Using Pinterest for your Business Part 2

ByGuild Member Diane Price from Adien Crafts

Following on from last month you will hopefully have set up your Business Pinterest account. Here are the next steps to follow.

A fact you might find interesting is that one of your Pins has a life 1600 times longer than a Facebook post! Your content can pop up in the Pinterest feed many months after you have posted it, this happens very often so it’s a great idea to get your Pins out there to be discovered well into the future.

Now that your account is set up, complete your profile on your Business Account.
●    Enter your Business name.
●    Upload your Logo or Headshot.
●    Fill in your Bio and make sure to include any key words that might be relevant in a search.
●    Add your location and your website details.

It’s a good idea to add a ‘Pin It’ browser button to your task bar to make it easy to pin not only your own website items but other great images etc you come across. Many sites such as Folksy and Etsy have a Pin It button on each item page which makes life easy. This link will take you to Pinterest with instructions how to add to your task bar, it’s very simple to do: https://about.pinterest.com/en/browser-button

You will see that your home page has a box with the words ‘Create a Board’ This is your invite to make your first board, and then as many boards as you like. You’ll find this will grow after time as you have more brilliant ideas for boards to create.  It’s a good idea to cover other interests with boards that will attract people to follow your account; they will then also get to see your item/sales pins in their news feed.

Some board ideas might be:

●    ( Your Shop Name ) for items you can upload with a link to your website/Folksy/Etsy etc
●    Inspiration Board
●    Sold Items by ( Your Shop Name )
●    Commission Items by ( Your Shop Name )
●    Tutorials
●    Colour Mood Boards

The Title of your boards is important when it comes to being found in Pinterest search, so take a few minutes to use keywords that you think people will be searching for. For example if you are setting up a board for your own shop add what you are making as well, e.g. Jewellery, Cards, Knitwear …

The list of boards is endless, maybe set up 8-10 to start off with.

So, we’ve opened your account, filled in your profile, added a Pin It button to your Task Bar and created some boards. Next time we’ll move onto filling these gorgeous boards as well as networking and joining group boards on Pinterest, plus the Analytics feature now available.

A Beginners Guide to Pinterest - Part 1

ByGuild Member Diane Price from Adien Crafts

This article is aimed at Members who may not have joined Pinterest yet, or maybe you have a dormant account and aren’t quite sure what to do with it?

Pinterest began back in 2009 and quickly became a popular part of social networking. It began as a site where one could save or ‘pin’ favourite finds while browsing the Internet by creating mood boards, meaning you could refer back anytime and find everything in one place. Imagine your cork board on the kitchen wall where you might ‘pin’ favourite things, Pinterest is a virtual cork board!

Small businesses such as ours soon realised the potential for promoting their items on Pinterest as each item can be linked to your online shop. A click of the photo on Pinterest will bring potential new customers your way. The hard part as with all social networking is getting views for your pins!

Getting Started with a Pinterest Business Account

Pinterest has stated that anyone wishing to use the site for commercial purchases must do so through a Business Account with a verified website, many people are still using Pinterest for promoting via their personal accounts but strictly speaking this is against Pinterest T & C’s.

Go to https://business.pinterest.com and sign up for a free business account. If you currently have a personal account the link above will also enable you to convert to a business account. You may decide to open a Business Account alongside your personal one rather than converting, but you will start with nil followers and will need to build up an audience again.

Once your account is up and running you can create as many boards as you like, and move the boards around on your Pinterest page, you will have made a board for your own products, place this board as number one so if anyone browses your page that’s the first one they will see. The site will give you instructions how to add a ‘Pin It’ button to your tool bar so you can start building your board of products, if you are selling on Folksy or Etsy, there is a Pinterest button on your product page so that you can pin direct.


Group boards are an excellent way to become part of the Pinterest community. The Professional Crafters Guild has its own Pinterest group board, just request to be added to the group and you can then pin your products to the group collection.

Right, so we’ve only covered setting up your account and boards, and adding pins, next time we will move onto how to use Pinterest in detail and how to make the most of it for promoting your shop.