What You Need to Know to Start Your Pinterest Marketing for Your Book

Did you know that there are over 47 million users on Pinterest? What an awesome social media marketing platform it surely is! Although a large bulk of that 47 million consists of females in their 20s to 50s, males frequent this site as well. Pinterest is diverse in terms of users and in terms of content.

So, if you think Pinterest is only about the DIYs and beauty regimens, then think again! Pinterest has evolved into a marketing platform for businesses of all sorts, and promoting self-published books is no exception.

Here’s how you can use Pinterest to your advantage:

1. Don’t lump all your pins in one board.

Make searches easy for your audience by organizing your pins. For instance, your content consists mainly of tips, but to be exact, it has marketing, writing, and publishing tips.

Instead of creating one board for all your ‘tips’, you can separate them according to their content – one board each for marketing, writing, and publishing.

This way, your audience will know right away what you can offer them. Also, create unique and interesting names for your boards. It will surely impress your followers.

2. Connect your profile to other social media networks.

Using social media in marketing will give you an advantage over other authors who don’t. If you connect your Pinterest profile to your Facebook and Twitter account, it becomes easier for you to share your pins to those networks automatically.

This is a great social media strategy. Once your profiles are linked, you can simultaneously publish your posts to those social media networks. It saves you time. If you want to grow your followers, then do this. You can always find potential Pinterest followers on your Facebook or Twitter followers.

3. Link your blog posts to Pinterest.

Use Pinterest as a content marketing platform. Add a Pinterest button to your blog so that your audience can post your article to their Pinterest accounts.

You can add the ‘Pin It’ button to several blog platforms, such as WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Wix, and Squarespace. If you’re not quite sure how to add this button to your site, just visit Pinterest’s Help Center to know how. You can even learn how to create your own Pin It button! For this, you have three options:

• Image hover
  Once your audience hovers over your post, the Pin It button becomes visible.

• Any image
  Your audience can choose the image they want for their board from the options they are provided with.

• One image
  This allows your audience to pin a single image from your blog.

4. Re-pin images from various users.

Don’t re-pin from one user only. If you do, you’re giving your audience a reason to follow particular users. You are also giving them a reason to doubt you. Why should your audience follow you when they can just follow that user instead?

5. Diversify your posts.

There are a lot of pretty and flashy posts on Pinterest that are absolutely difficult to resist. If you must hop on the bandwagon, then go ahead. However, don’t be too distracted with the pins or be too consumed with gaining followers that you would actually forget about your purpose of using the site.

Always remember that your posts must serve a purpose. The majority of your posts should establish your author brand and occasionally, you can drop a few promotional materials here and there.

6. Create visual and informative content.

Your audience doesn’t necessarily need thick blocks of texts to learn. Infographics are not only visually pleasing; they are informative as well, hence the name. They can also make your social media campaigns successful when they’re created beautifully.

7. Post videos, podcasts, and SlideShares!

You can post videos from Vimeo and YouTube to your Pinterest account. Although videos are still quite rare on Pinterest, it doesn’t mean you should stay away from this. When you’re posting a video on the site, make sure your thumbnail is attention-grabbing. You don’t want your audience to ignore your video because of a hideous thumbnail.

The Pinterest share button on SlideShare allows you to pin your content to your boards. How will your content appear on Pinterest, you ask? Not to worry! Your audience won’t see a still image. They will be able to browse through your slides.

For Podcasts, your files hosted on SoundCloud can be pinned! However, don’t pin the entire episode on Pinterest. Just post a teaser and provide a link that would lead them to the full episode.

Here’s an important tip: be careful with your links. If you want to drive more traffic to your blog or profile, edit the link so it directs your audience to your page instead of the host site.

8. Don’t forget to add descriptions.

Using the right keywords will increase the visibility of your pins. Moreover, for pinned images, the description will provide your audience with an idea as to why you pinned it. Your descriptions might even get your audience interested and curious.

So, don’t forget to provide links to your blog or profiles in your descriptions just in case they want to know more. Again, doing this will drive more traffic. Even though you’ve mastered Pinterest already, always be on the lookout for new trends in social media. If you’ve got something in mind that’s not on this list, do share it with us!

 

References:

http://www.copyblogger.com/pinterest-marketing/
https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/build-pin-it-button-your-site
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/pinterest-for-videos-slideshares-podcasts/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/pinterest-set-to-surge-in-2016-new-research/