As a business owner or entrepreneur, you’re probably overwhelmed with managing all your social media accounts. But if you’re not on Pinterest yet, you should consider joining! Pinterest can be a great way to grow your business, and I promise it’s not as stressful or time consuming as social media.

What is Pinterest?

So first, let’s talk about what Pinterest actually is because it’s very different from Instagram or Twitter. Pinterest is actually a visual search engine, but it also has elements of social media. It does have things like followers and you can comment on pins, but at the core, it’s a search engine (and followers don’t really matter on Pinterest like they do on social media). So you need to approach it differently than Facebook or Instagram.

Why does Pinterest matter for businesses?

If you’re not on Pinterest, you might know it as the place people go to get inspiration for their wedding or to find crazy recipes to make. You can use Pinterest for personal things like that (I find all my new recipes to test out on Pinterest!), but it can also be a great platform to post for your business and drive lots of traffic to your website.

I will say that not every single business is going to do well on Pinterest. I heard an example once that a local dentist probably isn’t well suited for Pinterest because people aren’t going to Pinterest to find a dentist. So do some testing and research before you commit to Pinterest.

My favorite aspect of Pinterest is that it can be an AMAZING source of traffic for businesses if you’re publishing content on your site! It does take a while to start getting traffic to your site so you have to be patient, but you can get awesome, consistent traffic to your site with time. Just remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

These are some of my favorite advantages that Pinterest has over other social media platforms:

• Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter posts typically stop getting traffic after 24-36 hours. Pins can drive traffic to your site for months to YEARS, which I have see with my own pins! If you stay on top of your strategy, you can build consistent growth without much effort.

• Followers don’t really matter! Because Pinterest is a search engine, people use it to search for specific things. You can follow people and have followers, but if you’re serving the searchers, you can get tons of traffic with only a handful of followers.

• People come to Pinterest ready to spend money. They’re coming to shop for products and services, and almost 90% of pinners have bought products or services from Pinterest.

• You can schedule out pins and don’t have to engage a ton. Engaging on Instagram can be exhausting, but if you don’t have a lot of time to spend on Pinterest when you schedule pins out with Tailwind.

• Pinterest is a huge driver of traffic because people come to Pinterest to find something specific. People just mindlessly scroll through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and they might click on a link if they find it compelling, but people on Pinterest WANT to click on your link if it’s what they’re looking for.

Get started on using Pinterest for your business!

If I’ve convinced you to use Pinterest for your business, check out Pinterest to see how other people in your industry are using it. You can also visit www.pinterest.com/source/[insertyoursitehere.com] to see if people are already pinning things from your site!

I mentioned before that a local dentist probably wouldn’t do well on Pinterest, but that doesn’t mean Pinterest can’t be used for other local businesses! You just have to be strategic for how you use it.

For example, if you own a restaurant, you could create content about the local cuisine where you live, types of food people need to try when they visit your city, or things to do in your restaurant’s neighborhood. You’re going to reach people who are interested in your city, and you can provide them with helpful content while also giving them a taste of your restaurant. Think about how you can serve the people who could be interested in your business other than just talking about your business.

If you’re interested in getting started with Pinterest for your business, I have more Pinterest tips on my blog, and I offer Pinterest management packages if you just want someone to take it over for you!