Pinterest is a place where people share images of things they want, so it makes a lot of sense that the companies who make those things would also want to share it themselves. Naturally, Pinterest has a lot of businesses who post their own products and content.
Pinterest has acknowledged this sort of use and has added business accounts to the site, combined with separate tools and terms for both regular users and business users.
The interesting part is that prior to the business accounts announcement using Pinterest commercially was against their terms of service.
Luckily, Pinterest has seen the light (potential dollar signs?) and is allowing existing users to transform their personal account into a business account. Pinterest has also mentioned the power of social sharing and how it has the potential to drive a hell of a lot of traffic to businesses, using Allrecipes, Etsy and Jetsetter as prime examples through case studies.
In fact, when Allrecipes integrated the beautiful “Pin It” button on their site, more than 50,000 recipes were pinned in only three months, resulting in 139 million impressions on Pinterest. Not a bad part of one’s Internet marketing strategy.
There are a number of benefits to having a business account on Pinterest, apart from being able to act commercially, such as access to widgets, buttons and verification badges to help drive more people to your Pinterest page, not to mention access to new features.
Despite allowing businesses to officially have a presence on Pinterest, there haven’t been any announcements on plans to monetize, nor anything related to business models. Still, creating the framework and gaining further commercial interest can only be a good thing for the company. There has been a hint of providing analytics to businesses in the future, something valuable that will ultimately direct one’s Pinterest strategy.
In the meantime, be sure to check out HelloInsights, an analytics platform that provides you with the tools needed to optimize your Pinterest presence. It contains features such as up to date statistics, top brand influencers, customizable comparison charts, a live feed of what your fans are sharing, and detailed traffic analysis.
Will you be switching your personal account over to business? What does this mean for affiliate marketers? Leave your comments below!
