Social Bookmarking in the Pinterest Era: 4 Simple Steps

For a while there, everyone thought social bookmarking was dead — but lo and behold, Pinterest arose to resurrect the art through the power of art (or at least pictures.) The ‘wait and see’ period has passed; if you’re not on Pinterest yet, ignorance is your only excuse — and we’re about to take that away from you as well.

Pinterest Basics
The heart of the Pinterest experience is ‘boards’, themed groups of images that users find the most relevant and useful to their lives. Before you go doing business on Pinterest, you should build a few boards and fill them with things that you care about in your non-business life. Not only will it give you some experience, but it’ll also show the world that you’re a real person, not a business droid hired to pin a bunch of click here crap for the sake of making a profit.

SEO on Pinterest
Once you’re ready to make a business-oriented board, you will of course need to figure out how to optimize it for the search engines. This is a lot like stuff keywords into. Pinterest has plenty, from Page Title to Board Title to Board Description — and don’t forget the metadata and especially the hashtags on each individual image description!

Integration
The next part is to start integrating Pinterest into your routine — and into your web presence. Download the ‘Pin It’ browser extension, and make a habit of pinning a few things a week that are not business related — and ONE thing that is. Maybe only one thing every OTHER week. Remember, on Pinterest you need to be a person first, a business second. Or fifth. At the same time, get “Pin It” buttons up on your website, blog, and any other content you produce that might be worthy of attention. Might as well let other people show off that they’re excited, too.

Engage
Like other social networks, Pinterest is all about the engagement. Go to other people’s boards, like and comment on non-business things that you find likeable and relevant. Repin things you find particularly amazing. As you become more present, likeable, and engaged, other people will engage with you, including liking and even repinning your business pins…and that’s when you win.