Marketing your Wedding Business withweddingbusinesssuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/... · Like many social media platforms, Pinterest has it [s own quirks, unwritten rules and

© Wedding Business Success 2014

Marketing your Wedding Business with


Why use Pinterest?

Pinterest could have been designed with brides in mind. No need to buy lots of magazines, tear out pictures and then forget where they came from. Today’s social media-savvy couples are browsing, pinning and sharing their ideas in ever increasing numbers.

For wedding businesses, this provides a great opportunity to showcase skills and products in an engaging, non-pushy way.

Unlike Twitter and Facebook posts, images you add to Pinterest have a long lifespan. They continue to be found (and drive visitors to your website) for months and even years after they were first added.

Like many social media platforms, Pinterest has it’s own quirks, unwritten rules and etiquette.

In this guide we’ll take you through the basics of setting up and show you how to use Pinterest as a marketing tool.


Pinterest vocabulary

Pin – an image on Pinterest Board – a collection of Pins


How does Pinterest work?

Pinterest is a social networking platform which allows users to visually share, curate (i.e organise), and discover new interests by posting, also known as ‘pinning,’ images or videos to their own or others’ pinboards (i.e. a collection of ‘pins,’ usually with a common theme).

Once you have created an account, you can create different boards and add images to them.

Users can upload images from their computer, “pin” things they find on the web and “pin” other images from Pinterest (used to be called re-pin, but the term was dropped in the latest revamp).

You can also “Like” or add a comment to a pin, which adds a social element to the platform.


Which type of account?

Pinterest recently introduced business accounts as well as personal accounts.

At the moment there is not much difference (the terms of service are more comprehensive for business accounts), but it’s a sure sign that they are taking business users very seriously and we can expect to see more business-friendly features in the future.

If you already have a Pinterest profile you can easily convert this to a business account without losing any of your pins, boards or followers.

If your main aim in joining Pinterest is to promote your business, then go for a business account.

But Pinterest is a platform that works very well as a mix of business and pleasure, so for one person businesses, a personal account may feel more appropriate. You can always convert later.


Sett ing up your personal account

Using the Facebook option only allows you to link your Pinterest account to your personal Facebook account, not your business page. This may change in the future as Pinterest encourage more businesses to use the platform. Until that happens, use Twitter or email.

• Go to http://pinterest.com/ and click the “Join Pinterest” button.

• You can register via Facebook, Twitter, or an e-mail address – it’s recommended that you use Twitter.

• Complete your profile fully and ensure the “Search Privacy” option is set to “No”.

• To include a link to your website, you will need to verify you own the site by adding a small piece of code to your web server.

http://pinterest.com/

http://pinterest.com/


Sett ing up your business account

• Go to http://business.pinterest.com/ and click the “Join us as a Business” button.

• Complete your profile.

• To include a link to your website, you will need to verify you own the site by adding a small piece of code to your web server.

• Pinterest will take you through the steps needed to do this and also has lots of useful information on using the platform.

• Edit your profile to add your Twitter and Facebook links.

http://business.pinterest.com/

http://business.pinterest.com/


Strategy

Before you dive straight in and start pinning all your pictures, take some time to think about your strategy, what you want to achieve and the best way to do this. Take a look at wedding professionals already established on Pinterest – just browse the Weddings category - and take a look at how they organise their boards. • Blatant selling won’t work on Pinterest – you need to use it to showcase the style of

your brand as well as your actual products.

• So you need to mix your own images with lots of content from others.

• Your images need to be top notch. Quality, styled shots work much better than cut-out product images.

• Set aside time every week to update your boards and schedule it into your diary.

• Decide what your goal is for using Pinterest and make sure you can measure the results.


Boards

You can move pins around later as you create new boards.

There’s lots of ways to organise boards: by colour scheme, by theme, by type of product. • A florist could organise by colour or by style. • A planner may want boards devoted to each

element of the wedding – dress, flowers, reception styling etc.

Decide whether to have boards devoted to your products/service or to include your own items in themed boards. Giving your boards quirky, but descriptive, names will help you stand out from the crowd. On the other hand, using keywords makes it more likely you will appear in searches. If you can combine them – brilliant!


Pins

If you upload images from your computer rather than pinning them from your website, you will need to edit the Pin to add a link to your site.

When pinning your own items, take time to write a good description. Few people change this when re-pinning.

Include keywords (remember to include “wedding”), the colour and any other words you think will help you appear in searches. You can also include your business name


Growing your fol lowers

You can follow all or selected boards by a particular person.

As with any social media, you should engage with others to get the most from Pinterest. This means following, repinning, liking and commenting. If you have linked Pinterest to your Twitter account, Pinterest will prompt you to follow your Twitter followers and will also let you know when Twitter followers join Pinterest. You can automatically publish your Pinterest activity on your personal (not your business) Facebook timeline. If you have a Facebook page, however, it’s probably best to manually share your best pins only. You can also Like and Tweet pins. And don’t forget to add a “Follow on Pinterest” button to your website.


Compet i t ions Running competitions on Pinterest can be a good way to increase your followers and brand awareness.

There are numerous ways to run competitions. Here are a few of the most typical:

• Ask people to create boards and choose the best one.

• Ask people to re-pin an image and follow you, then choose a winner at random.

• Ask people to pin images and include a tag in the description so you can find and repin it. Then choose your favourite.

Top Tips :

• Make it easy to enter…

• Explain the rules clearly (on your website and/or in a graphic)

• Promote it through your other social media channels too

• Have a worthwhile prize that is relevant to the people you want to attract.

• Collect email address if possible.


Encouraging pinning

You don’t need to be active yourself on Pinterest to benefit. Just make it easy for website visitors to pin your images to their boards.

The Pinterest Buttons & Widgets builder takes you through the options to create the buttons you need for your site.

You can also make it easy to pin images yourself by adding a “Pin it” button to your browser.

You’ll find all the different options here:

http://about.pinterest.com/en/goodies

If you want to see which images from your site are already on Pinterest, visit this url (replacing YourWebsite.com with your site name, of course). http://pinterest.com/source/YourWebsite.com/




Fol low Us Don’t forget to follow Wedding Business Success on Pinterest:

http://www.pinterest.com/wedbizsuccess/

We follow back all wedding businesses and are always looking for great images to add to our boards.

Happy Pinning!



Documents

Marketing your Wedding Business withweddingbusinesssuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/... · Like many social media platforms, Pinterest has it [s own quirks, unwritten rules and