Pinterest for Crafty Businesses: Optimize for Better Visibility

Tips to optimize pinterest for your craft business

Pinterest for Crafty Businesses: Optimize for Better Visibility

Tips to optimize pinterest for your craft businessPinterest is more than a social media channel – it’s a visual search engine, and there are more sales coming from Pinterest to small businesses than any other social media site, and this is particularly true for craft businesses. 55% of all US online shoppers describe Pinterest as their favorite social media site, and use it to plan purchases and find new products. If you are a small craft business, you need to make sure your products are on Pinterest! So how do you get started, and how do you optimize your presence? First, you’ll need a Pinterest Business Account.

Switching to a Business Account

Assuming you already have a Pinterest account for your blog or business, you might not have it set up as a business account. A business account gives you details on analytics and allows you to set up promoted Pins (currently only available in Canada, US, and the UK). To switch to a business account, follow these steps:

  1. Go to business.pinterest.com, and click the red ‘Convert your existing account’ button.
  2. Next, select your business type from the menu on the left. There is no wrong choice, but many of you will likely be retailers, i.e. someone who sells products to consumers.This is also a good time to update the contact name or email on your account, if you want to switch from your personal name to your business name and email. Be sure to be consistent across your social media channels, using the same business name for Pinterest as you would for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so on.pinterest business account

Your Perfect Profile

There are quite a few restrictions on your Pinterest profile, so it’s worth considering it carefully before getting stuck with a too long name that doesn’t display properly. Your profile name needs to be 21 characters or less, anything longer will not be fully visible. Your profile name should be your business name (i.e. the same as your website address), spelled the same and written in the same format as it is across your other social media channels. Your Pinterest bio needs to be 160 characters or less, so you want to be as succinct as possible; this is a good place for your mission statement (if you have one), or 1-2 short sentences that sum up what you do and why it is awesome.

Your image should be consistent across all your social media channels, such as your logo, or a clear headshot of yourself looking happy and professional. Professional doesn’t mean ‘serious’ (unless that suits your business), it just means that you probably brush your hair and not be wearing pajamas.

Boards: What You Need

When starting your boards, it’s ideal to have between 15-60 visible boards. If you don’t have many boards, your profile will look like it lacks in-depth content, and if you have too many, it looks like a garage sale: too many things to look at, none of it cohesive.

Each board should have a minimum of 30 pins to it to feel like it’s got some great content that is worth following. Conversely, when a board has more than 400 pins in it, it might be time to start a new board that focuses on a smaller aspect. For example, if you have a Knits & Knitting Pinterest board that has over 400 pins saved to it, a better choice would be to reorganize it to have ‘Sock Knitting Patterns,’ ‘Cabled Sweater Knitting Pattern Inspiration,’ etc.

pinterest ideal image size example

Important: Be sure to name each board something that you would search. Pinterest is a visual search engine, so while it’s tempting to name a board ‘Two of a Kind’ and pin socks and mittens to it, it’s unlikely anyone else will be using that search term, so they are unlikely to find that board through a keyword search. If you need ideas for what to call your board, search Pinterest for similar keywords and see what comes up in the search results.

If you will be using your business Pinterest account for personal use as well and you want to save pins that don’t fit with your brand, you can use secret boards to save your personal pins. You can have as many secret boards as you like, and only you will be able to see them. Read more about secret Pinterest boards here.

You should absolutely be pinning content from your own site! New products are a good choice, and make sure the description is rich with relevant keywords so that someone searching for a similar product has a good chance of seeing your pin. Your blog content is also ideal for pinning.

Important: Make sure that your product pages and blog posts all have a vertical image that clearly shows the product or topic in an attractive light. An ideal image size would be 735 x 1100 pixels. In the example above, you’ll see three different images that are all from the same blog post. The small horizontal image on the far upper right is barely noticeable on the page. The mid-size image is a typical square image that is very common on Instagram, and it is definitely better than the horizontal image –  but neither of those have the same impact of the big vertical image. An ideal vertical image is created using a cluster of blog images and the central square text, and inserted into the original blog post specifically to be a pinnable graphic. The visually harmonious images that are all in the same color scheme and part of the same pin give the eye an opportunity to ‘see’ the same content for longer, giving it more time to register as potentially interesting to the Pinterest viewer. The more attractive those images are, and the more cohesive they are put together, the more likely someone will click on that pin to read more.

It is worth creating a vertical image graphic collage in a photo editing program, and adding text that describes what the Pin link will be about. Make sure that it’s keyword rich, and in a clear, large font. Remember, many people are scrolling through Pinterest on their smartphones, so they need to be able to see and read the info on that small screen.

 

Who To Follow

Unless you want to spend all day on Pinterest, you want to follow accounts and boards that are related to similar content that your ideal customer would also find relevant. If you don’t know where to begin, take a look at who you are following on Instagram and Twitter, and check for their accounts on Pinterest. You can also do keyword searches and follow boards that are relevant to your niche – for example, ‘Yarn Crafts’ or ‘Mini Skein Knitting Pattern Ideas.’

who to follow on Pinterest

And finally, make sure that you actually tell people that you have a Pinterest account! Tweet about it, link to it on Facebook, and add a link on your website.

All of these tips are just the beginning – for help with optimizing your Pinterest account for maximum engagement, get in touch! Contact leanne@stitchcraftmarketing.com to inquire about our Pinterest Power Up program and our wealth of professional resources for the best Pinterest presence possible.

best tips to optimize pinterest for craft businesses

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