What Is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a visual platform that allows you to create and share new ideas and interests by posting, or ‘pinning’, images and videos to a pinboard. The platform, used as a tool for self-expression and research, continues to grow in popularity as it contributes to the ever-evolving shift in consumer behaviour.

And with over 100 million active users liking, re-pinning and commenting on boards on a daily basis, it’s fair to say that this social platform moves far beyond the world of digital ‘window shopping’. With the growth of construction business’ now using Pinterest to engage and inspire architects, contractors, or homeowners, it may be time to re-evaluate your own social media strategy.

First things first, you must understand Pinterest isn’t just a social media platform, but a search engine like Google. Except it is even cooler than Google because it is completely based off visuals. Its visual framework gives a construction business a great opportunity to show off their entire portfolio. And unlike other social media platforms, where posting too much or too little can hurt the account, there is never too much sharing on Pinterest!

Benefits of Pinterest:

• Drive website traffic
• Generate more sales
• Increase brand awareness
• Promote products/services
• Display your portfolio to the masses

Another important aspect of Pinterest is its users! It is so important to understand the users on Pinterest and the value of them. 7.7 MILLION people use Pinterest in Australia every month and 77% of Australian Pinterest users are female. 80% of those females hold the buying power of their household, and all of these users use Pinterest to visually plan their future. They strategise their goals through boards and use Pinterest’s search engine to assist them on their purchasing journey. All you have to do is Pin to the search engine to get in front of these users!

So how do you assure your pins are at the top of the Pinterest search engine? Set up a free Pinterest business account to get access to analytics on your Pins and the ability to run ads.

1. From the top-right of your screen, click Sign up

2. Click Create a business account

3. Enter your Email, create a password and enter your Age

4. Click Create account.

5. Fill out the fields to Build your profile, then click Next

6. Fill out the fields to Describe your business, then click Next

7. Select if you want to run ads, then click Next

8. Select where you’d like to start or click the x icon  to go to your new Pinterest business account

If you have an employee or an agency partner creating a business account to access your company’s account, we recommend using your professional email and your own name rather than the name of your business. This helps the owner of the account identify and validate the people who have access to their account.

Claim your website to get access to analytics for the Pins you publish from your site, the analytics on Pins that other people create from your site and let people know where they can find more of your content. Your profile picture will show up next to any Pins that come from your site as well as a Follow button for your Pinterest account, and  the globe checked icon will appear next to your website URL on your profile. Only the domain name will be displayed, the .www or .https will not be included (like example.com). 

Add a profile cover

You can customize your profile cover and upload an image if you have a Pinterest business account . When choosing an image, some tips to remember:

• Image must be at least 800 pixels wide x 450 pixels tall again use Canva
• Using a horizontal image with a 16:9 aspect ratio is recommended

Your Business can use Pinterest to promote your brand and service, showcase your portfolio and even save inspiration photos for current and future projects — all in which help raise their brand awareness and grow your website traffic.

Yes, you read that right. You can use this social media platform like a dropbox or google drive without having to take up cloud space! You can sit down with your team and save pins that inspire your project and plan an entire project with Pinterest. It’s like a glorified inspiration board, but the boards are virtual – boards are Pinterest’s term for folder. Except these boards are better than a folder because you can optimise them with keywords that help promote your brand — FREE SEO. As long as you don’t make the board private, you can use it as promotional post too, just make sure you add your website and call-to-action.

Another great feature that Pinterest has which can help raise brand awareness for your construction company are Rich Pins. Rich pins are verified pins by Pinterest themselves. Rich pins have more information and meta data than a regular pin, this data enables a Rich Pin to get more promotion in Pinterest’s database than a regular pin, which means your rich pins have a higher rank than others. A higher rank means you get notice by other Pinner’s more than the average pin if you set up the URL with Rich pins validator. It’s so easy to set up a Rich Pin.

Bottomline is, unlike Instagram or Facebook, your construction company will get more promotion and your website will get way more FREE traffic through Pinterest than on any other platform, without paying for ads.

Next Lesson: Creating Boards