Help me "get" Pinterest!!

[watermediaworks]

OK, I'll admit I'm not exactly an early adopter of technology.....but I would like to (finally!!) get on Pinterest. So, I have a few questions for my fellow Etsians:

1) If you had to give me just one or two tips that would help me get up to speed quickly and be successful on Pinterest, what would they be?

2) What's a big mistake that you made on Pinterest that I should make sure I don't do??!!

OK, a little open ended, but wanted to get the discussion going. There must be some folks out there who really have Pinterest nailed?!?!

Thank you SO much for any advice you can give!!!

Marcia

[Former_Member]

I initially joined Pinterest as a way to help promote my shop and the items in my shop. However, my ongoing interest in Pinterest is to post website or electronic articles that I am truly interested in and want to be able to revisit easily. My main board is for cooking and I post recipes I want to try. The other boards I post to frequently have to do with home decorating, organizing, and cleaning. I have stopped posting my shop items to pinterest because, in my opinion, pinterest is full of DIYers and not so much buyers. Other people may have other experiences but I am not interested in having my items copied instead of purchased.

My main tip for you is to spend time on the site and browse. See what other people are posting and start pinning things you are interested in to a few select boards. I would also start following people that share some of your interests so that your main page feed will contain pins that are more meaningful for you.

I'm not sure I made a big mistake but like I said I want to stay away from promoting my shop to people that would rather Do It Yourself.

[watermediaworks]

Interesting, thanks, Barbara!! Do you sign up for personal account or business account, or aren't they different on Pinterest?

[SweetSomeday]

I initially had a personal account for personal pinning (not sure if there is a different "business" account). I followed all of my facebook friends and created different boards, like DIY projects, home decor, fashion, recipes, etc. I created a board for my shop and pin different items from my shop, usually new listings and blog posts, but I try not to do a bunch in a row. I mix it up with my other pins. I've definitely had things re-pinned to DIY boards, but I figure people are always going to attempt to DIY, but when they realize they can't or don't want to, they always have the link to my shop! I usually get a few views from pinterest after I pin something from my shop, but nothing overwhelming. I figure it's worth it for a little bit of extra exposure, and I've found lots of other fun things on pinterest as well!

[SweetSomeday]

So, tips are:
- pin a variety of items, not just things from your shop
- follow your friends, and other people who's pins you like

Mistakes to avoid:
- avoid pinning a whole bunch of your own work in a row or pinning things that you're not actually interested in (such as a bunch of team pins) - that'll just alienate your followers

[Former_Member]

The first tip I would give you would be to read the Pinterest 'about' page and the Pinterest guides
http://business.pinterest.com/
Once you are comfortable with those the start pinning items you love.

Don't pin your own work but rather let that get pinned by others. The more other people who pin your items the better off you will be.

I've had success with Pinterest simply because people will pin and like things that I've pinned. Each of those pins leads back to me so with that my identity has been spread not only around Pinterest but also on Facebook (where I do NOT have an account).

Its taken me a number of years to build a Pinterest following but its been well worth it.

[Former_Member]

i agree with what has been said above, pin not only your own things but also add other things to the mix.
i use pinterest to promote my items and to look for inspiration for making new items or presents, well i love the DIY´s

[watermediaworks]

Thanks, everyone, great tips so far! And crochetgal, I will go look for that guide now -- thanks!!

[katherinefathisilver]

There is a way to create a business account, but I haven't set it up. I have a board for just my jewelry and another board for art I like. I occasionally have someone repin my pieces and pinterest shows up as a source of views from time to time.

[LaLindaArtStudio]

I post a few of my own items, but I like it mostly for finding crafting tutorials, recipes, and my shopping wishlist.

I agree it is mostly DIY types there, but that is why I love it! I also agree that people can copy your work, but most people will not be able to get the same results and will come back to you to buy your item if they want perfection.

I have had a number of sales that I can directly link to Pinterest. I don't go there too often though because it is just so addicting to me.

[Former_Member]

My best tip for 'getting' pinterest is to have well defined boards to pin on. Pinterest is an easy way for people to gather and organize all the cool stuff they find online. So when I'm browsing around for christmas gifts, I'm not gonna leave all the tabs open to look at later or copy the urls to a word doc, I pin the items to a Gifts board. Same with recipes, home decor, diy projects, etc.

To get started, just think of some things that interest you and create boards for them. People will be more likely to follow a board that has a bunch of similar things rather than an assortment of unrelated stuff.

It's also good to have a mix of things you've repinned from other peoples boards in addition to new things you find from other websites.

[TAGSMITH]

My tips would be:
Join one of the Etsy Pinterest teams and participate.
Follow people
Have at least 25 different boards.

I have over 3,000 followers on Pinterest. I also have a Pinterest business account. It's connected with my site not my Etsy store. I can check my analytics on Pinterest to see how many people actually viewed the items pinned from my site, etc. It's great.

I believe Pinterest has been a good return on investment.

[watermediaworks]

More great suggestions! Thanks, everyone. I now have to figure out how I will keep pinterest from becoming an addiction!!

[Former_Member]

Hi Marcia,

Everyone has come up with great suggestions that have pretty much covered everything.

So I also advise that you start of by liking and repinning the pins from others (although don't do this too much in one go - our account action was temporarily suspended because Pinterest detects too much activity as spam!).

Pin your products once in a while (perhaps limit it to 3 times a day at max, and spread it out at different times).

I suggest you set up a Pinterest business account if your main purpose is to promote your shop - that guide suggested by crochetgal is a great start, I used that too.

Big and beautiful pictures are what get the most engagement on Pinterest (and that is also the point of this social network - a visual bulletin board).

Humor works very well too. My blog post pins don't get much engagement compared to the only-picture pins, but it's still worth creating a board for your blog if you have one.

Finally, mention people (@) and use hashtags (#) in pin descriptions. This increases your exposure and gets people to like/repin your pins).

I think you're going to love Pinterest; I was a bit late to set it up too, but now I'm hooked :-)

Hope that helps and happy pinning!

Isabelle
OrangeTwig
Free Facebook stores for Etsians

[PithAndRootStudio]

I would only add that it's important to have a wide variety of boards and to try to curate their look harmoniously. You want someone to go to your boards and say "Wow, beautiful." This is just another way of saying you should apply the concept of branding to your account. Go for a unifying look and persona that corresponds to your shop, whether you are pinning recipes, home decor, or nature photos.

Avoid pinning ugly pictures that say stuff like "household cleaning tips." You can use secret boards to pin things that you don't want to be part of your marketing identity.

I would also be careful about funny pins. Sometimes they can be a little too crass for your audience, but of course that depends on what you're selling. Inspirational is probably a better way to go for most Etsians.

[PrairiePrimitives]

Join Pinterest groups and pin to them! There are many Etsy groups, but there are also topic-specific groups such as jewelry, vintage and, of course my favorite, primitives & primitive decorating!

What not to do: Don't set your boards up by color. I don't want to see all of your green items ... orange items ... and so on.

[rhodyart]

I post my own items, things I like, and articles I'm interested in. Mine is a business page and it's also linked to twitter and facebook so that if I choose to my pins will appear on both.
I get views from pinterest, most definitely, but I see it more as building a network of like minded people, people who like what I like. I'm on a large number of group boards which I use for promotion purposes

[iLikeiLikeDesigns]

I've only skimmed the other posts here, so I'm sorry if anything sounds redundant - I know I both agree and disagree with some other posts here.

My suggestions:
First establish your account - start following other users of interest to you and friends, if they're on Pinterest. Make sure you have a handful of 'boards' that you are pinning to. They don't ALL have to be Etsy, in my opinion.

For example, we mostly sell hairbows and the like and we have boards for necklaces, bracelets, art, etc.

We like to pin from Etsy, but we'll occasionally repin from random users in our Pinterest feed. After that, we started to occasionally pin our own stuff.

When you start to get 'repins' and 'likes,' make sure to check out who is liking your stuff. They might have boards of interest to you. In that way, many Pinterest-ers do the same: When YOU like or repin things from them, they are likely to check you out and see if they might like to follow you.

Good luck!

[kijsa]

I just started a group pinterest site, go to the www.pinterest link, then add /etsysuccess/ to the end of the address to go straight there. comment on any board that reflects your shop content that you would like to join, and you can join a group board. Then you can post up to two pins daily from your own shop to that board. the more sellers participate and pin on the group boards, the more each pin goes into new feeds, and can be discovered by potential buyers- easy, fast & free (you don't hear that often :)
The group boards are the fastest growing tools bloggers are using to try to make their own pins viral...so lets do it with our goods too!

[PiecesofMeCardsnMore]

My Pinterest is for personal use (recipes, crafts, household stuff, quotes, etc.) with a sprinkling of items from my shop. I have 472 followers and follow 87. I've done nothing to get those followers other than pin what I like. I'm careful about what I pin from my shop because I know most people are there for DIY ideas, not to buy.