Guest writer, Adrienne Erin is an amateur photographer/designer and freelance writer who does social media marketing and has found that Pinterest is a fantastic social space to market a photo business, given the visual nature of the platform. She has shared 5 simple steps at how to get started on Pinterest.
Pinterest is the most visual of the emerging social media platforms, and this makes it an ideal platform for a photography business looking to reach new clients. If you're unfamiliar with Pinterest, it serves as a sort of virtual pinboard. First people set up “boards” on the site labeled with different categories. Then they find images, ideas or stories that interest them and “pin” them to those boards (by clicking a button) for easy access. It’s a lot like using an online bookmark, but it allows you to look over all your bookmarks and arrange them in a much more logical manner. Here are some ways a photography business with a Pinterest page might use the site:
Get a Business Account
Pinterest only officially opened to businesses in the past few months, though many had been unofficially using the site for some time. Business-specific accounts offer many benefits that personal accounts do not, including the ability to easily register your business’s full name and access to marketing education materials that will help you promote yourself.
Put Up Examples of Your Work
You’ve probably shot dozens of different events over the years. Organize them into boards by category – weddings, graduations, birthday parties – and pin photos from different events onto the appropriate board. This will serve as a portfolio for your work, allowing people to see the different styles and approaches you’re capable of offering for specific events.
Use Appropriate Keywords
Just as you use keywords on your website or blog, you should use them on Pinterest as well. Include detailed descriptions of each picture, and repeat the keywords that you want to emphasize, just as a web-based educational facility would include “accredited online colleges” on its boards. Don’t just limit this to the things you pin – if you repin something, be sure to throw in some keywords there too!
Make Your Work Pinnable
Just as you want to reach people via your Pinterest board, you also want people to be able to pin your work on their boards and expose other people to your talents. For example, if you recently photographed Client A’s wedding, you’ll want her to pin some of the pictures you took to her board, so that everyone can see what a great job you did. That means giving your client permission to post your copyrighted photos, and perhaps taking a few shots at the wedding aimed exclusively at Pinterest. That shows your creativity as well as your hipness – Pinterest is THE biggest bridal accessory these days.
Pin Other People’s Stuff, Too
Another great way to connect with potential clients online is to re-pin their things to your boards. When you do, your clients receive a message saying that “so and so re-pinned your pin.” Out of natural curiosity, they’ll undoubtedly check out the board you pinned to, and that can lead them to your web site. You can also target people planning weddings or celebrations, and it’ll be obvious from the content that they’ve pinned to their boards (think wedding planning ideas, baby shower themes, 100th birthday cards, etc.). Do a weekly whirlwind re-pinning session to drum up business regularly.
You can find Adrienne's work on Twitter.
A nice little plug for Pinterest, tho I'd like to hear for someone in the field. As far as I can tell, Adrienne Erin is not a wedding photographer nor working in the photography field. Not really a source that carries too much weight with her words. She might be a fantastic person, but if she doesn't run a photography business why should I listen. I'd like to hear opinions from working professionals who use Pinterest to generate real life business. People sharing your pretty pictures is great but does it translate into actual hires?
Pinterest terms include:
You grant Pinterest and its users a non-exclusive, royalty-free,
transferable, sublicensable, worldwide license to use, store, display,
reproduce, re-pin, modify, create derivative works, perform, and
distribute your User Content on Pinterest solely for the purposes of
operating, developing, providing, and using the Products. Nothing in
these Terms shall restrict other legal rights Pinterest may have to User
Content, for example under other licenses. We reserve the right to
remove or modify User Content for any reason, including User Content
that we believe violates these Terms or our policies.
That is absolutely enough to not be on pinterest if you're a professional photographer..