I have always had a love affair with Pinterest. I’ve happily spent hours pinning ideas for my imaginary house, perfectly balanced meals and cute Christmas costumes for my cat – don’t judge! However it wasn’t until I started using it as one of my chosen social media platforms that I realised the extent of its power. If you aren’t on Pinterest already, here is why you should be:

• The life of a pin is 1,600 times longer than a Facebook post, so your pins can still send traffic to your website for months, even years after you first pin it.
• It is a search engine, not a social platform (basically think pretty Google) so it is about keyword optimisation, good content and strong pins rather than huge social interaction.
• Your pins can be seen by anyone, not just your followers. So in reality it doesn’t matter if you have a small following, your pin can still be seen by many Pinterest users.
• There are 175 million users active on Pinterest every month, and 81% of all Pinterest users are female.
• Millennials use Pinterest as much as Instagram, and 67% of pinners are under 40 years old.
• People go onto Pinterest to shop, with 87% of pinners having bought a product because of Pinterest.

Basically, if you have anything to sell to women, Pinterest is an incredibly powerful platform. Plus it is all about sharing links to your blog posts and website, which makes linking a positive thing, rather than you being penalised for directing people away from the social media platform like Facebook does.

Now you’re probably convinced you should be pinning your content onto Pinterest. Below are my top 7 tips for designing your pins so they are optimised for the Pinterest smart feed:

1. Get the size right: Pinterest is shifting away from very long pins and now seems to prefer 600:900px, and they should be in a ratio of 2:3 (width:height), so make sure your pins are the right size to get the best result.
2. Vertical pins are best: When your pins are vertical instead of horizontal, they will look better on the platform. Even if your blog images are horizontal, don’t be tempted to use these for convenience as they won’t have the same impact on Pinterest.
3. Your pin should tell a story: Don’t pin things simply for the sake of it, as these won’t be noticed. Tell a story with your pins and give relevant information. 
4. Engaging content is key: Content that invites pinners to click through to your high quality website or blog will see the best results every time. 
5. Use high quality professional images: Websites such as Unsplash, Canva and StockSnap have a brilliant library that you can use.
6. Don’t use too much text: Use text overlay but do not overwhelm the pin with too much text – balance is key.
7. Add your logo: Discreetly brand your pins with your logo so no matter where your image ends up, it’s always linked to you.

The main point to remember when putting together your pins is Pinterest wants to encourage you to create content that inspires pinners and also encourages people to explore the content further by re-pinning and following the links. Do this and you’ll see great results.

Happy pinning!

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Helen is the founder of the Start-Up Studio supporting new and aspiring entrepreneurs to start and grow a value driven impact business. You can join Helen in her Facebook Group and sign up to get more on point business info over at the Start-Up Studio.

Photo: Brooke Cagle