What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is the new social media site that everyone is talking about. Essentially, it is an invite-only community where you can create virtual pin boards to share and organize interesting pictures and videos you find on the Internet.

The social aspect comes into play because you can browse, follow, and comment on other people’s pin boards. Members can “repin” other member’s stuff to their own boards making it fairly easy interesting items to go viral. This aspect is what I find to be most exciting.

If you are a creative entrepreneur, this is your dream guerrilla marketing tool! You can create buzz for yourself and drive traffic to your website simply by placing beautiful and interesting photographs on your website and blog posts, creating a Pinterest boards of things that you like that also cater to your target audience, and actively engaging with people who repin or “like” your pinning.

Pinterest and Your Personal Brand

As with any other social media site, you can leverage the way you use your account to highlight your personal brand. This will take a bit of effort and thought upfront but will help you organize and optimize your profile to reach your audience.

In marketing, there is an old saying: “Go where the eyes are.” Before you decide to actively use any social media or marketing tool, you must decide if your target audience is using it to. According to ComScore, the site had 11.7 million unique users in January 2012, making it the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark. Currently, most of Pinterst’s users are women.

9 Steps to Branding Your Pinterest Account

1. Profile Photo – select a profile picture that best represents you and your personality, and keep it consistent across all of your social media channels.
2. About – use this area for your specialization statement, or to give followers an idea of what they can expect from following your pins.
3. Vanity URL – when you select your username it will be used as your vanity URL for people to find your board. Just as with your profile photo, use a name that is consistent with all of your social media accounts – preferably your name, brand name, or one that has your top SEO keyword in it. They key is to make it memorable and easy for your target audience to find you.
4. Board Names – This is where you can get creative. Put some thought into what you name your boards and keep it consistent. For instance, my boards all start with “for the…” in the beginning and then says a clever or SEO-friendly description afterwards: “For the Brand” and “For the Fashionista” are two of my Pinterest board names.
5. Board Descriptions – This is another area that you can use SEO keywords and creative descriptions of the collection of pins you are placing on the associated board.
6. Your Pins – It is easy to get carried away pinning all the things that you like but I recommend you be cautious when doing so. Before pinning something, ask if this will help enhance your credibility or character when pinning it. For instance, pinning a bunch of lingerie that I like will not help promote my personal brand to my target audience (sorry guys!) but pinning interesting quotes, brand identity items like logos, and adding elements of my style and personality will.
7. Pin Descriptions – You also have an opportunity to describe the pin before you place it on your board. This is another opportunity to show your personality and/or explain why you like the pin. I admit, I haven’t utilized this to its full potential, but it can be a great way to help show your own brand story and personality, and not just keeping the description someone else wrote.
8.  Likes – When you like other people’s pins, it will show up on your “like board”. This is an opportunity to show appreciation for others and to organize things that you like but don’t necessarily fit with any of your boards. Similar to Facebook likes, you should also be careful with what you “like” because it will be visible to other people viewing your profile.
9. Comments – Engage your audience by thoughtfully commenting on other people’s pins and responding to those who have commented on yours, you are engaging your audience.

Keep the conversation flowing… How are you using Pinterest to advance your personal brand?

PS: Have you checked out this month’s free audio class for more personal branding tips, resources, and insights in creating your personal brand? Each month Club Brandspiration feature a guest expert that shares their proven strategies and systems for building your personal brand and business success. But it’s only available free until the last day of this month, so check it out now!