My experience with Pinterest

My Experience with Pinterest

Introduction

I’ve had a Pinterest profile for a while now, but never really used it as a business profile.  I used Pinterest as more of a viewer gathering images rather than a presenter showing my images and products.

 

So, What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social network that allows users to both share images and discover new interests through other users images.  Users can save images, known as ‘Pinning’ to their own Board or another users Board similar to the traditional cutting out and sticking in a scrapbook.  A Board is a collection of ‘Pins’ usually with a common theme, and a user can have multiple Boards.  What is really useful, is users don’t have to get the image somehow on to their board, they can just paste the link of the website or if the website provides a “Pin It” button you can just click this.  Pinterest then loads all the images from that webpage and you can select which images you would like to Pin to your Board automatically and provides a web link back from the Pinned image to the original website.

 
 

My Experience with Pinterest

So, like I said my experience started probably in 2016, when I created my Pinterest account.  I started using Pinterest as a digital scrapbook to gather ideas for my photo shoots.  I could search for specific terms such as ‘summer meadow portrait‘ and it would display images that other users had shared and Pinned on their boards.  I could then Pin the images I liked to my Boards and create a digital scrapbook for me to gather ideas all in one place.  I could then share my Boards with my clients to get their feedback on my ideas for their photo shoot. Its a great idea for a social network and allows users to Pin continuously between other users Pins and Boards.

Just recently, I heard about the business account on Pinterest and looked into it and found that I actually could be using Pinterest in a much better way to advertise my work and my business instead of my ‘digital scrapbook’ of other users Pins.  So I made my existing Pins of ideas into private Pins so they weren’t public, and I could share these private Pins with my clients still when required.  I then made new Boards for my areas of photography to match my portfolio section on my website, Boards such as wedding photography, family portraits, events photography, corporate photography, product photography etc. you get the idea.  I then started to add my own images to my Pinterest Boards and give meaningful descriptions.

 

Standard vs Business Account

Pinterest offers a standard user account and a business user account.  The main differences among others are a business account gets Pinterest Analytics and Rich Pins.  Pinterest Analytics allows the ability to see the Pinning activity on the business owners website and see their most popular Pins.  Rich Pins allow a little extra information to be added to the Pin, such as pricing information of a product and a direct link to the business owners website.  There are 6 types of Rich Pins: recipe, article, movie, product, app, and place.

 

Summary

I would greatly encourage people to check out Pinterest, it is an amazing resource that can inspire you and give you great ideas about a particular interest or project you may have.

 

 

Follow us on Pinterest

pinterest.co.uk/chrishughesphotography