Everything You Need to Know to Get Started With Pinterest for Business

Getting started on a new social network -- regardless of what it is -- can sometimes feel incredibly daunting. You're dealing with a lot of new things: new platform rules, new platform technology, new audience using the platform, and most likely a new marketing strategy to make the most of the new thing. 

And while all the changes in social media require inbound marketers like us to just embrace all of these new things, sometimes we just want to have someone walk us through using a network from start to finish. We've got so much going on in all of our other marketing activities that we sometimes want someone else to gather all the info we need and hand it to us.

We've been there before, and we want to help. One of the social networks that people consistently ask us about is Pinterest -- from setting up an account, to actually pinning posts, to optimizing pins, to proving its ROI, we get a ton of questions about it every day. So if you're wondering how to get your Pinterest presences up and running, sit back, relax, and check out the resources we've compiled in our embedded Pinterest board below. We'll also walk you through the 10 most important pins in our board in the rest of the post.

7 Things You Need to Get Started With Pinterest for Your Business

1) Get oriented with a beginner's guide to Pinterest.

First things first -- you need quick crash course in marketing on Pinterest. In our Introduction to Pinterest for Business, We'll answer the most crucial questions about the visual social network: What lingo do you need to know? Why should you even bother with the platform in the first place? How do you even sign up for an account? And what can you actually do on the platform to move your marketing metrics? Seriously, do this step first -- it will help you determine if Pinterest is right for your business and give you a bunch of ideas to start implementing on Pinterest ASAP.

Download our Introduction to Pinterest for Business to get started.

2) Set up Pinterest buttons on your website.

Okay, so you've decided you're on board with Pinterest (#pinterestpuns). You've set up an account and added a few boards and pins. Don't forget this crucial step: add Pinterest buttons to your website to drive your website visitors to engage with your Pinterest boards and pins. There are two types of buttons: the 'Pin It' Button and the 'Follow' Button. Learn how to set them up so you can organically increase your Pinterest following.

Check out our blog post on adding Pinterest buttons to your website.

3) Find or create the visuals you want pinned. 

Now that you've got both your Pinterest presence set up on the social network and on your website, you're ready to find or create the visual content to be pinned. Since visuals are the crux are the reason why the social network exists in the first place, you want to make sure your pin's visuals are compelling enough for users to click, like, or comment on. 

The best part about this whole step is that you don't have to be a professional designer to make engaging Pinterest visuals. Check out the following free resources to create top-notch visual content that will blow your Pinterest followers out of the water:

• The Marketer’s Crash Course in Visual Content Creation: Learn the basic principles of design and apply them to your next pin design -- we'll even suggest a few tools to help you create top-notch visuals. 
• How to Create Five Fabulous Infographics in PowerPoint: One of the most successful visual formats on Pinterest is the infographic ... but it can feel daunting to create one of your own. Have no fear: just download this template and follow the steps in this blog post for creating an infographic in under an hour.
• 17 Customizable Templates for Shareable Graphics on Social Media: If your goal is to get your pins repinned, definitely check out these free templates. Whether you're posting inspirational quotes, an image to promote your latest blog post, or just a photo of your product, check out this template to spruce up your images.
• 75 Free Stock Photos to Use in Your Marketing: Don't really want to spend the time creating graphics for Pinterest? Pick one of these 75 free stock photos as the image in your pin instead. There's no strings attached. Seriously. 

4) Make sure people can easily find your content on Pinterest.

So after you've created all of this great content for Pinterest ... you want to make sure people can actually discover it. Yes, people will find it if others engage with you, but one of the most common ways they'll find your content is through search. So make sure you're prepared for search with this comprehensive guide to Pinterest SEO.

5) Optimize posts to get more engagement.

Besides optimizing for Pinterest search, there are a few other ways you can change up your content to get more comments, repins, and likes. Check out this data by Dan Zarrella to see how image height, description length, or word choice can affect your success on Pinterest. While these aren't hard-and-fast rules, the data can give you a general direction to take -- and after a while, you'll have concrete data about your audience to inform your future Pinterest posts. 

6) Take your Pinterest content elsewhere by embedding pins and boards.

There are two other ways you can add Pinterest content to your website besides adding the 'Pin It' or 'Follow' buttons. You can actually embed Pinterest boards (just like we did in this post)! It's pretty easy to do -- you're mostly copy-pasting code into your website or blog -- but there are a few crucial steps to follow that most forget to tell you about. Check out this blog post to learn more about embedding Pinterest widgets on your website.

7) Measure and iterate on your Pinterest presence.

So after all that creation and optimization, you're going to want to prove to your boss that your time is well spent on Pinterest. Get a run-down of Pinterest's latest analytics tool update, learn how to track specific campaigns on the platform, and see which metrics are most important to investigate on the social network.

Bonus: if you're committing to Pinterest over a longer period of time, we'll give you some formulas to calculate the long-term growth and success of your efforts. So go on, download our guide to optimize and measure your Pinterest account!

What else do you want to learn about Pinterest for business? Share your questions with us in the comments, and we'll update the board throughout the day with resources that can help.