Finally, Pinterest has made the move to separate personal boards and business boards. If your business has a normal, personal profile on Pinterest, you can easily convert your existing account to a business account by visiting The Pinterest for Business page. Why bother? Right now, there doesn’t seem to be much distinction in features for Pinterest for Businesses and for Personal other than the verified website feature (which we’ll cover in a bit), but I suspect that Pinterest is going to begin to reveal features for those who have business accounts. If you’d like to have these options, converting your account now is probably a good idea. In addition, if you’d like to use your Pinterest account to pin fun, non-work related pins (like decorations for your next Christmas party), you can set-up a personal account that will remain separate from your professional account.
If you’re not on Pinterest and wondering if you should be, read our past blog article on using Pinterest to promote your business.
Setting Up your Business on Pinterest – Step by Step:
1. Visit The Pinterest for Business page and either convert your existing account to a business page or start a new account.
2. Make sure your new or converted Pinterest account only uses existing social media logins that are associated with professional accounts. For example, my advice is to not link Pinterest to Facebook right now because Pinterest only links to personal Facebook profiles, not professional Facebook pages. Until they add that option, I would not link to Facebook. If your Twitter account is a professional account, definitely hook them up!
3. Verify your website. This is a nice feature that allows your web address to be displayed prominently in your profile. The process is a little needlessly complicated right now and you may need to enlist the help of your webmaster to do it if you’re not comfortable messing with your website’s FTP site. Here’s how you do it:
- In the settings area, after you enter your web address, click the Verify button.
- Pinterest will take you to a page that allows you do download a unique HTML file. Click the option to download the file and hit SAVE, not open. If you choose to open the downloaded file, it’ll open, normally, in a web browser. You need the physical file saved somewhere on your computer where you can easily access it (like your desktop).
- Log-in to your web server in a new web window. If you’re feeling uncomfortable already, time to enlist the help of your marketing or web professional.
- Go to your website’s FTP directory and upload the HTML file to the root file. This is the main file under which all of your other website files are uploaded. Do not upload it to a subfolder. The HTML file must be uploaded to the main file of your website.
- After you’ve uploaded the file, go back to the Pinterest page and complete the verification process. Pinterest should be able to locate the uploaded file and it will now display your website on your business profile.
A quick tip – if you use multiple web addresses pointing to the same website, you’ll want Pinterest to know your actually web address. Not the name of an address that points to another website.
4. Design or resize your logo for your Pinterest Profile. Since it’s a business page, it’s better to have an image that represents your business on your profile than a personal picture unless you’re an individual consultant. Pinterest profile pictures are 165 px by 165 px.
5. Start boards and start pinning! Pinterest has a couple of great case studies on their website that will inspire you. Check out this case study about Petplan. The case study discusses how diligent Pinterest use has given the brand a leg-up 🙂 on Google searches.
6. Promote your Pinterest page! Add follow buttons to your website so visitors to your site know can get to your Pinterest page with one click. You can download the code for a button directly from Pinterest or you can use social media plug-ins designed for your site’s CMS system.
That’s it. As with any social media, it’s important that you keep it up-to-date and relevant. Happy Pinning!
I’m a mom, a small business owner, and I’m a marketing professional with over a decade helping businesses with their branding and online presence. When I’m not spending time with my family or on my business, I love cooking (and eating) and snuggling with my dogs while I binge on TV shows. My favorite authors are Malcolm Gladwell and Steve Martin. My favorite movies are L.A. Story, Little Mermaid, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Trainspotting.