A Beginner's Guide for Wellness Professionals
Louisa Chan
Contents What is Pinterest?
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Pinterest Basics
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Why Pinterest Is Valuable to Marketers 10 Setting Up Your Profile on Pinterest
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Additional Resources
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About Louisa Chan
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Chapter 1 What is Pinterest? Pinterest is an online social media platform where people pin what they like onto online virtual "pinboard". It's like putting up cool pictures on your wall except in this case, others can see and share your pictures. Pinterest allows you to share, pictures, videos, your favorite things and even product that you like. You pin these items on virtual pinboards so you can come back to them or share with others. Others can see your pins and boards (you can have different boards displaying different categories of items) and they can repin, share, comment, like and interact with you on Pinterest. The goal of Pinterest is to “connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting�. Pinterest is steadily accomplishing this through the power of online visual imagery and the ease of pinning with mobile devices. Pinterest has created a real buzz and had grown exponentially in a very short amount of time. It is now said to be driving more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and Reddit combined, not a small feat. Social networking sites, tech blogs and news sites are paying attention to and talking about its fantastic potential.
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How Does it Work? Pinterest works by enabling individuals to pin whatever interesting thing they find online. For example if you find a picture of a massage chair on a website you really like, you can pin it; or you could pin a picture of correct posture that you want the public or your clients to refer to; a spa center that you really like; or you could even pin a helpful YouTube video showing the correct steps in doing a particular massage. There is so much you can do on Pinterest, making it so versatile and powerful. The beautiful thing is that everything you pin has a link back to where ever you the image or video originated from. You create different groups where you organize stuff you pin. These categories are called ‘pinboards’ which is a little like the categories in a blog You can create as many pinboards as you like for the different areas of interest you have. For instance, you could have one pinboard for your favorite dishes, paintings, massage oil or spa centers and even board for books you found helpful, people you admire, and inspirational images quotes, or videos . Let’s start with some terminology before we set up our very own Pin Boards.
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Chapter 2 Pinterest Basics Pinboard The pinboard is where you organize your Pinterest pins. You create a pinboard to reflect a certain interest or category. This could be something like a ‘Yummy Healthy Food" or "24 Correct Postures" pinboard to reflect your interest and expertise. You can also have collections of massage tools, chairs etc A pinboard organizes your interests in neat little boxes that display your most recent pins in that category. This makes it easier for viewers to sift through your pins.
Pins Pins are the images or videos that you share in Pinterest. A pin contains a description of the item you are pinning and a link back to the source where you got it. ‘Pinning’ an item is sort of like sharing a link in Facebook or Twitter, but with Pinterest you are only allowed to pin (or share) a link if it has an image attached to it that represents it. You can of course upload your own images from your computer.
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Pin It Bookmarklet Not everyone has adopted Pinterest yet and not all websites have a ‘pin it’ button, so how do you pin an item from a website without one? Enters the Pin it ‘bookmarklet’. You just have to go to Pinterest.com/about/goodies, drag the Pin It button to the address bar and you can use it anytime you see images that you want to pin.
Pin In Bookmarlet on your address bar
You can add a bookmarklet option to your browser bookmark bar. This option allows you to pin an item on any website that does not have the ‘pin it’ button.
The bookmarklet automatically includes the link to the source. This is an incredibly convenient feature of Pinterest that makes pinning items of interest from any website quick and easy.
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Gift Pins ‘Gift’ pins are pins with prices attached to them. Say your friend has some nice accessories she can pin it using the bookmarklet - but instead of just putting in a simple description, she can add a price in the description too.
The amount you put in will automatically show up on the upper left corner of the image. Gift pins have a different feed all of their own and are organized by price.
Followers Upon signing up, Pinterest makes a random selection of people that it thinks have similar interests to you and invites you to ‘follow’ them. ‘Following’ is what makes this Pinterest socially driven, and while you may not follow all of Pinterest’s recommendations, there will definitely be a good number of other Pinterest users you’ll want to follow.
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You can choose to follow either all the pinboards of a person, or select only the pinboards from that person that interest you. You can gather followers too and they will see all the pins on the pinboards of yours that they are following.
Likes The ‘like’ button in Pinterest functions pretty much the same as the Facebook ‘like’ button and it appears on the right hand side of the pin (in this case an ebook).
But on Pinterest, you should only use the ‘like’ button for pins that don’t match any of your own pinboards or categories. For pins that DO match your own pinboard topics, you should repin it to your own board instead. See below for more information.
Comments A pin, much like Facebook status updates or links, can be commented on. You can write a comment on a certain pin
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that piques your interest. Best of all, this also holds true with people who are following your pinboards. Your followers can write a comment on any item that you have pinned, which is great for encouraging engagement and interaction.
Repin A ‘repin’ is the Pinterest equivalent of Facebook ‘share’. If you like a pin, and you have more or less the same topic for one or more of your own pinboards, repinning is the way to go. Repinning is what makes content sharing possible and it is also one of the fastest ways you can grow your audience. A re-pinned item shows up on the person’s profile where it originated and will be visible to their followers too, which promotes your pinboards as well.
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Chapter 3 Why Pinterest Is So Valuable to Your Business Social media marketing is rapidly being absorbed into main stream marketing and aside from being fun, it is free (although you will need to invest your time) and effective. It creates communities, bonding and opens up channel of communication with your audience. Trusting relationship are formed leading to future business. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, LinkedIn and other social networking sites are excellent platforms for reaching your target audience because they allow for more personal delivery of marketing content. And Pinterest is fast catching up with the Facebook. From its launch in May 2011, Pinterest has quickly developed with 7,516,000 users in December of the same year. According to comScore, Pinterest reached the 11 million users mark in January 2012.
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This gives Pinterest a place in tech history for being the fastest stand-alone site to cross the 10 million user mark!
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Companies Joining Pinterest Comapnies big and small are jumping onto the new Pinterest platform and trying to tap into Pinterest’s brilliant performance: Research shows Etsy: 50,000 followers with more than 700 pins Real Simple: 32,000 Followers with 1,700 pins Whole Foods: 13,000 followers more than 600 pins West Elm: 10,000 followers with more than 1,000 pins These companies represent only a small proportion of companies that are realizing the marketing potential of Pinterest. Giants such as GE, Audi and Lamborghini are also jumping on the Pinterest train (that's fast adoption for the big guys)..
Traffic Pinterest’s traffic growth is massive. Although Pinterest is reluctant to release official numbers, third party sites have pegged the number for February 2012 to be 11.1 million hits. This is now being touted as the fastest site to hit 10 million. A study posted by Mashable.com states that Pinterest is second only to Facebook when it comes to user engagement, with users staying active on the site for an average of 89 minutes. The number of people linking from Pinterest to other sites (called referral traffic) is now greater than YouTube, Reddit, Google+ and LinkedIn combined! Pinterest cannot be ignored anymore!
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Links Every pin that is shared in Pinterest has a link that points back to the source. Links on Pinterest are ‘do follow’ links, which is a technical way of saying that search engines follow them and use them to place your website higher in the search results if the pictures are taken from your site. This is a biggie.
Repins and Leads One recent study showed that 80% of pins are repins, which means that once content is pinned on Pinterest, it goes viral and gets extensively shared. This level of social sharing translates to a huge amount of exposure for your website and therefore your business and it generate new leads and contacts for your business To make it easy for others to share content from your website you can add the “pin it” button on your blog or website. There are free WordPress plug-ins that will help you do this without any coding or programming so you can quickly add this feature to your blogs and help images on your site go viral for more exposure!
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Chapter 4 Setting Up Your Profeile on Pinterest! As with any social networking platform, an optimized profile will give you benefits that can enhance the visibility, traffic and leads that you will get from Pinterest. It is therefore essential that you plan your profile set up so it not only looks great but is optimized for exposure, traffic and leads. Your profile shows your business with its values and personality and it will be viewed by internet users globally, so getting it right is crucial. Do not simply put up a site or it may bring about negative effect to your online branding.
Set Up Your Account To join Pinterest, you need to get an invite. Pinterest is still on an ‘invite-only’ only mode but it is not difficult to get an invite. Go to Pinterest.com and click on the ‘Request an Invite’ link to receive an invite. Sometimes it may take a few days to for an invite to arrive so you will need to be patient.
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If you simply can’t wait you may be able to find third party websites or individuals that offer Pinterest invites. Here is what your Pinterest invitation will look like. After securing your invitation, you will be sent an email with a link to Pinterest. At this point, it is worth noting that you will need a Twitter or Facebook account. Pinterest requires you to open your account in this way to ensure that the site is protected against spam. Another reason for this is that Facebook and/or Twitter will be integrated with your Pinterest profile, which makes sharing pins a breeze.
Creating Your Account After you have successfully signed up using your Facebook or Twitter account, you will be asked to add a username, email address, and password. Fill in the required fields and then click on the ‘create account’ button to proceed to the next step.
Topics and Interests After hitting the ‘create account’ button, Pinterest will request that you pick topics or interests that appeal to you. Check everything that is relevant to your interests and industry, as this will affect the following step.
Add Followers Next Pinterest will present you with people whom it thinks you might want to follow. These people were randomly selected by
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Pinterest based on the interests you ticked during the previous step. Pinterest thinks you will want to follow people who have the same interest as you so you will be Pinning things of common interests.
Get Creative! Now it is time to create your pinboards, the place where you start ‘pinning’ stuff. Think of the boards as different cupboard for showing casing different categories of items of interests. Pinterest gives you pinboards.
suggestions/tips for your first few
Pin It! The last step is adding the ‘pin it’ bookmarklet to your browser. The bookmarklet is a useful tool that allows you to pin whatever item you find on any website. This is especially helpful if the website you are visiting does not have a ‘pin it’ social sharing button. Just follow the instructions provided by Pinterest at Pinterest.com/about/goodies and you are good to go.
Creating your Profile Your profile lays the foundation for your image and branding on Pinterest. A professional and well designed profile will give you credibility and build trust for your audience. Creating your profile with Pinterest is easy - just follow some simple steps and be thorough.
Optimize
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To get the most out of your Pinterest profile and optimize it for business follow these simple guidelines. Go to the settings tabs and upload your company logo (if you have one). If not, a studio type photo will be good. Fill in all the fields provided. Put in clear descriptions of what you do or
represent. You can also include the links to your company’s website or blog and social sharing links to your social media pages and your RSS feeds. The Pinterest settings tab includes a check box which allows you to hide your Pinterest profile from search engines. It is vital that you ensure this box is checked to OFF. If search engines cannot see your Pinterest profile, it won’t get indexed and you will be missing out one of the most valuable aspect of Pinterest as a marketing tool. To enhance your SEO, use the name of company or your website as the profile name. Conclusion Now you are ready to pin, repin, like, comment and follow. To create a following and to really maximize the power of Pinterest, you can get the full report here.
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Additional Resources Full Report On Pinterest For Wellness Professionals at Pinterest for Wellness Professionals http://www.synergymarketingpro.com/ what-is-pinterest-for-wellnessprofessionals/
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About Louisa Chan Louisa Chan is a Social Media Specialist working with Chiropractors, Massage Therapists, Physiotherapist and other Wellness Professionals to increase their customer base via online and digital marketing with a focus on Social Media. Louisa's marketing courses are approved by AAMT and accredited by the Australian National Education Committee. Her articles are published in US and APAC and has been featured on National Radio on the topic of Social Media. Today, Louisa speaks, trains and helps solo entrepreneurs and wellness professionals use Social Media to grow their business. Before launching Synergy Marketing Pro Louisa was an IT Consultant and a Certified Project Manager with an International Consultancy Firm consulting with Fortune 500 companies.
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