It looks like Pinterest came out of nowhere, but it’s the third fastest-growing site in the US and it’s getting our clients tens of thousands of visitors a month. So, I figured I’d share with you how you can use Pinterest to promote your business.

3 Ways to Get Followers on Pinterest

1. Install the Pinterest Button on your site and blog to invite people to follow you.
   
   You can get the Pinterest button from here.
2. Install the “Pin It” button on your site so your visitors can pin your images easily.
   
   Get the Pin It button here or get the Pin It button WordPress plugin here.
3. Customize your profile by uploading a great-looking profile picture, a call to action in your bio and a link to your site. Don’t forget to include the links to your Facebook page, blog and Twitter profile.
   

5 Things You Should Post to Pinterest

1. Infographics. Check out these cool examples:
   http://pinterest.com/pin/34410384622919215/
   http://pinterest.com/pin/120541727496416838/
   http://pinterest.com/pin/34410384622934020/
   Infographics are great because visual content is a lot easier to digest than text for most people.
2. Show How Your Products Work. If your products are a little complex, Pinterest is a great way to show your audience how they work.
3. Your Blog Posts. Pin your own blog posts and make sure you use an image that gets people’s attention. Here’s a really good example:
   
4. Use Pinterest as a Wishlist. Let your website visitors pin the products they like. Do this with a call to action such as “Do You Like this Product? Pin It”. A lot of ecommerce websites have wishlists, but the problem with wishlists is that nobody gets to see them, whereas with Pinterest, your visitors are promoting your products for you!
5. Videos. Did you know you can pin videos, too? Check out this example:
   

5 Pinterest Marketing Secrets

1. Use Keywords. Make sure your image filenames look like “portland-seo-agency.jpg” instead of “DMC10833.jpg”. You should also use keywords in your board names and in your image descriptions.
2. Generate Engagement. Do you want comments? Ask questions. Or use the “Fill in the Blank” technique. Here’s how it works: “The ideal situation to wear this skirt would be _____________ (Fill in the blank)”. And, don’t forget to include a call to action in some of your image descriptions inviting people to repin them. Don’t overdo this, though. It works great for free content, causes and non-profits, but not so well for commercial content.
3. Run a Contest. Social Fresh wrote a great post on Pinterest contests.
4. Integrate Pinterest with Twitter and Facebook. Whenever you pin something important, make sure you share it on Twitter and Facebook.
   
5. Use Pinvolve. Pinvolve is a great Facebook app that makes it really easy to add Pinterest to your Facebook page.
   

Have fun with Pinterest and be careful: it could be extremely addictive!