Does Pinterest Help?

[GardenoftheKing]

I've just started posting my stuff on Pinterest, but have seen nothing so far.. has it worked for anyone before?

Also I am not sure how my items will show up on search if someone tries to look for something similar on Pinterest. Is there a special trick for that or will it automatically fall under the right category? Sorry if its a dumb question & thanks in advance!

[Former_Member]

Hey, Canary :)

Any social media strategy takes time and effort to show results. One of my favorite creative marketers says that if you post 50 pins per day on Pinterest for 30 days you can expect results like increased traffic and maybe some sales.

But you can't expect to only post your own items and get followers. For example, I have a board (interest name: mintyhideout) that is all geeky stuff. There I pin my own geeky items as well as many others I find online - 80% found, 20% mine. This is the best way to attract followers and to eventually get buyers from Pinterest.

Make sure to tag your items in the description of the pin #keyword to make sure people find them in Pinterest search.

Good luck!

[HeidiDiCesareDesigns]

I think people use Pinterest for ideas more than anything else, like sales! I see most people that are pinning my items are putting them into categories like "jewelry patterns" or "jewelry making ideas". I appreciate the compliment, but don't appreciate people copying my patterns/ideas! I'm starting to think it's a waste of time.

[BluToonMoon]

I haven't seen much of anything from it. I pin, favorite, and post my own items...mostly I just do it for fun.

I'm sure, after you create a following, it could be beneficial. I've only been at it for about 2 months & it seems to be the least beneficial social media outlet I have used thus far, but I have read of it being successful for others!

[Former_Member]

It helps a litle, people can find there you and your items. I can see that some people link my shop trough Pinterest. And it won´t take so much time, so I think I will use it more.

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

I haven't seen anything from pintrest in a while. Than again, I haven't been doing much with my pintrest account in a while. But when I was active, I was getting daily views. It might have been no more than 5 a day, but those are 5 views I wouldn't have otherwise had.

With social media, you have to be on there regularly, posting away. And they do say, not to constantly be pinning/posting your own items you are selling. Your followers will get tired of it. So have some variety.

[CircusOfCelebrations]

I tried using Pinterest for my Christmas season 2013 and 2014, because I wanted to try that instead of Facebook or Instagram. I had one board that was just my products for that year. A lot of people searching for certain themes and making their own boards came from there. Then I had 2 other boards of popular themes, where I pinned my items with mostly others in that theme. It's really nice to look at other Etsy sellers, maybe from your team?! and pin their items there. I got a ton of re-pins, but I had to turn off notifications and eventually remove this mass made item that everyone was repinning.
So basically, I think it may have translated into 3 or 4 of my sales for my shop (out of 80+ that Christmas season). I do agree that a lot of people just use it for ideas. I think creative people tend to be more of the ones using Pinterest. So you have to consider whom you are trying to reach and who your buyer is, and use that do decide on social media. Instagram/ facebook are maybe more geared toward repeat buyers and friends sharing so they come to shop.
If you do decide to use it, you can enjoy it more if you are also looking for style inspiration and new product ideas, never to copy, but a way to find what animal lovers want or trends, then tweak that into your idea that is a good seller. You can see what others are repinning or who has a lot of followers and what's popular. (If you do come up with your own item that becomes a unique idea and good seller, make sure you watermark it with your shop name on the photo. I had one that ended up all over the internet, not linked back to me, because people took screen shots or copied the photo, but they can do that from Etsy).

[CircusOfCelebrations]

Oh, I forgot to add:
Views and sales are much higher, for me, coming from Etsy and Google searches. Study the stuff on SEO, your tags, and what brought traffic to your shop. Way more valuable than pinning, in my opinion.

[Former_Member]

My pins are being repinned, but no sales form Pinterest yet.

[GardenoftheKing]

Thank u everyone! Thank u Tonka because I didn't realize we could manually tag our items. I just fixed it and here's to hoping! I realize now that it'll take a while to promote and that mixing it up with other listings is a great idea too.

[TheFamilyJewelsWI]

Does anyone know how you pin to someone else's board? I would love to pin to a baby shower board.

[JBDRusticOrganic]

The thing I find with Pinterest, is that I love pinning interesting things, scrolling down and pinning similar cool things etc, then I never look at the stuff i've pinned ever again! A bit nuts really, but there is such a lot of fascinating stuff on there, even boards with pins of info on how best to use Pinterest, so check those out.
In answer to your baby shower board question, there are 'group boards' covering just about any subject on Pinterest where anyone, or invited people can pin theirs or other stuff. I can't remember how you find them, but you can google it or look on Pinterest to find out. I get a few views from a couple of jewelry ones I joined.

[WilliamsGiftshop]

I don't use Pinterest, but other Pinterest users pin a lot of my pictures.
First of all, even though the general concencus seems to be that I should be flattered, I find it annoying, because nobody asked me for my permission to show either my pictures, or my original designs/creations.
As far as I can see my Pinterest appearances don't generate sales, just admirers and copycats.

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

@Mary, you have to ask permission to pin to someone else's board. Not all boards are group boards.

[BlackCatStudio98]

I use pinterest, mostly because I enjoy it, not because it has been beneficial to my shop. I do get a small amount of views from pinterest pretty much everyday, and I think I have made a couple of sales from there, though it's hard to tell for sure.

How on earth do you get more followers on pinterest? I have several boards besides jewelry, and I pin other jewelry besides my own, but I rarely get new followers.

Also for those of you who have had success with pinterest, do you have a board specific to your items, or do you pin to a more generalized board that has your items along with other items that are similar to yours?

[JulieDeeleyJewellery]

I love Pinterest and find it a very useful tool for pinning everything about everything to my boards such as places to visit and recipes etc, (www.pinterest.com/juliedeeley) I also love it for promoting my own jewellery items on and also promoting fellow Etsians on. I think it is a great tool but I think most people probably use it as a tool to dream about things they may like one day and do one day, I have used it to look for things to buy but I don't know how many people purchase from it. Just enjoy it and have fun is my advice ! ;-)

[Former_Member]

Hey Canary,

I understand that you must be feeling that your time on Pinterest is not resulting in anything tangible. Pinterest like any other social channel takes work but unlike other social channel yields results faster provided you are working in the right direction. 69% of users on Pinterest have a clear intention to purchase products. This is way more than any other channel.

It would be great if you could share the link of your Pinterest account but here are some general tips:

1. Boards
- Don’t have only product boards. Have DIY boards or content boards. DIY boards are among the most popular group boards and also one of the most followed interests on Pinterest.
- Name your boards well. Have an interesting and catchy yet explanatory name. People should be able to understand what the board is about.
- Boards also have descriptions. Fill them out. Board descriptions are SEO friendly and get found in Google searches. Also, they help in informing the user what the board is actually about
- Do not have less than 10 pins in a board. Boards with less than 10 pins look incomplete. You can keep a board secret till the time you have 10 pins and then publish it once you have sufficient pins.
- Research shows that boards on the top and middle are noticed the most. So have your most important boards at the top and the center.

2. Pins
- Your pins get found on Pinterest because of their descriptions. Identify the keywords for which you’d like to be found and include them in your descriptions.
- Include the link to your shop if your pinning your product image. If you are pinning it from Etsy, the link will be automatically included.
- Be careful with hashtags in descriptions. Here’s a link that’ll explain you how hashtags work: https://www.etsy.com/teams/16272/social-media-marketing-for-etsy-a-z/discuss/15121206/
- Although the best time to pin varies for every brand, but based on research the time slot that does seem to work is 2pm-4pm and 8pm-1am on weekdays

3. Engaging with your followers
- Whenever anyone pins any of your pins, you’ll get a notification. Thank them if it’s a product pin. This’ll show that you are noticing.
- Create a group board and ask your followers and your Facebook fans to pin what they’d like you to make next or which of your products are their favorite. If you have work in progress you can comment with images or you can directly message them with the images of the product.

At the end of the day have fun with it, explore, get inspired and keep pinning.

Let me know if you’d like me to elaborate on any specific point.

Look forward to hearing how it went for you.

Have a wonderful day and Happy Selling!

Akanksha

[Former_Member]

even if i don´t get tons of views from pinterest, there are so many great tutorials there that i love. quite a few of the items in my shop would not be there if it was not for great pinterest tutorials.