When Pinterest burst onto the social media scene in 2010, bloggers were immediately drawn to it. Pinterest was a mostly visual medium, and blogging was becoming increasingly more reliant on beautiful and eye-catching images. Naturally the profession and the platform go hand-in-hand.
Now with over 100 million users, Pinterest is ranked among the top social media networks, and personally it has been ranking as my blogs’ main traffic referral source for the last several months. If you are a blogger, or you are a small business with a blog, you have to be on Pinterest as well.
As a Social Media Strategist, I’ve found a lot of small business owners don’t really know how to use Pinterest for their blog or website. There are a lot of questions about best practices, and a lot of misconceptions about what you should be pinning! I want to address some of the most common Pinterest myths I hear, and why you shouldn’t believe them!
3 Pinterest Myths for Small Businesses BUSTED
Myth 1 – You can’t pin your own pins. The biggest of all the Pinterest myths! For some reason, people assume you shouldn’t pin images from your own website. OF COURSE YOU CAN! Think of it the same way you tweet your own links and post your own articles on Facebook. I pin at least one image from every blog post I write. So, yes, go ahead and pin your own images! Just be sure you are also sharing and repinning other people’s content as well. You want to have a good mix of your pins and other people’s pins.
Myth 2 – Pinterest is just for women. Not true anymore! 15% of users are men, and with 100 million users total, that’s 15 million men who are pinning – that’s a lot! I mainly work with professionals in the wedding industry and there are a lot of male business owners who are a bit clueless when it comes to Pinterest, so the easy solution is to just ignore it. But I don’t think Pinterest is something ANYONE with a small business or a website should be ignoring! Setting up an account is easy-peasy and you can stay active by just pinning a few images every week.
Myth 3 – You can’t pin unless it fits your niche. Go ahead and pin whatever the heck you want! Sure, if you work in a specific industry, such as weddings, I recommend the majority of your pins and boards be wedding related. BUT, Pinterest is also huge for crafts/DIY, food, travel, fitness, and fashion, so don’t be afraid to set up boards for these topics and pin your favorites. Potential clients or potential blog readers are interested in getting to know YOU, so don’t be shy about putting your personality out there.
Have questions about Pinterest or want to arrange a Pinterest profile audit? Just reach out to me; I’d love to hear from you!
