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.

How to share boards on pinterest

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.

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About Lorna

I'm a copywriter and social media consultant at www.writeontrack.ie, I teach social media online at www.weteachsocial.com and my personal blog Irish Farmerette recounts stories about life on a dairy farm in rural Ireland.

11 responses to “Using Pinterest for Business: How To Share Boards”

  1. Penny says :

    Thanks for providing all the great Pinterest advice – you’ve really helped me keep on the right track with it – no pun intended 😉

  2. Jan Baird says :

    Marie, thank you for this great information. Pinterest has really taken off, hasn’t it? But my spellcheckers don’t recognize it yet; I will have to add it to my computer dictionaries.

  3. Erin says :

    Hey Lorna, very insightful post thanks for the share. Thought you would be interested in another similar bookmarking website called Clipix.com. They have very similar features but I find it to be more useful to the individual rather than everyone else. Check it out and let me know what you think!

    • Lorna says :

      Thanks for that Erin, I hadn’t heard of that and will definitely check it out 🙂

      • Martina Ginty says :

        Hi Lorna
        I think this is a great idea, am thinking of a bridal/wedding board to tie in with the launch of my new collection. When i go to invite somebody do i have to enter their email address here?? Martina

      • Lorna says :

        You can only invite them if you / they follow at least one of each other’s boards. As you start to type in Ma, for example, all those you can invite whose names begin with Ma will pop up. What I have noticed is not that that board gets lots of pins but it is getting a lot of followers.

  4. Martina says :

    Thanks Lorna for reply, how can i follow you for example on pinterest??

    • Lorna says :

      Do you mean how to find me? the search on Pinterest is okay, just put my name into the search box and when the selections come up, just click the ‘people’ and I’ll show up (Lorna Sixsmith), then you can decide whether to ‘follow all’ or follow individual boards.

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