Yesterday I talked about how I use Pinterest, or plan to use it. Today, I’d like to give a few tips I’ve found useful to getting more function from my Pinterest account (links to the resources in the headings!).

From Social Marketing Writing:

• Find friends from Facebook, Google and Yahoo. You can do this by going to your account settings page (the little gear) and clicking on the account. Sadly, Twitter doesn’t seem to be an option, but Outlook is, so if that’s your email server, lucky you!
• Check out what’s popular and trending so that you can re-pin for your followers. Even if a pin is popular it’s likely that not everyone has seen it and your followers might appreciate it.
• Add a category to boards. When you give a board a category they will appear in Pinterest’s category section and get more exposure. (I hadn’t done this on all of mine and immediately fixed it!)

From Kim Garst at Boom Social:

• Be active, engaging and have content.
• Have at least 4 pins per board. These 4 are what shows up on your profile page so boards don’t look sparse or empty. Kim suggests having at least 10 boards, but I don’t think this number matters as much as having boards that are curated and active.
• Use a web browser extension so you can pin from other sites while online. Chrome, Safari, Firefox and IE all have these extensions and so do some of the media schedulers that can be helpful. This has the added benefit of linking back to the original source, giving them credit.
• Search with key words, not hashtags. One of the things I love about Pinterest is that your search terms can be very, very specific and you will probably still get a decent result. And they show up like tags in the search bar so if you originally searched for “men’s gray cotton trousers with pinstripes” and then realize you just want to look at all the men’s gray cotton trousers with pinstripes you can generally just click on the “cotton” tag and delete it from the search.
• Like vs. Pin: When creating and curating your boards you probably want to keep them focused so they add to your brand or products. Pinning an image adds it to a board, and these show up on your own profile, so it’s not always appropriate for your brand. But, liking a pin doesn’t add it to your profile. It does notify the pinner that you liked it, and grabs attention, possibly creating a new follower who is also interested in what you’re pinning.
• Include your business or brand name in the pin description. Your business or brand name should be your account name, but even if it isn’t, include it in the description so that it follows any repinned images, getting your name out there.
• Pin Videos. I find these really helpful when I’m trying to learn how to do something. I generally go to Pinterest to search for a how to because it’s more curated and I can see a variety of images and ideas gathered together quickly. But, if there is a video included, that shows me how to actually do the thing? I’m absolutely going to watch! It’s great!
• Include mentions or send a pin to a friend. By including a mention you are sharing credit, or pointing someone to a pin they might appreciate. Use the @ symbol and start typing their name (like you do in Facebook). The only downside is that they have to be following at least one of your boards. Or, you can send them an email of the image and it shows up in their browser, even if they aren’t a user. Be sure to give a short description in the email pop-up window.

From Field Guide:

• Set gender in your account to get more specific search results. This may or may not be useful for you or your business. But, it might be! If you set the gender and are looking for shoes then Pinterest will automatically gear the search to shoes fitting your gender. However, if you do this and then you’re searching for say, men’s watches as a gift for your husband or SO you will probably need to specify those keywords in the search.
• Edit large boards into other boards. You, or your followers will only get overwhelmed by pages and pages of pins for one board. Why not curate them into smaller ones for easier access? If you’re really into trousers why not specify the color or fabric and separate them into different boards?

Other tips:

• Kim Garst says to be active and engaged, and to avoid empty boards and I couldn’t agree more. Not only do sparse or empty boards disappoint a potential follower, it indicates that you aren’t very interested in the network, or are spread too thin. If you are either of these things, I’d encourage you to scale back. Stick to the networks that you like and use the most. It’s better to have a strong presence in a few important networks than trying to hit all of them and doing a poor job.
• Move your boards around and change the cover picture. This keeps your profile from looking too stale and showcases new images in the board.
• Fill out the About portion in your profile. This should be focused to your business or brand, but still also personable and showing who you are.