Why Use Pinterest?

For many business owners keeping updated on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media outlets consumes a lot of time. Mentioning another outlet may make you groan but here is way to show your product and or service with minimal effort. Pinterest is a new way to visually display what you are about to your current and future clients. The best part about this service is that it is simple! You can easily upload images from your computer or grab images already existing on your website. This catalogue of imagery will give a quick snapshot of your company. Make sure that what you are posting is visually enticing and as a "best practice" make sure you have rights to that image. How to join? Pinterest is by invite-only and you must have a Facebook or Twitter account to join. If you already have friends that are members of Pinterest, ask them to invite you. From my experience, this gets you up and running the fastest. If not, follow these steps: Go to Pinterest.com and click on “Request an Invite.” Enter your email address and “Request Invitation.” You will then receive an email that you have been added to the Pinterest waiting list. Within a couple weeks, you should receive an invitation to join Pinterest. Once invited, register using your Facebook or Twitter account. Set up your Pinterest page Upon joining, Pinterest will ask you about your hobbies and passions and set you up to follow pinners with similar interests. As of now, this is not an optional step and you will be required to follow these people. The good thing is that this gets you exploring right away. However, if you see pins that you are not interested in, you may consider “unfollowing” these matches. You can also find already established friends to follow. Hover over your name in the top right corner and click on “Find Friends.” Having joined through Facebook or Twitter, you should now see a list of those connections that you can follow on Pinterest. This page will also allow you to invite your friends to join Pinterest. Start pinning The first step that will help you in the pinning process is to add the “Pin It” button as a bookmark in your browser. This will give you quick and easy access to pinning anything from any webpage you are viewing. To do this, go to http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/. This will walk you through the steps of installing the “Pin It” button in the Firefox browser (if you don’t have the Firefox browser, you can download it here:http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/). This will help you access your own web site which already has images of products you will want to share. Remember that interesting photos are important for a quality pin. However as a business owner please remember to cover your assets. Even though you can go to any web page and pin a photo I would personally advise against this. Pinterest is a new site and there are still copyright regulations that need to be ironed out. Best practice is to create amazing photos on your own or hire a professional and post these. That way you can ensure unique and professional images to present your company. Once you are on the site with the images you will click the "Pin It" button. The first screen you will see is a page of all the available images from that webpage. Click on your desired image. Next, a pop-up box will appear. Here you will select or create an appropriate board for the pin, describe the pin and “pin it!” You will then see a “Success” message along with the opportunity to share your pin on Facebook or Twitter. Sharing these images with Facebook and Twitter will remove the need to post images again so I recommend this practice.

For many business owners keeping updated on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media outlets consumes a lot of time. Mentioning another outlet may make you groan but here is way to show your product and or service with minimal effort. Pinterest is a new way to visually display what you are about to your current and future clients.

The best part about this service is that it is simple!
You can easily upload images from your computer or grab images already existing on your website. This catalogue of imagery will give a quick snapshot of your company. Make sure that what you are posting is visually enticing and as a "best practice" make sure you have rights to that image.

How to join?

Pinterest is by invite-only and you must have a Facebook or Twitter account to join. If you already have friends that are members of Pinterest, ask them to invite you. From my experience, this gets you up and running the fastest. If not, follow these steps:

Go to Pinterest.com and click on “Request an Invite.”
Enter your email address and “Request Invitation.”
You will then receive an email that you have been added to the Pinterest waiting list.
Within a couple weeks, you should receive an invitation to join Pinterest.
Once invited, register using your Facebook or Twitter account.

Set up your Pinterest page

Upon joining, Pinterest will ask you about your hobbies and passions and set you up to follow pinners with similar interests. As of now, this is not an optional step and you will be required to follow these people. The good thing is that this gets you exploring right away. However, if you see pins that you are not interested in, you may consider “unfollowing” these matches.

You can also find already established friends to follow. Hover over your name in the top right corner and click on “Find Friends.” Having joined through Facebook or Twitter, you should now see a list of those connections that you can follow on Pinterest. This page will also allow you to invite your friends to join Pinterest.

Start pinning

The first step that will help you in the pinning process is to add the “Pin It” button as a bookmark in your browser. This will give you quick and easy access to pinning anything from any webpage you are viewing. To do this, go to http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/. This will walk you through the steps of installing the “Pin It” button in the Firefox browser (if you don’t have the Firefox browser, you can download it here:http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/). This will help you access your own web site which already has images of products you will want to share.
Remember that interesting photos are important for a quality pin. However as a business owner please remember to cover your assets. Even though you can go to any web page and pin a photo I would personally advise against this. Pinterest is a new site and there are still copyright regulations that need to be ironed out. Best practice is to create amazing photos on your own or hire a professional and post these. That way you can ensure unique and professional images to present your company.
Once you are on the site with the images you will click the "Pin It" button. The first screen you will see is a page of all the available images from that webpage. Click on your desired image.
Next, a pop-up box will appear. Here you will select or create an appropriate board for the pin, describe the pin and “pin it!”
You will then see a “Success” message along with the opportunity to share your pin on Facebook or Twitter. Sharing these images with Facebook and Twitter will remove the need to post images again so I recommend this practice.

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