my money on it till the time a lot of my audience starts using it.

That said I will create a basic profile to ensure that if you are trying to find me on Pinterest you will not be disappointed.

My mantra for brands as well.

@jayelang   What’s your email Jaye? I’ll send you an invite. I really don’t know what that “wait list” thing is all about! 

Have you noticed when Pinterest takes down the search? When they return it, it’s always worse. I have things on boards that I can’t find with a search now and I found them that way in the first place! Of course, I’ve been using it for over a year and back then, the search seemed to work as expected. But now, the return results are not even close to what is out there.

Not much we can do about it, but hope that the next time that search box disappears, when it comes back, it’s fixed properly!

Check out the wall on their FB app – it last went down on Jan. 25 for about 24 hours. Read some of the most recent comments, people are complaining about the same thing. Pinterest is not responding.

Be sure to look at Pinterest posts only as people use this place to ask for an invite (very annoying, especially when you can ask for one right on their site).

https://www.facebook.com/pinterest?sk=wall&filter=2

earlier  pinterest wasnt  responding to  people registering on their site in a timely manner……..thats why there is  so much invite  talk…i invited   dozens of people ….  @marylarson  i noticed the  searches w ere  off  too or  slow….but i usually  just  go  from  picture  to picture or  check out   those who have  repinned my pictures…so it hasnt  been a  big  deal….also  hard to find a person  when  ti dont know  their pinterest  name!! ha ha…like customers in the store… 

@fsdegrees message me your email address and I’ll send you an invite

I started using Pinterest last weekend for my business http://pinterest.com/teocallico  it looks like it has more traffic than FB business page, it’s easy to find where your consumers are, and it’s easy to be close to them, just with LIKES on  their pictures, they will check your boards and discover that you are there.

The important point here is that your pictures related with the business come from your website, or your FB business page, or blogs, because they are repin but the origin where  the pictures are coming are still there and they open your pages, so it increase traffic to your websites.

My question is if it’s good idea or not to price them, because probably if they have price, more people are not going to repin,  and the people that is interested in your products they will find the way to contact you, that it’s easy to do it.

As a Social Media Marketing tool for small business, I feel that Pinterest is better than FB and Youtube.

Now, we have to wait to see what the sales say!

By the way, I have learn a lot with all your posts on this club. Thanks!

@hildaalanisgonzalez I have not been putting prices on our products as they are all pretty high dollar. However, if you do put a price, it gets put under the Gifts category at the top. We also have an art gallery, with all different price ranges, so I may try putting prices at some point since the artwork would make great gifts. The dresses we sell are for specific functions (prom, wedding, etc.) so really are not suitable as gifts so it doesn’t make sense to add the price.

We have lots of boards that are not our products – I seem to skip around with pinning. Some days I’ll pin products and just a few other things and then there are days I don’t pin any products.

I taught two webinars on using Pinterest for business yesterday.  I’m teaching businesses to use it in the spirit of Pinterest’s etiquette & protecting intellectual property.  I believe it’s imperative to keep the collaborative, beautiful, and inspiring atmosphere intact, even when we’re marketing our brands.  It’s a great way to gain “linkability” to your brand and with some creativity, can be used for many types of businesses.  Message me if you’re interested in attending an upcoming webinar.

I sat in on WhizBang! Training’s Pinterest webinar (on facebook) yesterday and learned more than I’ve had time to absorb! You can catch the replay at https://apps.facebook.com/pinterestwebinar

@marylarson
Thank you, Mary.  I was on Pinterest in one day, thanks to your gracious offer.  It is definitely the way to join Pinterest quickly, as opposed to waiting for them to respond to your own request. This could be their way of building a legitimate network through real connections.  It works!

Pinterest is great for sharing ideas, and some business types are seeing the rewards for the fruit of their labors like designers and wedding people. I noticed this morning thefancy.com which is like Pinterest, but lets you sell  or buy right there. It is high scale stuff though so the walmart type stuff doesn’t fly. No, I do not work for them, but think it is a great idea to incorporate actual direct selling into it.

Yes, I managed to get on the other week, thank you for the offer @liztufte

The WhizBang! Training webinar about using Pinterest for business is now on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5pPdCAhL-E. Now you can pause, rewind, etc. 

okay Im getting into pinterest…its so hard to make my jewelry, promote it on my facebook pages and website, now add this to the mix? but…Im already hooked..and its instant gratification to see those repins and likes……..thanks for the great advcie on this thread..Im absorbing it all..as a Newbie :~}GIGI

Who would be interested in putting their pinned items on their website? Im going to make a facebook app to get it on a facebook page.  Just wondering…

I have a WordPress Plugin on my website that allows me to pin items.  I have it set to only show my last pin right now.  So, I guess that would answer your question, “Yes.”, Vincent!

@vincentedwards, Yep.  Here’s a link to a page with the plugin at the bottom:  http://promotionsocial.net/contact/.  I guess it’s actually a widget.  And here is the widget:  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pinterest-rss-widget/  It was very simple to install.

awesome use of pinterest with all your areas @laurachristianson

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