Pinterest: Converting Your Personal Profile To A Business Account
You went a little crazy on Pinterest, re-pinning everything from avocado recipes to basic coding tips. You're pushing 57+ boards and one of them is even titled "I Swear I Will Do This DIY Eventually". More than anything, Pinterest is your scrapbook for everything you've ever wanted to do and be. Except now, it's time to get serious with Pinterest because you're starting a business. You know Pinterest can be a great marketing tool, especially if you have an audience + followers for your business. But you're not ready to lose all the followers you've built up on your personal account just to have to start from scratch with a business account.
Even though your new business doesn't have anything to do with avocado recipes or house cleaning tips, you can still convert your account in a thoughtful and effective way. By using your existing account for your business, you can retain access to all your followers, and have an established account already built up. Here's how to convert your Pinterest from personal to professional.
Why convert your personal Pinterest account into a business account?
If you've been an avid Pinterest user for a while, and are just now looking into changing your account to accommodate your business, you might be wondering why you should go to the extra trouble. Business accounts on Pinterest are loaded with features that make the transition completely worth it. Some of my favorite features of Pinterest for Business are:
What Rich Pins look like on Pinterest
PINTEREST ANALYTICS - When you're actively monitoring your account's analytics, you can gain valuable insights into how to constantly improve your account. Pinterest Analytics offer information on which pins are most popular, the pinning activity on your website, and much more.
*If you're interested in getting access to the analytics for the pins pinned from your website, you'll want to make sure you confirm your website.
RICH PINS - When confirm your website, you'll also get 'rich pins', which means that when you pin items from your verified website, the pins will show up with your logo and a little excerpt from the article. This is helpful because the extra information helps with your Pinterest SEO and establishes the pin's credibility (since there can be some spammy posts on Pinterest!).
PROMOTED PINS - While you do need to sign up to be on the waiting list, once you are approved, you're able to promote your pins. This is a great opportunity to build your audience and get traffic to your pins/posts by getting them in front of more people. Pinterest offers different campaign options from higher pin engagements to website views. Promoted pins can be really affordable depending on your price per click, demographic choices and more.
CONVERT YOUR ACCOUNT
Before we talk about the strategy, you'll want to take care of the technical side of things. Pinterest makes it quick and easy to turn your personal account into one that can be used for your business.
1. Log in to your Pinterest account
2. Find the down arrow in the top-right hand corner to open the menu
3. Click Add a free business account
4. Then click on Get started
5. You’ll need complete the information that it asks for like:
- Click the edit icon so you can add your profile photo
- Enter in your business name
- Enter in your website URL
- Select your country or region
- Choose your language
6. Click on Next
7. Select one of the options from the drop-down menu for the focus of your business, then click Next
8.Select what type of business you are, then click Next
9. Select Yes or No if you do or don’t want to run ads or select I’m not sure yet
10. Click Next
11. Choose to Create a Pin, Grow your audience, Showcase your brand, or click the cancel icon to go to your Pinterest business profile
Don't worry about the account change affecting your boards. Pinterest says, "Right now, business and personal accounts have the same features. This change won't affect your Pins, boards, and followers. If you sign up as a business, you'll get updates on future products and services we build for businesses."
PICK AND CHOOSE
First, make a list of everything your business is about and what you want to communicate. For example, if you brand yourself as a graphic designer for creatives, you'll want to pin information related to typography, color combinations, and small business advice. Also keep in mind that pinning about complementary items (think coding or copywriting) will be useful for your current customers. In addition to boards that include these two areas, I like to add in categories that appeal to my target market. For example, my target audience is women entrepreneurs. So I pin a variety of things that appeals to that demographic: interior design, business articles, cooking, design etc.
How to convert your personal profile to a business account on Pinterest
What it all comes down to is one thing: deciding what is relevant to your business + audience. Ask yourself, 'What is my target audience searching for on Pinterest?'. You can use the answer to this question to pin content that will help get you found by your target audience, and increase your followers.
Once you've decided which boards you want to have included on your business Pinterest account, its time to get rid of the rest. Don't worry, your countless hours of pinning won't be lost with this step! You can still keep the pins that aren't relevant to your business account by re-pinning them to secret boards. Pinterest doesn't allow you to move a public pin to private, so you can either re-pin each one individually, or go into the board and select Edit Pins to copy them to the selected secret board.
ORGANIZE WHAT'S LEFT
This might be an easy step for you depending on how you've designed your Pinterest boards. If it's not, that's okay! Working off the list you made about what you want your business to be about and what you want to communicate, look at your pins and create or revamp boards that fit them.
To unify the appearance of my Pinterest boards, I like to design board covers that are in line with my branding. You can use a program like Photoshop or Illustrator, or even something as simple as Canva can do the trick. This little trick makes your Pinterest profile page really stand out from the crowd. To add these branded image to your board, create graphics that are 844 x 570 pixels. Pin the image to the selected board, then go into the Edit Board settings for that board. Under the Cover section, you'll see you can change the photo to the pin image you just uploaded.
After you've consolidated, take a look at your Pinterest. What boards are missing? Which subjects could use a little more love? What are you obviously good at and knowledgeable about? Once you know all of this, it will be easier to be conscious of what you're pinning.
PIN YOUR OWN CONTENT
This is probably the most important thing you can do on Pinterest, and the whole reason to have a business Pinterest account in the first place! Whether it's a blog post you wrote or an infographic you made, make sure your own content is floating around Pinterest. This may seem like a lot of work to create pinnable content, but it absolutely pays off. I like to have my own Pinterest board labeled Dapper Fox Design, and have it listed very first in my boards. That way, other pinners visiting my profile will immediately be able to see who I am and what kind of content I'm creating.
*Pro tip: Bright, simple, vertical images do better. Check back next week for an exclusive blog post on how to create eye-catching Pinterest images.
PIN, FOLLOW + COMMENT
Now for the fun and easy stuff! It's important to consistently be pinning because if you aren't pinning, what incentive do people have to follow you? You also need to be following others- it's an easy way to both get the followers and content you want. One overlooked strategy is to comment on pins. For most people, it happens so infrequently that when it does occur, it's pretty significant. It's also just one more way to interact with people on a personal level and define your voice.
Converting your Pinterest account from personal to professional takes a bit of work, but pays off almost instantly! If you have a business, start the conversion process today. In a few weeks time when you're watching your followers grow, you'll be thankful you did it sooner than later.
Share your Pinterest account below in the comment section!
I'm always on the hunt for great Pinterest accounts to follow, so feel free to share your business's Pinterest account in a comment below.