floriology magazine september october 2017If you have a vibrant wedding business, you’ve seen plenty of Pinterest boards from potential clients. What we’d like to talk about in this issue of floriology and next is how you can leverage this growing social media beyond the wedding business and start selling your everyday offerings.

If you’re not familiar with how Pinterest works, let’s explain. As users browse online, they can save images and write descriptions, which they post as “Pins.” They organize their Pins on “Boards” they create, which are collections of Pins. Users usually sort Boards by interest, topic, or product categories. Followers see these Pins and can re-pin them to their own Boards, share to other social media, or share with other Pinners. Pins can also be found by anyone just by searching Pinterest.

Pinterest logoGET STARTED

Create a business account here: pinterest.com/business/create. Confirm your website to verify with Pinterest that you are the owner and then wait for Pinterest to approve the account.

Now we get a little technical, so we recommend contacting your website developer/provider and send them to this page: developers.pinterest.com/docs/widgets/save. This embeds a Pinterest “Save” button on all your website’s images so Pinners (or anyone really), can click on this button to easily create a Pin to save to their Boards. You can adjust how the Save button looks and acts, so collaborate closely with your web developer to be sure you are satisfied with the end result.

START PINNING

Once your website is ready for Pinners, focus on building your shop’s Pinterest presence by creating your own Pins. Now let’s talk best pinning practices. First, for every image you Pin, think of the keywords that best describe it to use in captions. Consider these as the same keywords Pinners will use to find your Pin, so experiment by entering keywords into Pinterest Search to see what keywords are popular for your content.

When you post your own images, watermark them with the shop name to protect your work and promote your brand. Avoid using faces in Pins as these pins are posted at a lower rate. Ideal Pin image size is 1102 x 735 pixels.

BUILD YOUR OWN PINTEREST BOARDS

As you fill your own Boards with Pins, think of the business categories in which you specialize (or want to grow). We’ll start with an easy one: weddings. Instead of stuffing this board full of floral Pins, mix in Pins showcasing your aesthetic and style expertise. The only floral Pins on your Boards should showcase your own wedding creations.

Start with five or six Boards with about 20-25 Pins each. Create a special Board to post customers’ Pins (re-pins). If you are supporting or building your wedding business, this Board may include Pins from prospective brides. You can then share this with other brides so they benefit from ideas from peers.

NEED INSPIRATION?

Although we’ve explained the process, it’s always better to browse examples. Here are some quick links to Floriology Institute instructor Pinterest pages:

Our advice is to get started building your page and in the next issue of floriology, we will dive deeper into Pinterest as we share more best practices and how you can use “Buy Pins” to sell directly to customers. You can also view free webinars to get up to speed on Pinterest at fmrf.org and at FloriologyInstitute.com

Pinterest by the Numbers

Pinterest touts 100 million active users who conduct more than 2 billion searches a month.

  • 96% of Pinners use the platform to plan purchases; among those, 60% use it to choose home
    and décor products.
  • 67% of Pinners will experience a major life event in the next six months such as marriage,
    new home, pregnancy, vacation, remodel/redecoration, or party planning.
  • 67% of Pinners are under the age of 40, and 82% of all users are female.

Download the entire article, “Pique Your Pinterest” in the Floriology September-October 2017 issue here.