Using Pinterest for Business: How To Share Boards

It is Friday Find It time again (and this week, there’s a ‘thank crunchie it’s Friday’ vibe going on too – it’s been a brilliant albeit exhausting week!)

Today’s question is from Deirdre who emailed us to ask us a question about Pinterest:

You say you can allow others to pin to your boards – can you allow anyone to pin to your boards or do you have to name them? I’ve looked around Pinterest and can’t find an answer so thought I’d ask you.

Pinterest have changed it ever so slightly since they last put up their instructions on this.

You have to be following at least one board of a a potential contributor to your boards so not only do you have to name the contributors but you have to be following them as a ‘follow all’ or at least one of their boards.

Once you click ‘edit board’ a page comes up where you can change your categories or add more description. You can also decide if you, as the creator, want to be the only contributor or if you wish to invite others to contribute. Once you start to type their name, suggestions for contributors will appear, for example, I started typing MAR and all the Maries, Marias and Marians I follow popped up.

An invitation is sent to all the people you add to the board and they will receive an email advising them of this. Once they accept the invitation, you will receive an email so you’ll get a idea of the response.  Don’t spam people on this – only invite those you know are interested in this board.

Once someone is a contributor to that board, they can then invite other contributors so it can spread and your board can become very popular.

What does this mean for business? Businesses can still create a board that can be shared, hence forming a community and showing interest in your customers. For example, I have just started a board called ‘Decorating Stories – Before and After’ and am asking people to contribute their before and after decorating photos to it and I will let you know how it goes. The difficulty is that there would already have to be a relationship there for you to know their name and have a follow in place but this would be a wonderful way to build on a relationship. The trick is to keep an eye on the board and comment on those pins that are added.

If you would like to become a contributor to my ‘Decorating Stories – Before and After Pictures’ board, do let me know and I’ll follow you and add you as a contributor.

I’m sure that a few months ago people could contribute to other boards if the box ‘Me and contributors’ was ticked and I’d imagine they have changed it to only allow named contributors in order to prevent spamming as pinterest has become so busy.