Pinterest is becoming very popular and more and more friends are jumping on the bandwagon. I have notice many people are making time wasting mistakes. If you are new to Pinterest and you want to use it to drive traffic to your website: Don’t make these four novice mistakes!
Mistake #1:Pinning photographs rather than websites
People new to Pinterest see boards with pictures and then create their pinboards with photos they have stored on their computer. You may end up with pretty boards, you won’t get any traffic from the Pinterest community. The strength of Pinterest is that the pictures are links to websites.
What to do:
1. Click on the Add button.
2. Choose “Add Pin”
copy the URL of your website page
3. Copy the URL of your website
4. Pinterest will then give you options to:
- Choose the image you want if your page contains multiple images.
- Choose the board you want to pin it to
- Add a description
Which brings me neatly on to Mistake no. 2
Mistake #2: Not adding a proper description
So many people don’t bother to fill in the description or add only a very short description. You can 500 characters to your description. Make sure you spend the time to add the following to each of your pins.
- A description containing your keywords – Pinterest has a robust search function make sure you add words that you think people might be searching for.
- An URL! Yes your picture contains the URL, but not everyone knows how to use Pinterest so make it easy for them to find your article or product.
- A price (if appropriate) – If you are selling products on your website then you will want to add a price because it displays the Price and it adds it to the Gifts section of Pinterest. See below.
Mistake #3: Not Installing the Pin it button
The Pin it button makes Pinning very quick and easy to share content on Pinterest. You will find it by click on the About Section and choosing the Pin it Button.
What’s really clever is that they will show you how to install the Pin it button according to the browser you are using. They even show you a video to make it very easy to install.
This makes it incredibly easy to share content from any webpage. When you find content you want to share:
- click on the Pin It button
- Select the Image you want from the available images on the page
- It will then allow you to choose which board you want to add it to. The default is always the last Pinboard you used. Make sure it is the right one! I have added so many pins to the wrong board, by not paying attention to this! You can repin them to the right boards, but it wastes some of your time.
- Make sure that your description has keywords
- If the content is from someone else’s website make sure that it contains their orginal headline and it links to their website.
Mistake #4: Not using Pinterest to source pins
Pinterest is not just about you and not all your pins should be links to your website. Millions of beautiful images and useful articles have already been pinned.
Use the Search function on Pinterest to find Pins or Boards that will be useful and repin from theses boards. Repinning is like sharing on Facebook and Pinterest users love being repinned. If you want to create an inspirational board such as Dream holidays or your Bucket list, you can spend hours trawling around the web to find suitable images or you can use Pinterest for inspiration and speed. Your choice!
These are just some tips about Pinterest. Let me know if you want more by leaving a comment.
P.S. You are very welcome to Pin this post.
Nicky Kriel
Nicky Kriel is a Social Media Coach & Trainer inspiring, educating and empowering Business Owners to use Social Media more strategically. She is also the author of How to Twitter for Business Success. For more information visit http://www.nickykriel.com or to find out about her courses that she runs in Guildford visit http://www.nickykriel.com/courses
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Thanks for this great post about Pinterest. I love Pinterest. It is a bit of Creative time for me. But people do need to be educated how to link to their pins.
Hi Jackie
Thank you for the lovely feedback. I think I may have to produce a few more how to’s for Pinterest.
Nicky x
Perfect timing for me, thank you Nicky. It’s really hard to try and work out how it works for yourself, so your tips are fantastic. I did start by just pinning photos but then I worked out how to add a URL but I didn’t realise you can post an actual URL and pick a photo. I will try that next.
Thanks again!
Hi Shona
Glad you found it useful. Installing the Pin it button makes pinning so much easier! Have fun on Pinterest!
Nicky x
Hi Shona, I have just checked your Pinterest account and clicked on all your images. They all link to photographs not to your website. You have added a URL to your main website to some of the descriptions, but mostly it is to your homepage. There is very little to help people to find the bag they want. Give me a call if you want help.
Nicky
Cool post Nickie. I’m slowly warming to Pinterest – but it can be such a time suck!
Thanks for the tips.
Dee
Hi Dee
Thank you. All Social Media sites can be a time suck. It is important to be strategic about how you spend your time rather than get lost in them. Pinterest can be stunningly beautiful and great for inspiration and I can see how people get addicted to it.
Nicky
Thanks for posting this Nicky. I started to use Pinterest a while ago, but really struggled as to how it would benefit my business, though its a great way of collecting images for shoot ideas. You’ve explained it perfectly now though, I’ll set to with sorting my links, thank you
Hi Mark
What stunningly beautiful pictures you have on your website. As a photographer, make sure all your photos are watermarked when you put them onto Pinterest to make sure that the photos can be linked back to you. I have been collecting Pinterest articles that are worth reading on a board on Pinterest if you are interested in finding out more. Thank you for your lovely comment.
Nicky
Thanks, Nicky. I removed the URL’s from my Pins because I got a few complaints (imagine!). I thought it was weird, but now if anyone says anything, I’ll just refer them to this post. Not all of my pins go somewhere, and that’s okay with me. Some of them are just inspirational quotes and such.
Now if you could just convince Pinterest to put in a Business Section (plus maybe a way to not have to look at all the clothes and food, because really, what’s the point?), Pinterest would really be great.
Hi Amethyst,
I am really curious about why people complained. I am finding Pinterest really useful for finding Pinterest articles and Infographics and I love the way you can pin your YouTube videos directly onto boards. Pinterest is visually very pleasing. Thank you for commenting.
Nicky
Thank you Nicky-I saw someone had placed the price banner on their pins the other day and wondered how they did this-then voila, I see you posted exactly what I needed to know in this article!! Now I can start doing this on my photos!! Cheers!!
Hi Cindy
I am really glad it was helpful information for you and timely. Thank you very much for leaving a comment. I would suggest you are selective about which pieces you put a price on, Pinterest is a community and it is a Social Media platform, so avoid being too salesy. Look at Etsy and Kelly Lester as example of businesses getting it right on Pinterest.
Nicky
Thanks Nicky, I have been using Pinterest for a while now to promote the Petersfield Festival of Food & Drink and, more importantly, the people taking part. For an event like this you can use the pin board to give visitors a preview of who/what will be there and it’s extra publicity for those involved. We all LOVE it!
http://pinterest.com/philippasteward/petersfield-festival-of-food-drink-2012/
Hi Philippa
What a great way to use Pinterest! I love the way it can be used in different ways. Thank you for sharing.
Nicky
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Hi Nicky-I was wondering if you have heard of pinners having difficulties with their pictures linking to their website? Half of my pictures linked to my site but, now, when I link a picture it says the following:
Warning!This link redirects visitors to another site – it may link to spam or other inappropriate content.
Back to Pinterest · Continue to Link · More Info
If you click on continue to link-it will go to my site. I think someone said to watch you don’t post all pictures of your own-which I do post others. Then someone said it maybe because I used a url shortner-but I tried it on pictures that I didn’t and it still happens!! I just finished reading your blog and went to one of my pictures that doesn’t link properly and deleted the old url I then repasted the url again-now it works. I then went and tried another picture immediately -it doesn’t work. This is getting very frustrating. I have tried to contact Pinterest and sent them this question-they don’t respond!! I have asked other pinterest experts but know one can answer this question. Do you have any idea what is happening or, have any of your readers experienced this? I feel maybe I should start all over-but really don’t want to. Cheers Cindy
Hi Cindy
Trying to find your Pinterest profile, but can’t find it. Tried both your name and different versions of your company name. What’s your account’s URL?
Hi Nicky-Here is my profile url: http://pinterest.com/ddsilverjewelry/
Hi Cindy
It seems to only be affecting your pins that include a price. This is what Pinterest says is the reason for getting that message. https://support.pinterest.com/entries/21436306-why-is-my-pin-or-site-blocked-for-spam-or-inappropriate-content
“Links from pins may result in this message for the following reasons:
The pin links to a redirect or URL shortener instead of directly to the source. For the best experience, users should link pins directly to the source, and not to links or URL shorteners which direct users elsewhere.
The owner of the site has been reported as spamming on Pinterest to gain traffic.
The site itself has been reported as misleading or inappropriate.
The site has otherwise violated Pinterest’s Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy.
If you believe a site has been flagged in error, please contact Pinterest Support.
Click “Submit a Request” at the top of this page.
For “What do you need help with?”, select Brands/Websites -> Blocked Site
Include the following:
A link to the website or blog.
A link to a pin that’s resulting in the error.
You’ll receive an email with troubleshooting steps. Reply to this message (a simple “I still need help” will do), and your ticket will be routed to an agent.”
Are you using a shortened URL or do you pin directly from the site?
Nicky
Hi Nicky-I just pinned a pair of earrings and didn’t put in the price-and it’s still doing it!! This also is one that I never used a url shortner.
I have also contacted them in great detail over a month ago and have not heard back. This is why I find it so frustrating-if someone would just get back to me to let me know what’s happening. If someone has reported me than I would like to know. If it something else I can fix that. I don’t want to continue pinning as I hate seeing those words they say may be about my site. I will send in another ticket and hopefully get a message back. Thank you for this reply and again would like to know if anyone else has this issue. Cheers Cindy