Pinterest Business Accounts Now Available

Apr 11, 2013

Pinterest Business Accounts Now Available

Pinterest isn’t just for delectable recipes or photos of kittens with mustaches anymore. Recently, Pinterest has made it possible to open business accounts and analyze web activity, which can prove to be a valuable service in the social media marketing landscape for a variety of reasons.

Why Pinterest is Good for Business

If you’re wondering if Pinterest is right for your small business, the answer is yes, yes, a thousand times YES! It might seem like just a place for the casual blogger, foodie or classroom teacher to share their beautiful photos and organizational tips, but it has become so much more than that. Whether you operate a dental practice or a local car repair shop, you can leverage Pinterest for your small business.

  • Pinterest drives traffic to your website, where potential customers can find out about your products and services and current customers can solidify their loyalty and interact with your brand.
  • Pinterest represents a rapidly growing audience of potential and current customers and gives them an interactive and personal way to build a relationship with your brand.
  • Pinterest is visually appealing through a format of virtual bulletin boards that can represent a wide variety of your personal and business interests and opportunities.
  • Pinterest is easy to use, allowing customers to Like and Share pins from what are essentially your online bulletin boards.

The first two bullet points are most important, since getting people to your website – and your small business – is essential to converting them to loyal customers.

Why A Pinterest Business Account?

It used to be that you could only operate a Pinterest account if you signed up for one personally. For example, I had to sign up (obviously) under my own name – Kelly Wilson – and then I created various Verticalwerks boards that show photos of our staff and examples of our work as well as informative articles. But a Pinterest business account carries with it a few essential perks.

  • A Business Name – similar to a Facebook URL, the Pinterest business account features a similar option so that your business name can be part of the Pinterest URL.
  • GuidancePinterest not only allows businesses to sign up, but has provided information on how to set up your business account, start pinning, find followers and analyze results.
  • Expanded Reach – Widen your influence with the ability to add people to contribute to your business boards, including colleagues and respected influencers in your industry.

Set Up a Pinterest Business Account

There are two ways to set up a Pinterest Business Account. It’s important to decide which method you’d like to go with before doing anything.

1. Convert Your Personal Account

There are some pretty important reasons why you might consider converting your Pinterest personal account to a business account.

  • Number of Followers – if you have built up a large audience on your Pinterest account and, like me, have already incorporated boards about a business, then you might want to go ahead and convert it. This will save you the time and effort of building up a whole new audience from scratch.
  • Social Media Connections – if you have connected your small business Facebook and Twitter accounts to your personal Pinterest account, it’s important to note that you won’t be able to connect them to your business account at this point. If these connections are deal breakers for you, then you might want to convert your personal account.
  • Quality of Pins – if your Pinterest boards are mostly personal in nature, or if you simply want clear lines that delineate your personal and business online presence, then you might want to create a new business page altogether. However, if there are already several pins that are related to your small business, conversion might be the way to go.
  • Username – if you convert to a business account, keep in mind to change your username to the name of your business, similar to the Facebook vanity URL.

2. Join Pinterest as a Business

Utilizing Your Pinterest Business Account

Once your business account is set up, it’s time to get creative. Make the most of your new account by verifying it, which is part of the process of setting up the account. This will make your website URL visible to users on your business page and in search results, providing social proof and a way for customers to find their way to your site. This will also allow you to analyze what people are doing with your pins.

Take some time exploring the Pinterest interface, finding colleagues, competitors and interesting boards to follow. Be sure to create boards on which you can pin photos from your own site – including products and services that you offer – so that potential and current customers can find you with no problem!

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