Is Your Site Pinterest Friendly?

Looking to build your business with the newest social site on the block? Pinterest can be a great way to drive traffic and build awareness for your business and brand. One of the most useful ways to build traffic to your site via Pinterest is to make your site "Pinterest Friendly." Essentially that means that your website or blog is visually interesting and that the images on your site are easy to add to Pinterest.

Your Site is Pinterest Friendly If...

The most important criteria for a Pinterest friendly website or blog is visual interest. Pinterest is a social site where people share images and create theme-based pinboards. For example, many Pinners (aka Pinheads) have created boards titled "My Style" where they pin images of clothing, accessories, shoes and so on. If you have a blog dedicated to fashion your site has a good chance of being pinned if you include an assortment of images.

Now your images aren't limited to pictures. On Pinterest you can pin:

- Images/Pictures

- Videos

- Infographics - graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge.There are several online tools like visual.ly that help people create infographics related to their topic and niche.

The second essential ingredient to a Pinterest friendly site is the ability to actually pin an image. While anyone with a "Pin This" bookmarklet on their browser toolbar can pin an image, it's not always easy. Images or text embedded in Flash videos and even picture galleries often don't display properly with the bookmarklet and it can be a challenge to actually pin the image you want.

This is quickly solved by adding a "Pin This" button on your site. It solves a few problems. First, it makes it easy for your visitors to add your image to their pinboard. Second it gives visitors permission to pin so they don't have to worry about copyright issues. Finally, a visible "Pin This" button may actually motivate them to pin the image.

Make your images, videos, and infographics easy to pin by placing them on the page rather than displayed as a background. Each item you want to be able to share needs to be saved as an image or a separate file. Also provide nice descriptions of the photos for added information and keyword opportunities. Make sure that the photos and images you place on your blog or website are actually related to your topic.

Finally, if you have a blog consider adding a recent pins plug-in. There are a few to choose from. This plug-in actually links directly to your Pinterest account (or someone else's if you prefer) and it displays the last few pins they've posted. It adds visual interest to your blog and motivates people to pin and to follow you on Pinterest too.

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Market Your Small Business With Pinterest!

Pinterest is the hottest phenomenon to land on the social media-marketing scene. It's a fairly new networking website but has grown substantially in just a matter of months. In August of 2011 there were 1.2 million users, now there's nearly 5 million users. It may seem confusing at first, but we've got you covered. You will be a Pinterest expert in no time.

Pinterest Business Networking

The object of Pinterest is to share images that you've found online that you find interesting. Similar to a board with pins (thumbtacks) in your office or garage, the image you choose to upload becomes a pin on the board in your account profile. You can customize your own boards with each board representing different interests that you may have. For example, a wedding board will consist of multiple images of things or people in relations to a wedding ceremony. Before you get too excited, there is a catch. You have to be invited by another member in order to start a Pinterest account. Or you can request an account and wait a couple of days (or weeks) to get approved. It's worth the wait!

Pinterest can serve many useful purposes for business or personal usage. Cooks can create a board for their online recipes. College students can create a board to pin a shopping list that they need for school. A company can create a board for different departments in which enables them to work in concurrence; by allowing everyone to collaborate on the board gives co-workers a sense of teamwork.

Pinning

Pinning is as easy as 1-2-3 with the "Pin It Button." Once you have located an image, simply click the "Pit It Button" and select the corresponding picture. You can even upload what you have saved on your computer. If those methods are not easy enough, try copying & pasting the URL of where the image is located and Pinterest will grab the image for you. There is even a Pinterest app for iPhones. Let's say you are in Paris, France and took a picture of the Eiffel Tower with your iPhone, the app allows you to place the image on a board.

The Social Advantage

Once you start Pinning it's hard to stop and not share your images. Every image has a community of people that has something to say, or has Re-Pinned the image on their board. When you see a good image, share your thoughts, or "Like it" on Facebook. If you find a board that tickles your fancy follow their updates or you can even follow all of their boards.

It is best to refrain from just pinning your images. It would be considered as spam and frowned upon in the Pinterest community. To be a good sport pin others, tweet and share their pins on Facebook. Use @janedoe, like you would on any other social sites when you are sending a message to someone directly. Even though it can be tempting to promote your business. You may do so moderately but be careful so that your account doesn't get banned. You can use the site for promotional purposes in an indirect fashion. Just be creative and your business will get promoted, resulting in new customers!

So what are the take aways:

- Pinning is as easy as 1-2-3

- Social Media Advantage

- Share the images with your Social Networks

- Pinterest has many uses for personal or business

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