Are you into "pinning?" When I first joined Pinterest, I wasn't a very enthusiastic pinner, but as time went by, I became more and more interested in using Pinterest as a business tool and for finding inspiration for craft projects. Every day I gain about 35 to 55 followers, and now I have over 14,700! If you want to see my pinboards HERE is the link.
My most popular pinboard is Creative Flowers. I have over 5,000 followers for that pinboard alone. A few of the projects shown are my own, but there are oodles of others of every variety to inspire, and links to the tutorials in many cases.
These fabric flowers are easy to make. You can view the tutorial HERE.
Another type of "Rosette Corsage" that I sell in my Etsy shop:
According to Pinterest, the average pin gets re-pinned 11 times. People are more likely to pin images that are long vertically than short and squatty, and people are most likely to follow boards that have at least 20 to 30 pins on them. Pinterest has their own blog that's interesting to read. If you've never visited, HERE it is.
If you aren't yet using Pinterest to promote your business, such as an Etsy shop, you might want to sign up for Pinterest for Business. HERE is the link you need to get started. After signing up for Pinterest for Business, you must "verify" your website, which means that you have to claim that you own it. HERE is the link for you to do that.
Once you are up and running with Pinterest for Business, I have a few more tips: add fresh pins regularly so your followers see new pins in their home feed. Pin items directly from your Etsy shop or other online venue and note the prices in your pin description.
The Pinterest for Business Blog is a second blog Pinterest maintains that's full of helpful posts. They give examples of business success stories such as Sephora, the makeup giant; Lowes, the home improvement store; and Etsy, who now has 800,000 online shops, that have used Pinterest to grow their business.
Photo Credit: Pinterest
If you have product lines that are geared toward different groups of people, you might consider creating pinboards for each of them. "Gift Ideas for Girls" could have a mix of your creations and some non-competitive pins from other boards. "Teacher Gifts"; "Father's Day Gift Ideas", "Handy Things for Travelers" and "Things New Homeowners Need" are just some ideas for pinboards to get your creations on different boards that might reach unique groups of customers.
To gain insight into what's going on with pinners in relation to your pinboards, you'll want to access some analytics. Head over to the Pinterest Help Center to learn about it all. Don't worry, it's not hard to understand!
If you have any of your own "Pinteresting" tips, feel free to leave them in my comment section!
Mitzi
Wow Mitzi, lots of good information. I'm going to head over to Pinterest and sign up for a business account and start pinning from my Etsy shop. Thanks so much!
Posted by: Beth Leintz | 10/29/2014 at 09:48 PM
I am addicted to Pinterest! I have a personal account and one for our writers group. It is a great way to gather information - especially for visual people.
My best advice is to make one pinnable image for each blog post that has your blog title and your url. On every other picture, just add your url. PICMONKEY is a free online tool that is simple to use, even for people, like myself, who are not techy. http://mindypeltier.com/do-ya-wanna-free-monkey/
If every picture on your blog had mitzimiscellany.com on the bottom right hand corner in a font that looks MITZIish it would be part of your branding and guarantee you always received credit for your work.
You are very creative and inspiring, I would love to see you always getting credit for your work. Watermarking your pics would do just that.
Posted by: Mindy | 10/29/2014 at 09:54 PM
Awesome, Beth! Just in time for the holidays......I hope your sales increase over 2013s!
Mitzi
Posted by: Mitzi Curi | 10/30/2014 at 11:56 AM
You are SO right, Mindy! The reason I don't watermark my images has just been laziness, which is a terrible excuse. I'm going to visit PicMonkey today and familiarize myself with it. Thanks for taking the time to leave such a helpful comment, and for the kind words about my blog!
Posted by: Mitzi Curi | 10/30/2014 at 11:59 AM
Thanks for all this! I have avoided Pinterest for years, even though I know it is very popular and a good marketing tool. But your post has simplified some things for me, and I think I'm going to give it a try. Thank you!
Posted by: Gina @ VintageJunkinMyTrunk | 10/30/2014 at 09:45 PM
Hi Gina,
Oh, I think youll enjoy Pinterest. Ive avoided Twitter.....and probably will continue to do so. It will take a lot of convincing to change my mind!
Mitzi
Posted by: Mitzi Curi | 10/31/2014 at 05:47 PM
Mitzi, I found this picture on Pinterest and was directed to your site. I found one just the same but the signature is torn. Do you have any more info about it? Thanks! jayne
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/386957792954001675/
Posted by: jayne | 06/30/2015 at 07:19 PM
hi mitzi- tks to your little place here-I found out how much my witch's hat reamer is worth- I see one on ebay for $1800- may I say hooray and tks for the heads up- val
Posted by: Val Magnuson | 03/18/2016 at 02:42 PM