Using Pinterest to Promote Your Content

According to Pinterest Etiquette, "If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion."

Pinterest's Terms of service state that Pinterest is to be used for personal, non-commercial purposes.

So you can see that although Pinterest is not designed for promoting your blog or website, there is some wiggle room for sharing your online work as long as you balance it with other pins. (This is similar to StumbleUpon that will terminate your account if you stumble too many things from one domain. But if you stumble a wide variety of sites, then you can certainly stumble your own as well.)

The takeaway -- Enjoy pinning at Pinterest! Pin liberally. Pin your images occasionally, but pin others' images frequently. That will keep you within the legal uses of Pinterest, and those other bloggers will love you!

What can a photo pinning site do for an online empire? It can do three powerful things:

1. Backlinks

As of writing this article, the links to the source of each pinned image are do-follow. That means each pin is giving your blog post another backlink. Backlinks give you authority with Google and other search engines.

Notice in the screenshot of a single pin below, the source link shows only the domain. But the link actually is the specific page on that domain. 

2. Traffic

Hopefully as your followers see your pins, they will click to see more about the image. If they like, repin, tweet, or share on Facebook, your photo has the potential to reach even more viewers who hopefully will be curious enough to click on the original source of the image.

These visitors are targeted traffic who are coming to your site to see more about the photo they liked.

3. Branding & Reputation

Creating a name for yourself is part of building an online empire. Pinterest is another place to become an authority. Whatever your niche, pin fascinating photos and your followers will value your opinon more and more as they see the quality that you share.

As a Pinterest User

1.  Pin from a variety of sources.

2.  Label your pins and categorize them into boards.

3.  Pin from the blog post or article where the photo is featured.

In other words, don't pin from a URL that ends with .jpg or .png or .gif. Also don't pin from a feed in a reader or in an email. When the link is to the article, the photo maintains its proper attribution and leads people to the source to find out more. Most writers want a backlink to a blog post tather than to the photo itself or something generic like Google.

As a Blogger/Writer/Photographer

1. Consider using a watermark.  

You may want to use a watermark on your images so that if they do get pinned without the blog post link, a viewer can find the original article.

2.  Educate your readers about Pinterest.

They are the ones who will help to promote your content. The Pinterest Goodies page has buttons to encourage your readers to follow you at Pinterest. There is also code for adding a PIN THIS button to your pages. 

3.  Unlink your images in blog posts.

Internet users love to click photos. Remove that opportunity so that a reader doesn't click and pin the photo URL instead of the blog post. You want your backlinks going to your blog posts or articles not the images on them.

4. Always use an image with a post.

Give people something to pin. Use stunning, colorful images to accompany your posts. Mediocre, small photos don't get pinned. Colorful, big photos with good lighting do.

When composing your post, consider what kind of pinnable image you can use to go with it. If you don't have a good photo, make a graphic. Or create a kind of half photo half logo type of image that is especially for your post or blog series.

Remember that quite quips, sayings, inforgraphics, and humor get pinned too.