Mica
- Oct 14, 2022
- 7 min read

4 Pinterest Features You Need to Know About to Grow Your Business

Ahhh Pinterest— the forgotten dark horse of social media. The fact that a lot of business owners don’t know just how advantageous Pinterest could be to their brand is staggering!

Most people use it to find inspiration for home decor, make-up trends or delicious recipes but have never thought to use it to grow their business. I get it— platforms like Instagram and Facebook are the familiar go-tos, but if you’re not using Pinterest for your small business, you are definitely missing out on some prime marketing opportunities.

This is especially true if you sell physical products or a digital service. After all, Pinterest is known to be a powerful visual search engine.

With 80% of weekly pinners reporting to have discovered a new brand or product on Pinterest, it’s easy to see why the platform should not be dismissed (Pinterest.com). Today, I wanted to share four awesome features that can help you get started on your Pinterest journey to grow your business online.

Idea Pins

Pinterest has not been immune to the move towards video content on social media in the last few years and their answer to this shift has been Idea Pins. Launched into beta in the Fall of 2020 as ‘Story Pins’, Idea Pins were made a permanent addition to the platform in early 2021 as a way for content creators to build their following and get their creative ideas out into the world in video form.

Pinterest has its own native creation tool that allows creators to film, edit, tag, perform voice overs and more, right on their mobile device. The ability to like and comment on the Idea Pins drives deeper engagement between the brand and its audience.

Creators have seen higher engagement and increased impressions on the platform thanks to Idea Pins.

Having a bout of creator’s block or don’t know where to start with creating Pinterest Idea Pin content for your business? Here are some ideas straight from Pinterest to help get the creative juices flowing:

Instructionals. Skills that you use in your everyday business operations can make great Idea Pins! Give a behind-the-scenes look at how you make your products, show how you package your goods, or film yourself performing your services with educational commentary. Pinterest audiences love to learn!
Tips & Tricks. Got a quick tip from your profession to share with your audience? Show it off!
Answer FAQs. Got answers to your industry’s most burning questions? Use Idea Pins to demystify!
Show Your Process. Is your business hands on? Show your process! You don’t always need commentary, some audiences just want the satisfaction of seeing something being made from start to finish.
Tell a Story. Audiences love accounts of personal triumph and conquered struggles. Share them with your followers!
Versatility Hacks. Does your product have multiple functions? Show it in action! Give your audience ideas on creative ways they can use your goods.

Like other social media platforms, the ultimate goal of presenting your ideas on Pinterest is to drive traffic to your website, blog or online store. To ensure your success on the Pinterest, I want to suggest a few things:

Post Vertical Content. Over 80% of Pinterest users are on mobile so catering to phone and tablet users is key.
Prioritize Quality. Post only the highest quality picture and video content in order to grab the attention of your audience.
Pin Frequently. Similar to platforms like Instagram, the Pinterest algorithm favors creators who pin consistently and frequently (socialchamp.io, 2022). Use a program like Tailwind to schedule pins in advance and at different times during the day to increase your chances of success while saving you time.
Use Keywords. When writing a description for your Pin or Idea Pin, be sure to use relevant and trending keywords to increase the chances of your content coming up in search results. More on how to find ideal keywords for your content further down in this article.
Engage with Your Audience. When your pins start to reach more people and you begin to receive feedback, don’t ignore it! Pinterest pays attention to how much you engage with your audience. If it deems your content to be popular amongst its audience, it will share it more often.
Focus on Fresh Content. This may sound daunting on top of having to also run your small business, but it’s not as hard as it sounds. Pinterest simply wants to see new images and video, but the content itself can be the same. For example, making multiple templates for your new blog post that vary visually is what Pinterest is looking for, even if you’re linking to the same URL (Tailwind, 2022).

Pinterest Predicts

Get ahead of the curve with Pinterest Predicts. Pinterest Predicts is a report compiled by Pinterest using global Pinterest search data from previous years. The data collected to create the 2022 report was taken from searches analyzed from October of 2019 to September of 2021 (Pinterest.com, 2022). Using these predictions to guide your content creation can spell more success for you and your business. According to the platform, 8 out of the 10 predictions made in the 2021 report came to fruition. Dems some good odds! You can download the full report in PDF or search by category or audience to find what will be trending in the current year. Some of the forecasts that made the list for 2022 include the resurgence of pearls in jewelry, home decor and wedding decorations, loud, bright and bold fashion and emotional escape rooms. Check the report out for yourself here:

https://business.pinterest.com/en-us/pinterest-predicts/

Pinterest Trends

Remember when I said we were going to talk about Pinterest keywords and how to find them? Well here we are. Let’s talk about Pinterest Trends. The Pinterest Trends tool allows you to look at past top searched terms on the platform in order to see when and how often people search for certain content. To get the full utility of this tool, you will need to be logged into your Pinterest business account. Once logged in, go to ‘Analytics’ in the top left section of the page and go to ‘Trends’. Since this data is collected by region, you will have to start by inputting the region you want to view the data from. Once you have done that, there are several options you can choose to obtain the best keywords for your content:

Using the Search Bar. You can use the search bar at the top of the page to look for keywords that pertain to your business or profession. A graph will appear for the keyword you have searched for, showing you its popularity in the past year. Below the graph for the keyword you searched will be related keyword trends that you can click on to compare keyword search counts with one another. Age and gender demographics are available for analysis below the main graph and Related Trends.
Top Trends. Below the search bar on the main Trends page, you will find keywords that have had a high search volume within the last 30 days. This may be a good place to start when coming up with ideas on what kind of content you would like to make for your business.
Filters. On the left sidebar, you will find a set of filters you can manipulate in order to find ideal keywords for the demographic you are attempting to target. You can filter by interest, age, gender and trend types and it will populate fitting keywords for those parameters. Using this tool can help you curate relevant keywords for your content that will help it get seen.

While already very useful, Pinterest Trends is still in Beta as of the writing of this article and is likely to change or have features added as feedback from its users come in. Therefore, the final tool may look a little different than what has been described here.

Pinterest Creator Rewards

This little known Pinterest feature is one that you’re going to want to take advantage of if it’s made available to you. The Pinterest Creator Rewards program is a way for creators to earn money for creating original content and meeting monthly goals set by Pinterest. Note that this is an opportunity that only becomes available to you when you meet certain criteria:

Must have at least 250 followers
Must have created at least 3 Idea Pins in the last 30 days
Must have 150 saves of your published pins in the last 30 days
Must be 18 years of age or older
Must be a legal resident and located in one of the 50 states or in the District of Columbia
Must use the Pinterest app on your mobile phone
Must Create original content

Do you qualify? If so, you’re probably wondering how the program works. Well, in short, Pinterest will reward you when you create and submit an Idea Pin in response to a prompt of the platform’s choosing. New reward goal prompts are given on a regular basis and will typically be given at the beginning of each month. Each reward goal will have an explanation of the goal, what it will payout and what is required to complete it. If your submitted Idea Pin is accepted, it has potential to earn, although earnings are not guaranteed. If your submitted Idea Pin does end up earning, you can expect a payment to your linked bank account within 30 days of the reward goal ending. It’s that easy!

So how much can you earn? Well, earnings are going to vary with each reward goal. Content creator Jennifer Leach reportedly made nearly $13,000 in just 3 short months with the Pinterest Creator Rewards Program (Insider, 2022). Leach reports earning $900 her first month of using the program and $5,900 in each of the two subsequent months after joining the program. Leach advises to be consistent, post 3-5 times a day and to use Pinterest Trends and post Idea Pins (Insider, 2022). But you already know that after this article ;)

Armed with the knowledge of these Pinterest features, what content will you create for your business? If you’re feeling overwhelmed after reading this and would prefer someone to do the work for you, Leigh B Creative can help with that! Book a Discovery Call with me to see what we can do to help you grow your business!

Love what you have learned so far and want to connect? Tap the button below to set up a discovery call with me, Mica of Leigh B Creative LLC.

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Sources

https://business.pinterest.com/pinterest-predicts/

https://trends.pinterest.com/

https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-business/

https://blog.hootsuite.com/pinterest-statistics-for-business/#Pinterest_usage_statistics

https://business.pinterest.com/audience/

https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/18/pinterest-introduces-idea-pins-a-video-first-feature-aimed-at-creators/

https://newsroom.pinterest.com/en/post/pinterest-introduces-idea-pins-globally-and-launches-new-creator-discovery-features

https://buffer.com/library/pinterest-growth/

https://www.socialchamp.io/blog/pinterest-algorithm/