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What is Pinterest, and how this social network works

Pinterest is a social network that allows subscribers to organize and share photos and videos. This would be enough to give a clear definition of a platform that, after years, continues to thrill.

In fact, how many ideas did you come up with thanks to Pinterest? So many. How many ideas have you collected and organized on the message boards – as the collections of images and photos are called – both public and private? Quite a number, I’m sure.

Because we are faced with a social network that simplifies actions, it moves on to the idea of ​​being able to organize everything in the best possible way. And most importantly, play with the visual within specific communities that manage to speak with discretion and confidence to a specific audience.

That’s why the platform that bears the name of Pinterest is perfect for companies, free entrepreneurs, simple enthusiasts of certain sectors.

But does it always work? Is there a constant and essential need to activate a Pinterest profile? What are the outlets in terms of web marketing, online promotion, and digital strategy? Read the guide.

The Topic Of This Post

  • 1 What is Pinterest: definition and history
  • 2 Pin and repin: minimal vocabulary
  • 3 How Pinterest Works: The Guide
  • 4 Increase followers on Pinterest
  • 5 Integrate Pinterest with the website
  • 6 Create a business account on Pinterest
  • 7 Best Pinterest Profiles to Follow
  • 8 How to communicate with Pinterest?
  • 9 Pinterest: do you do visual storytelling?
  • 10 Official sources and articles to read

What is Pinterest: definition and history

It is a social network that allows you to share images, videos, and photos, organizing them in message boards, which can be public or private. You can also create business profiles and advertise on Pinterest.

How did this name come about? From the fusion of two English words: Pin and interest, that is to say, Pin and interest. As always, the Anglo-Saxon idiom helps to compact the meaning. Pinterest is a virtual place where you can use digital bulletin boards to pin down ideas.

Definition of Pinterest in the video.

The project was funded in 2010 thanks to the idea of ​​Evan Sharp, Ben Silbermann, and Paul Sciarra. It has the typical growth of a startup going, from August to November 2011, from 1.2 million writings to 4 ( Wikipedia ).

From this moment, Pinterest continues to grow and becomes a point of reference both for fans of certain sectors – such as food, fashion, travel, do-it-yourself, weddings – and for online promotion.

Despite this, Pinterest remains a free service which, however, has decided to monetize through the use of advertising.

Why has Pinterest been successful?

There are many people who still ask why this social network has become a reference point for companies and freelancers, bloggers, and influencers who work in the world of online promotion. So why is Pinterest so popular?

From my point of view, the answer concerns its ability to stimulate the need to collect, organize and show what you love. Pinterest stimulates the idea of ​​having your own world just a click away.

On the other hand, it is perfect for those who have to take advantage of the web to find new ideas and inspiration. It is no coincidence that the most famous areas and the topics dealt with most consistently on Pinterest are those related to furniture, design, and clothing, with a particular focus on weddings.

Pin and repin: minimal vocabulary

Before addressing the functioning of this social network, I believe it is right to give a basic definition of the language to be addressed on this platform. Those who do not know it, in fact, could find themselves in difficulty. Here’s what you need to know to get around with ease:

  • Board: the thematic collection of photos.
  • Pin – the image saved on aboard.
  • Repin – Item shared by another user.

These are the indications. Then, as often happens with the English language, we see an expansion of the term to create verbal forms—for example, pinnate or pinnate means to insert an image in the bulletin board.

How Pinterest works: the guide

The first point to follow when you decide to use this social network is registration. Go to the official Pinterest page and sign up as a user or company. The difference between the two is simple: the business profile has functions that allow you to work in a structured way.

Start your adventure on this social network.

Once you have entered your profile, you must, first of all, complete it with all the information. Add an avatar photo, description, and official link. Then you are ready to start your adventure on this social network.

How to create a pinboard

The first step for those starting to do content curation with Pinterest: activate a themed board. You can generate an infinite number of them, and you also have the option to make them private, shared only with some contacts.

How to create a bulletin board? Click on Boards and then go to the create command. Here you can start naming and managing its visibility. One last click, and you have your board to fill with the various visual products you have chosen.

How to create a pin on your profile

Once the bulletin board is done, you need to generate new pins. That is to say, the posts that are inside these macro-containers with a specific topic.

The screen for creating a post.

How to publish the first Pin? Go to your profile and create an entry. Click on Pin and fill in all the fields you find in the posting screen. At this point, you have to enter a series of fundamental items for the post:

  • Post title.
  • Image.
  • Reference link.
  • Description.
  • Postponed publication.
  • Board to publish on.

You have to take care of these elements down to the smallest detail. Remember that the hyperlinks you put on Pinterest are nofollow, so they have no direct SEO value. But you can use this field to insert affiliate links and find a good way to make money on Pinterest.

It is interesting to note that on Pinterest, it is also possible to choose to postpone the publication with a simple check. In this way, you can program your pins directly from the platform and without tools.

How to re-share a pin (the repin)

One of the essential functions of this platform is the repin—namely, the ability to repost on your wall. To proceed, just go to the top right corner of the screen, choose which board to republish, and click on the Save button. This is enough for the repin.

Increase followers on Pinterest

One of the fundamental parameters for achieving good results on Pinterest is the increase in followers, i.e., followers who refer to your boards to find the right inspiration. What makes the difference in these cases is the possibility of obtaining a loyal audience.

So really interested in what you do. So, what are the essential steps to increase the number of followers on Pinterest while maintaining audience quality as a benchmark? What are the techniques?

The first piece of advice I want to give is to insert a button on your website that allows you to become part of the public automatically. You can insert the classic icon in the footer; this is true.

But the button that automates the process is more effective. The same can be done with embedded: having your posts on Pinterest on web pages increases the possibility of increasing followers.

A dynamic that is also implemented and, above all, by participating in the life of the social network. Worry about commenting and sharing the work of people you admire and follow, don’t just post content waiting for others to take the first step towards your profile.

Integrate Pinterest with the website

One of the points you need to follow with the utmost attention: merge the profile you just created with your website. How does this synergy take place? Let’s start with the reasons: through this step, you can both increase visits to web pages and followers of the profile.

That is why, if you have decided to focus on Pinterest marketing, it is worthwhile for everyone to combine your account with the editorial work you do on the blog or the authority of an institutional and well-kept website of saving bond.

How to embed Pin

Did you know that the first useful integration between website and visual on Pinterest is embedded? That’s right; you can embed all non-private content.

To embed a pin, just go to the single publication and click on the three-point button. A drop-down menu opens with different options; among these, there is the one that gives you useful code for your HTML.

As you can see, this is an iFrame; this is what the content looks like when you generate it. You can also manage the size here.

Button to make you follow

Of course, there should be at least one icon on your website that reminds all visitors that you are there and that you can offer interesting visual boards.

In most cases, you can insert a Pinterest icon in the sidebar menu or blog footer. Alternatively, use the official buttons that allow you to embed a code and bring up a follow button.

In reality, from the page pinterest.com/tools/widget-builder, you can generate a series of useful buttons to integrate the Pinterest profile with the website. It’s not just about the follow button but also about the boards and the single Pin.

Share buttons for pages and photos

A good way to combine these realities and allow the resources of your website to have more visibility on this great social network.

Thanks to the buttons, you can allow people to post the visual of your resources on their message boards. They are also reporting the link to the page.

Add social buttons on the site.

The best way to achieve this: use a plugin that combines multiple social buttons, as is the case with ShareThis, for example. To learn more, you can read the post that explains how to insert the Pin It button.

Create a business account on Pinterest

Earlier I mentioned the possibility of activating a company profile for Pinterest. What is the main reason? And most importantly, what are the requirements? Nobody. Everyone can create a professional profile in different ways:

  • Activate an independent company profile.
  • Link up to 4 business profiles to a personal one.
  • Turn a personal account into a business.

What are the reasons that should push you to move from corporate or personal? In the first place, you have access to the statistics that make your work on this social network something really interesting because you have a lot of numbers at your disposal to improve the content.

You can also activate advertising campaigns. Just like with the Facebook Pixel, if you want to take advantage of the promotion on Pinterest, you have to add a tag to follow the audience on your site. And create sponsors that can achieve the best possible result.

How to advertise on Pinterest

The promotion of this social network moves on a fairly simple line. First of all, as suggested, you need to activate the tracking tag to optimize the objectives around a specific target that is useful for your purposes. Without this step, you waste time and resources.

Then locate a pin you want to promote and, once the business account has been activated, choose it by clicking on the appropriate button. Choose the target audience, identify a budget that is useful for your purposes and publish.

Analyze data with analytics

One of the essential points for those who work with a professional Pinterest account: is to be able to access the official statistics. Only in this way, in fact, can you have a series of data that allow you to have under control the editorial work of both organic and sponsored posts.

How to sell on Pinterest

One of the most interesting solutions made available by the platform is the possibility of transforming your account into a structure to sell online. That’s right, Pinterest can help your e-commerce.

How? First, you can simply create boards dedicated to your products by inserting a link to the product sheet. The advice is to avoid exclusively self-referential work; you must not transform your account into a replica of the categories of the shop.

Better to have boards dedicated to products and others where you do content curation and suggest something useful to your most loyal followers.

However, in the pins where you add your goods, remember to take care of the title and description as best as possible in order to make everything more interesting, especially useful for those looking for and wanting to get inspiration from what you sell on the internet. To learn more, here is the guide dedicated to Pinterest for e-commerce.

Best Pinterest profiles to follow

The web is full of Pinterest accounts that can help you find the right inspiration. You can’t follow them all, but you have a choice.

One of the most interesting Pinterest profiles.

That’s why I thought I’d collect a series of details in this guide that you can take as a reference to understand how to create effective pins, describe your photos, organize message boards and have something to say.

  • Updates must be constant and always on topic.
  • Maybe it’s useful to have new boards to view.
  • Is there a conversation in the account comments?
  • Is the photo description complete and meaningful?
  • Are there any links that lead to further information?
  • The images must be of quality and ownership.

Here, these are the details that can become a point of reference when you ask yourself the characteristics of an account to follow. In this way, you can always have original ideas and insights for your work.

How to communicate with Pinterest?

If you need a point of reference to communicate with Pinterest managers, you can use the link pinterest.com/ because here are the forms that allow you to contact the support people. Here you can indicate any malfunctions and problems with the platform.

Pinterest: do you do visual storytelling?

Many point out a passage: with Pinterest, not all companies can publish and work in order to have real results. This is partly true, but not due to the fact that there are no visual materials to share.

The real deficit is the absence of a visual storytelling strategy to put into practice. Even the classic company that sells bolts can create a Pinterest board and use it to collect useful information for their target. Maybe not to sell but to make brand awareness.

Obviously, this does not mean that all businesses and freelancers must have an account on this social network.

I just want to leave an invitation: before unwrapping it and turning your attention to the classic Facebook ADV, I recommend that you think deeply about the real possibility of marketing with Pinterest. Do you agree? Do you think this social network works? I await your idea in the comments.