Pinterest is a visual search and discovery platform, distinct from traditional social media, that offers significant, often underutilized, growth opportunities for businesses by connecting them with users actively planning purchases and seeking inspiration.
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Hey there business owners. Do you ever
feel incredibly confused by the
Pinterest jargon? It feels like there's
all these words that are happening when
people talk about Pinterest marketing,
but you literally have no idea what they
mean. You are not alone. And today I'm
going to break down what some of these
terms mean so that you can greater
understand Pinterest and Pinterest
marketing and how it can help your
business. I am a Pinterest educator with
the Pinterest educator programs. and
creating this in partnership with them
so that we can get the word out to more
business owners as to how to use
Pinterest in a really effective way that
can help their business grow. I believe
Pinterest is one of the most
underutilized platforms for creators and
sellers out there. And I want to help
get more people educated so that they
can feel empowered to use the platform
in the right way. But first, we want to
dive into what is Pinterest. Now, I want
to start here because I want us all to
be on the same page before we go into
these terms. Pinterest is a search and
discovery platform. I often tell people
who are new to Pinterest, Pinterest is
like a library. Instagram is like a bar.
So, if you try to take what you know
about social media marketing and put it
onto Pinterest, it is going to be a very
frustrating process for you. You're
going to feel like you're failing
because what works over here in the bar
doesn't work in the library. It's like
talking really loud is strange and weird
in a library and then someone reading a
book in the middle of a bar is really
strange and weird, right? And so we want
to extract what we know about other
social media platforms and not apply
them to Pinterest, but understand that
Pinterest is a visual search and
discovery. It is where people go to
discover new ideas and new products that
will help them in their life. And for
you as a business owner, you want to get
in the middle of that whole process to
really impact people so that they can
become new readers or new buyers. So,
here's a few stats that I think are
important for you to know about
Pinterest. 85% of penninners use the
platform to plan their projects, to plan
their trips, or to figure out what
they're going to purchase. 80% of people
on Pinterest weekly penninners discover
something new. It is like, "Oh my gosh,
I never knew this was even an option."
It's the aha moment that they have when
they are interacting with the platform.
Your business can be part of that aha
moment. This is my favorite stat. I
mean, I've loved this one forever. 96%
of searches on Pinterest are unbranded.
So, what this means is you don't have to
have a huge following. You don't need to
be an influencer to make an impact on
Pinterest. It essentially levels the
playing field for all businesses. So,
here's an example. We had worked with a
client before who is a handmade tile
seller. She's competing with these
bigger box companies, ones like Home
Depot and Lowe's, and she's able to get
in front of purchasers simply by being
smart about the way that she uses
Pinterest because she knows that the
searches on Pinterest are unbranded.
They aren't going to Pinterest and
searching Home Depot tile. They save
that for Google, right? They're going to
be inspired, going to be delighted by
what they find. The last is that Gen Z
is a super fast growing demographic on
Pinterest. I feel like Gen Z is also a
fast growing demographic everywhere. I
have Jenzers in my home and 84% of Gen Z
says that weekly they discover new ideas
and new products and that it is
inspiring to them. That is encouraging
for you if you are a business owner that
is specifically targeting the Gen Z
demographic. But if you are not
specifically targeting the Gen Z
demographic, I just want to remind you
that all generations are using
Pinterest. My mom, who is in her mid70s
all the way down to 14year-olds, are
using Pinterest. So the generational gap
is wide, and there is an opportunity out
there for you and your business. So
let's talk about terminology. There's a
few terms I want you to become familiar
with. Now, we could go deep and maybe
create a whole encyclopedia, but we're
not. We're going to keep this to
probably the top six or seven that are
most important. The number one is pin.
Some people will come to say me and say,
"What is a pin?" A pin is just a post.
It is essentially a visual image of what
it is that people can find when they
click on it and come to your website.
That's it. So, a business wants to use
this in a way where they communicate
real quickly, kind of like a billboard,
what it is people can find on the other
side of that pin. So, if you're a
business owner, for example, a bakery in
like South Carolina and you specialize
in wedding cakes, you want to not only
create amazing visuals of your wedding
cakes, but every once in a while, you
also want to add a little bit of text or
copy on that particular image that says
what it's about. So, this could be the
top five wedding bakeries in South
Carolina or the top five things you need
to know before you purchase your wedding
cake. You're giving a little bit of
context for people to understand what it
is they're going to find when they click
on this image and go to your website.
Now, let's break it down into the types
of pins. The number one pin out there is
just a standard pin or also called a
static image. It's just an image. That's
pretty much what a standard pin is. I
like to call these the flagship pin of
Pinterest. It is the pin that you will
see out there majority of the time. And
that's been the same way really since it
started is that these particular static
images tell a quick story in order to
get people to save it, which we're going
to talk about in a minute, or to click
on it to come to your website. The next
type of pin that's been not recent, but
as there's been the development of video
is a video pin. People on Pinterest
aren't looking for long form video.
They're looking for something that is
short form. So that would be a teaser or
something that's going to lead them to a
longer form video or an article or even
a product that they want to learn more
about. I recommend keeping these between
30 seconds and a minute 30 just because
it doesn't seem like people watch over
that minute 30 mark. I believe you can
upload all the way up to 4 minutes or 5
minutesish. I'll put the recommendations
down below for video, but you want to
keep it really short and poppy, kind of
like what you would do on other
platforms as well. The next is a product
pin. A product pin gives the information
about the particular product. It's
pretty cool because it also has this buy
button and it has the price and you can
get these by connecting your catalog as
a shop owner. We have another video
about that all in our e-commerce series.
So, go ahead and watch that. But a
product pin essentially shows the image
of the product and then it gives the
information about the product. That's
it. The other one is a carousel pin. I
have a video here on my channel all
about carousel pins, but it's
essentially static images upload so
people can swipe through them. So,
here's a practical example. You are a
clothing retailer and you have a sandal
that you want people to know is in
multiple colors and you have different
images of people wearing this particular
sandal in these different colors. You
can upload all of those into a carousel
pin so that the person interested in
these particular sandals can simply
swipe through the pin to see what the
offers are. I love this because maybe
the first image that shows up is a black
sandal, but maybe they're interested in
a green sandal. They can swipe through,
find the green, and then click to come
to buy the sandal. Now that we know what
pins are, let's go to the next term,
which is board. What in the world are
boards? So, I am Gen X. When I planned
my wedding, there was no Pinterest.
There wasn't internet, but there was no
Pinterest. And so, what we would do is
we would get all these magazines and we
would tear out everything that we were
interested in or we wanted to save in
order to plan for the wedding and we
would put them into a binder. A board is
essentially the modern version of a
binder. It's a place where the pinter
goes to save all of their great ideas
categorized in a way that helps them
find it later. So, if you're a business
owner and you're thinking, "Well, how do
I use boards?" Let's say you're a
fitness coach and you talk about
post-workout meals, ways to get in
protein, you talk about fitness
routines, you talk about nutrition, you
can create different boards that
highlight and showcase all the different
content that you talk about. What's
great is then you're categorizing your
content in a way to where the pinner can
understand what it's all about. It's
pretty cool. I love boards and I love
the organization that we have all around
boards. The third term is saves. Saves
are essentially what people do when they
want to save something to their board.
They are finding something, putting it
in their binder, and saying, "Yep, I
want to save this for later." It's also
one of the most important metrics for
you to track as a business owner on
Pinterest because it shows intent. It
shows that people are interested in what
it is you have to offer. And so saves
are something definitely to be a paid
attention to. We'll talk about that in a
future video when it comes to analytics,
but it's just really important for you
to know that saves are an incredibly
important part of the whole ecosystem.
So how it works is that somebody will
click on an image on a pin. They might
close up to that particular pin, decide
if they want to save it, and then save
it to their board. Now, here's the cool
part is that because Pinterest is seeing
that this person is interested in these
particular topics, the next time they
open up Pinterest, they're going to show
them more of this particular topic or
product. Here's a great example. I am in
the process of really planning and
designing our backyard. I live in the
Pacific Northwest and it rains a lot. I
would like a great back like awning for
our back porch. I am on Pinterest late
at night and I'm saving things to my
backyard patio board left and right. The
next time I open up Pinterest, there's
more great ideas about backyard awnings.
It's really helpful to me because then
I'm not always having to search. I just
get that served up in my feed when I
open up the app. So saves are a great
indicator of what people are interested
in, which makes the opportunity for you
to connect with that particular pinner
higher and higher every single time.
Pinterest SEO. So I talked about
Pinterest being a visual search tool,
right? Well, it's very similar to what
we find on Google, except for it's
imagebased versus textbased. So, a lot
of people will say Pinterest SEO. It's a
term that a lot of marketers will throw
around. What this simply means is that
you want to make sure you're using
keywords in every place that you can on
Pinterest in order for the person to
find the pin and to save it to their
board. See how that works? So, when you
have an opportunity to add natural
sounding sentences with keywords you
know that your ideal customer is using,
you can add those into any fields that
Pinterest will allow you to populate
that information. So, here's an example.
Let's say you have a real estate owner
or real estate agent who is targeting
firsttime home buyers. They've created a
pin and it has a home with the words 10
things every firsttime home buyer needs
to know. And they're going to save it to
their firsttime home buyer board. And I
want to make sure that the terms on that
particular pin are around first-time
home buyer and then on that board are
around first-time home buyer so that it
all comes together to create this
Pinterest SEO magic. It's really just a
way to make sure that the content or the
products that you've developed end up
matching the searches of the pinner on
the platform. That's it. And there's no
tricks, there's no gimmicks, there's
none of that. You just want to really
make sure that you're using the right
keywords that you know people are going
to be putting in. I heard a phrase a
long time ago, reader friendly is search
friendly. So when people ask all these
questions about what keywords do I use,
where do I put them? Blah blah blah blah
blah. Think about what people might be
putting into the search bar. That's it.
And make it the terms that people are
going to be using. The Pinterest
algorithm. Algorithms are a big thing
for business owners who are going to be
using platforms to market their
products. They're curious about how
these algorithms work and how they, you
know, really tap into that. I've given
you some clues already, but it's called
the smart feed. And the smart feed
essentially is there to serve the pinner
so that when they open up their phone
and they look at the Pinterest app,
they're getting exactly what they want.
In fact, very similar to my backyard
patio, Pinterest is starting to know me
and they know what it is I'm looking
for. I have a mix of recipes. I have a
mix of backyard patios. I searched for
my daughter's senior photo ideas. All of
that is coming together in my smart
feed. And that's what it's called, the
smart feed. So, when you're thinking
about how to optimize for the algorithm,
you want to create a great pin. You want
to tackle Pinterest SEO and you want to
pin those boards that are keyworded to
where this all can happen to where the
user knows exactly who you are, what you
do, and what your boards and your pins
are about. When you put all those
together, and sure, there's a lot of
nuances to it, and there's a lot of
things you need to understand about the
details and creating great images and
finding the places where you go to
search for trending topics or particular
keywords. But for the most part, if you
nail these simple things, this is how
you can find success on Pinterest. So
tell me, what are the other terms that
you've heard people use that I didn't
cover today that you really wish I had
tackled in order to help you have a
better understanding? Now, I hope that
I've covered most of them and there's
not too many you're left curious about,
but if you have some, go ahead and
comment down below. And last, I'll leave
you with this. If you are new to
Pinterest marketing and you are
wondering if Pinterest is the right
place for you, I have two things for you
to do. One, I want you to go search your
business if it's already existing, your
business name and the product. And I
want you to see what's already on
Pinterest. And for most people, they
find that the people are already saving
their content over there. So that's task
number one. Number two, I want you to
open the app on your phone. I want you
to scroll through the app and I want you
to use Pinterest a little bit just to
see what it's like. This is especially
true for those people who have never
used Pinterest and they are confused by
it. They are wondering how they're going
to even use it for business. It is just
generally a confusing point for them. I
recommend 10 minutes on the app maybe
for a couple of days just so that you
can get a feel of it. You can be the
pinner yourself and when you understand
that it makes you a better marketer. All
righty. Thanks so much for watching and
make sure you grab those other videos
that I referenced below and start
watching those so you can be a really
powerful Pinterest marketer in order to
transform your business. [Music]
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