Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Etsy Success Part II - Pinterest



This is our 2nd part of the Etsy Success Symposium Series.  Pinterest!  If you haven't heard of this site yet, you need to get an account ASAP.  If you need to sign up, it is best to find someone already on there to send you an invite.  Otherwise it can take a long time to be accepted.

Here are a few stats to help you understand how valuable this site can be to your networking:
• Etsy's Pinterest page has over 70,000 followers!
• Their "cool spaces" board has over 95,000 followers.
There are 1.2 million unique Etsy items on Pinterest and they have been pinned 4.5 million times!

If this doesn't grab your attention and help show you the amazing power of Pinterest I don't know what will :)



GETTING STARTED

So first off it is important to understand you have 2 types of followers on Pinterest.
1.  Account followers - these are people following all your boards, anything that you post.  Your entire account.
2.  Board followers -  These are people interested in specific boards you have.  These followers give you a good indicator of what is popular and helps you find your target market in specific topics.

Make sure you import your facebook and twitter followers to help build a following quickly.
Start building boards that tell a story, give life-inspirations, cover hobbies, materials etc.



WHAT SHOULD YOU PIN?
• Beautiful editorial style photography
• Collections
• What inspires you to Craft?
• Hobbies
• Create a color palette
• Build boards on themes and keywords, and trends.






HOW TO GET REPINNED AND FOUND IN SEARCH ENGINES
 
Make sure you use keywords in your titles, and descriptions.  Keywords are going to help you get found through a search.  And place your boards into categories to help get found easier.

File name - This is really important for SEO.  Most personal websites use the file name in search engine optimization, but on Etsy they don't.  So many Etsy users may not be familiar with this tip.  When you upload pictures to your computer and you give them a name, that name is used for keyword placement in your items on Pinterest. This can be time consuming when taking 100's of pictures but if you can put keywords as the titles on these files you will get better results in searches!

Comment on other pins - You have to be visible and supportive to others and they will usually do the same in return.  

Pin it button on other sites - don't just pin Etsy items.  Get creative and pin all over the web to gain more followers & Repins!

Tweet and facebook your boards

The title of your pins is your URL - make sure keywords are in your titles.

EXTRA TIPS

Peak pinning time is Monday through Friday  4 - 11pm EST.  This means that you will have a higher chance of being seen during those hours.
The expert in the Etsy Symposium highly recommends you put the price in your pins.  They say this will help your exposure because it helps you get into their gift guides.  They were asked if it hurts the look of the board and they strongly felt it did not.

We hope this helps motivate you to use more Pinterest and to start optimizing your boards for better visibility.

Please share your tips, tricks and experiences in the comments.

Thanks.


Check out the Mother's Day Challenge Board on Pinterest

27 comments:

  1. Great synopsis ... thanks for the info!!!

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  2. I didn't know that about the picture file name... so glad I do now! Thanks for the great advice!

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  3. That was news to me as well! Thanks for the hot tips!

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  4. WOW! I thought no one used the pic file names. Guess my little etsy world is not the whole word, hehehehehe. Time to add another major project to the to do list.

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  5. I like the peak pinning times, did not know those! Another wonderful, informative post!

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  6. Some great tips... I love pinning and have become quite an addict

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  7. Great tips... I am going to redo my boards this weekend... they are just a jumble.

    Also did not know about pic file names...

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  8. The file names and the title in the URL - good info! Thanks!

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  9. Interesting that they did not think adding a price to your pin effected it's repin/view potential. I may have to rethink my strategy on that.

    Love this series!

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  10. Thanks for the info - will start reworking photo names and titles :)

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  11. Love pintrest, haven't really started using it for my shop yet though. Thanks for the info!

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  12. I Luuuuuuuuv Pinterest! Thanks for all the great info! *Ü*

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  13. I love pinterest! Not only is it fun, but it brings views to my shop! :)

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  14. Great tips thank you really need to redo my boards there is no sense to them lol

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  15. I started using prices when you mentioned it earlier but still have lots of things to consider. If we're going to put time and effort into this (okay, so it's fun, too) we should all maximize our results. Right? Right!

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  16. Thanks so much I loved to hear about the peak time :)

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  17. Great post. More tips on Pinterest. Glad to be a part of it. Gotta get into the PFT one though.

    Thank you!

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  18. Thank you for the info , I love Pins and getting addicted to it

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  19. Wonderful information, thank you for explaining it so well!

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  20. I haven't thought of importing my Twitter followers - going to do that right away! Thanks for the pinning time tip!

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  21. Thanks! My Pintreset needs a face lift.

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  22. Really great info...I have just scratched the surface, and need to do more pinning!

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  23. Thanks for the info!

    Was wondering why mother's day entry isn't on the pinterest board? I sent it in time!

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  24. Wow I didn't know about the photo names, thank you for sharing

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