Once you’ve established your Pinterest brand profile, you may still be unsure how pining can actually benefit your brand. The sharing power and SEO benefits of this social network are astounding. This past January Pinterest drove more traffic to websites than LinkedIn, Google Plus, Reddit, and YouTube combined, meaning the sharing potential for your brand is astronomical.

The following 6 marketing strategies will help you optimize your brand profile and encourage continual content sharing of your brand.

1. Add a Pinterest 'Follow' Button and/or the 'Pin It' Button: There is no better way to spread the word that you have a Pinterest profile than to include a custom “Follow” button on your site frame. Ask your EYStudios Account Manager for recommendations on the best area for placement. The “Pin it” button allows customers to pin your current items to their existing pinboards, which can then be liked, repined, or even receive comments underneath. We can design and implement both sharing tools to your store. Click here to learn more.

2. Center Your Brand Profile Around Community: Avoid thinking of your brand profile solely as another marketing channel focused on constant self-promotion. Pin, re-pin, like, and comment on pins which are complimentary to your brand and that you also believe would be of interest to your customers or followers. Fellow pinners use their personal boards as a means to curate items they love and recommend and don’t want to feel as though they are being directly sold to or used.

3. Develop Quirky/ Unique Board Names: Use this as a chance to creatively describe the pins within your pinboards. Have fun with it, and be sure to represent your brand’s personality. Rather than naming your board “Products,” think of a more personalized title such as “Customer Favorites” or segment your boards according to departments. You can also include boards that tell your company’s story such as introducing team members or pinning pictures of your warehouse or office. You could even create a “Deals” or “Coupons” board containing pins you upload related to current store promotions.

4. Encourage Follower Involvement: You can tag followers of your profile or even other brand profiles in your pin descriptions. Tagging allows you to “recommend” a pin to followers while also building more of a personal connection with followers. You can also ask followers to upload images of them using your products and/or tag your brand profile in user-uploaded pins. This will not only encourage user involvement but it will also create organic content sharing within the Pinterest community. You could even create a board within your profile dedicated to customer pins.

5. Optimize Your Pin Descriptions: When pinning an image, be sure to take full advantage of providing your own original description of the pin. If the image is from your site, you can certainly include your company name as well as keywords related to the item pinned. Include prices when possible. Not only will the pin image include the price, but it will also increase the chance of your pin appearing in the “Gifts” section.

6. Mix Up Your Pining Activity: Install the “Pin It Bookmarklet,” which will allow you to pin any image found on the web. Pinterest will populate the original creator to ensure that once the pin is clicked, users are directed to the source. This will help you mix up your pinning activity between original pins, re-pinning, user uploads, and likes.

Now, get out there and let the pinning begin! Let us know if you can help you in any way!