On April 4th, 2019, Pinterest decided to remove Communities from their list of offerings. Below is an email you’ll find from them announcing this change.  Thank you so much for participating in Pinterest communities over the past months, sharing posts, ideas and conversations. After testing communities and getting a lot of feedback from Pinners, we’veContinue reading

On April 4th, 2019, Pinterest decided to remove Communities from their list of offerings. Below is an email you’ll find from them announcing this change. 

Thank you so much for participating in Pinterest communities over the past months, sharing posts, ideas and conversations.

After testing communities and getting a lot of feedback from Pinners, we’ve decided to take the best parts of the feature and fold them into group boards. While the communities tab will be going away by the end of this week, communities will live on as group boards. You can share Pins with community members there. All your posts and conversations from communities will be transferred to your new group boards, too.

If you’ve never been a part of a group board before, don’t worry: They work just like your “normal” boards, with the added bonus of commenting and seeing the board’s most recent ideas in an activity feed.

The communities feature was designed to bring people together around shared interests, and provide a space to collaborate. It was so inspiring to see the mind-melding that happened there, and we’re excited to see that continue in group boards. Please email communities@pinterest.‌com with any questions or feedback about your experience.

I’m here today to talk about Pinterest communities. They’re still very new and when we have something new in the Pinterest world, we tend to go a little crazy over it. My Facebook group explodes with questions. Check out the Facebook group to look at all of the questions (and answers) about Pinterest communities and so much more.

I’ve asked Jennifer Priest to come back on the podcast today to share her thoughts on Pinterest communities. You may recall that she joined me on our episode all about hashtags. What I love about Jennifer is how she explores everything for the sake of her audience. She really digs in to explore how new things can become an effective part of her business.

 

What In The World Are Pinterest Communities?

Pinterest communities are brand new. Jennifer jokes that the best way to describe them is if a Facebook group and a Pinterest group board had a baby, it would be a community.

It’s a place for both discussion and pinning. It gives you the opportunity to discuss your pins more in-depth than you can in the comment section.

What Do We Do With Communities?

We’ve seen over time that people who started out really early on with Pinterest and Youtube now have huge followings. If you’ve felt like you need to catch up, or need to be an “early adopter” of something, communities might be just the ticket for you.

As an early adopter, you’ll be able to experiment to discover how this feature can be used to bolster your business. Keep in mind that the intention behind communities isn’t to promote a business, but to give people the opportunity to come together to chat around on a common topic.

But of course, as someone using Pinterest as a marketing platform, you’re going to talk about your products. Jennifer has a community centered around “best craft rooms”. Her hope is that those community members will go to her blog and purchase through her affiliate links ...

In episode 114, we talked about Marketing Wedding Services on Pinterest. In that episode, we covered how to set up your profile, set up your boards, and keyword target your ideal audience. Today we’re going to be diving even further into Pinterest marketing for wedding professionals, talking all about how to craft a daily/monthly pinning schedule toContinue reading

In episode 114, we talked about Marketing Wedding Services on Pinterest. In that episode, we covered how to set up your profile, set up your boards, and keyword target your ideal audience. Today we’re going to be diving even further into Pinterest marketing for wedding professionals, talking all about how to craft a daily/monthly pinning schedule to capture the seasonal traffic that weddings bring.

Wedding clients don’t (typically) repeat, so you have to capture them at the exact right moment!

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

The Garter Girl

I have Julianne of The Garter Girl here on the podcast with me today. Julianne has been designing and creating stylish handmade heirloom garters since 2008. In that time period, she’s witnessed the ebb and flow of the wedding industry online. Julianne straddles the line between e-commerce and handmade products. She is also a blogger so she brings content creation experience to the table as well.

Her background is in politics and media/PR. She’s used her blog and shop to tell her story on her own terms. Julianne actually uses the Simple Pin Planner (which you can get for free when you sign up for the Wednesday email). But she hacks it to make it work for wedding “seasons”.

Julianne’s blog served as the foundation for selling her products. She loved it because there was no one to tell her “no” or edit how she was promoting or selling.

She first started using Pinterest back in the “invite only” days. Pinterest has always been effective for her because  it’s the only third-party site that is truly interested in sending traffic to your site. The platform’s purpose is to match creators with the users who are searching for their great ideas. In this way, Pinterest is different than other social media platforms.

Pinterest Marketing for Wedding Professionals: Crafting a Strategy

Using a Scheduling Tool

Tailwind was a game changer for Julianne. Before using it, she had hired someone to sit and pin for ten minutes at the beginning of every hour throughout the day. Tailwind has allowed Julianne to have a strategy that helps her to not waste time.

She has 1,500 pins scheduled in her Tailwind queue. Scheduling those pins only takes her 20 minutes to an hour. This helps her to be super effective on Pinterest without consuming her time weekly or monthly.

Related: Manual Pinning vs. Scheduled Pinning: Which One Gets Better Results?

Answering The Client’s Questions

An effective content creator creates content that solves the problems of their audience before they even know they have a problem. For The Garter Girl, the blog is the foundation of everything Julianne does. She uses her blog in 3 different ways:

* to show that she’s open for business

* to solve her client’s problems

* to demonstrate that she can actually deliver the information that the readers need.

Julianne creates blog posts based on all of her frequently asked questions — ...

Today’s episode is geared towards anyone who is completely new to Pinterest or those of you who want to rebrand your personal profile into a business profile. We’re going back to the beginning and starting with the basics of how to create a Pinterest business account. When you’re done listening to this episode, can youContinue reading

Today’s episode is geared towards anyone who is completely new to Pinterest or those of you who want to rebrand your personal profile into a business profile. We’re going back to the beginning and starting with the basics of how to create a Pinterest business account.

When you’re done listening to this episode, can you do me a favor? Share this episode with someone who is new to Pinterest marketing! It would mean so much to me and I know it would be helpful for the person you share it with.

Starting At the Very Beginning

A lot of people have asked me recently,

“how do I even create a Pinterest account?”

or

“how do I transform my personal account into a business account?”

Let’s walk through these steps from the very beginning.

How to Create a Pinterest Business Account from Scratch

Sign up with Pinterest using your name and email. I would recommend using your business email address.

Pinterest will ask you to pick a username for your profile, which will also be your URL. Choose something as close to your business name as possible while fitting into the 14 character limit. For example, I use pinterest.com/simplepinmedia. That fits, but if it didn’t, I might have chosen pinterest.com/spm.

(If you’re transitioning from a personal account to a business account, this section is for you!) Right away, convert to a business account by going to business.pinterest.com. Click “log in” and use the same login information you created when you signed up. The screen will prompt you through a series of settings which will help you connect your website to your Pinterest account. You want a business account for 2 reasons – 1). because Pinterest said so and 2). because it enables you to have access to Pinterest analytics!

Head back to profile settings and complete the account set up by selecting a business name. I chose the name of my business, and included a few keywords behind it.

Account Settings Optimization

When you’re choosing your profile picture, make sure you choose a picture that you use on other social media outlets. You want your image to facilitate brand recognition. If you’re known by your logo, you can use that instead of a photo.

Think about Starbucks. You can immediately recognize them by their logo! If you’re the face of your brand, use your own photo.

Next, complete the ‘about you’ section. Your “about me” should describe who you are, what you’ll be sharing, and possibly a freebie link that will help you grow your email list.  You don’t have to put your name in this section if you already have it as your business name. And you don’t need to put your URL in this section because Pinterest does that for you automatically!

Here’s a list of the other things you’ll walk through in settings:

* business settings

* business name and address

* account basics – language and country, gender, business type (brand, non-profit, local business, etc…)

* contact name

* search privacy and personalization

* search history

* the option to deactivate your account.

You’ll be given the option to connect to your social network profiles (Facebook, Google+, or Gmail). I have that feature turned off.

Next, you’re going to want to claim your website. Claiming your website allows you to get attribution in analytics for your content.

Enter in your URL and hit “Claim”. There are two ways to claim your site: with a meta tag or by uploading an HTML file. You can find detailed instructions on both methods on