Hey friends! If you saw our Instagram Story over the weekend, you know we were working on all things Pinterest. We even recently started a TBM Pinterest. Yay! In the past, we’ve just linked to our personal accounts, but we were feeling inspired by the idea of having a more curated feed just for TBM. Normally I avoid having yet another social media account to manage when at all possible, but this was a no brainer, and that’s because Pinterest is not really a social media app at all. It’s more of a search + bookmark tool (here’s a great post on that) that happens to be amazing for personal AND business use. So, if you’re one of those people who let their accounts fall to the wayside lately, or never really got into it and wonder if it’s too late to try, here’s why we think you should spend a little more time with Pinterest (intentionally of course):
1. Endless inspiration. Let’s get the more obvious (but no less important) point out of the way. If you are a visual person, Pinterest offers the same kind of discovery you could find on Google, EXCEPT far, far more curated. It basically weeds out a ton of the things you wouldn’t want and offers suggestions for what you might. I do struggle with the home feed filled with related pins (once I search one thing I seem to get 500 more versions of the same, rather than stuff in that general category or style). Still, no matter what on the internet you want to be inspired by, you can find it on Pinterest!
2. It’s the easiest thing to use. I think it’s just the easiest app ever! You do not have to commit a certain amount of time to benefit from it (especially if you aren’t using it for business), and you can pop in whenever it will be useful to you. It’s also an amazing way to catalog bookmarks. And if you aren’t using secret boards, they’re pretty much amazing for every aspect of my digital life. I keep my own feed pretty curated because I like it to follow an aesthetic. So I use secret boards to pin less visually attractive things like recipes or products. I also use secret boards to share and collect information with collaborators, since each board can have multiple pinners. Basically, my Pinterest is like a bookmark, shopping list, recipe box, and vision board all at once.
3. We still get traffic from Pinterest. Oh, and major bonus for bloggers! It’s all of the above AND gets content circulating. I once heard someone say that the reason Pinterest is so vital to digital businesses is that unlike social media, Pinterest is in it for the long-haul. It’s evergreen. Unlike social media sites, your work isn’t getting buried in a feed. You don’t need to come up with new content constantly without a breath. And we know this to be true because several years later, some of our oldest posts are bringing us traffic. It’s doesn’t have to be you pinning either (though you should pin your content, obvs). If readers love your content, they’ll pin it, and it will circulate and come back to you.
4. You can benefit from it without a strong following. You don’t need to be an OG pinner for your business to benefit, either. Like I said, if you produce good content on your site, it can benefit from Pinterest. There have been plenty a viral pin that made little ol’ blogs go from tiny to full-blown-biz.
5. It’s actually a great way to share ideas. Even if you’re not a content creator, your business can still benefit from the features I mentioned above, like having a visual spot to collaborate with your team or save ideas for your brand. I’ve used it to share ideas with other bloggers, designers, employers, and lots more! This is also true from a personal perspective. From my sister sharing recipes with me to my bride-to-be best friend and I planning her wedding via a Pinterest board, it’s just so helpful and simple to use.
Of course, just like anything on the internet, it can be a total timesuck if you’re not intentional about it. Instead of mindlessly scrolling, just pop in when you have something to search for or need inspiration.
Pinterest fans, what’s your favorite thing about the app? And if you never got into it, what keeps you from doing so? We’d love to hear your thoughts!