Getting your small business started with Pinterest and Instagram

Use these tips to add Pinterest and Instagram to your social media strategy.

Pinterest and Instagram are two relatively new social media platforms, both launched in 2010 and began to gain traction just a few months later.  Today Pinterest has 70 million users and Instagram has 7.3 million people using its site every day.  Because of this reach – and because both sites help boost your SEO – you should consider making Pinterest and Instagram part of your small business social media marketing strategy.

Social media has gone mainstream and its effect on SEO has grown exponentially – so much so that major search engines now include a social media component in their ranking algorithms.  This social media component is called social signals, which are simply Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, Pinterest pins, Instagram shares, Google +1’s and other social media shares.  The higher your social signal score, the closer to the top of search results you’ll be.  By creating content that’s easy to enjoy, you increase its share-ability, which contributes to your social signal score and SEO results.

Another way that Pinterest and Instagram improve SEO is with backlinks.  Search engines consider backlinks when determining page rankings, taking into account how many other websites link back to yours.  Pinterest and Instagram work to improve SEO by building backlinks to your website.

Pinterest and Instagram also contribute to SEO when you use the “pin it” and share buttons.  Add links to Pinterest, Instagram and other social media real estate to blog posts, especially if they contain eye-catching graphics.  People can then easily add your blog post to their Pinterest board or share it with their Instagram followers, creating more backlinks.

When posting to Pinterest and Instagram don’t forget to attach keywords and/or hashtags, because other social media networks will pick-up on them.  Research trending keywords and hashtags to find those relevant to your business and customers, then include them in picture names or descriptions.  This can significantly elevate website traffic.   Also try to include shots of people. Pictures of people’s faces are especially good at drawing attention.

So what, exactly, could you post pictures of on Pinterest and Instagram? If you have a staff, you can show them at work in your office, helping customers or participating in a community service event.  You could visually explain the process used to make your product or bring your ideas to life.  You could do a fun theme, like shots of your city with tags about hometown businesses in your field and clients you’ve helped.

Initiating and keeping up with the Pinterest and Instagram as part of your marketing program is probably easier than you think.  Rather than having to create brand new concepts for each platform you can cross-post each content concept across all of your Internet real estate.  For example, you can make a blog entry on your website and use these services to help achieve your ultimate goal of people visiting that page and contacting you.  Make sure you’ve included a few images on the blog page, and then you’re off to the social media races!

• Mention the blog on your business Facebook page.
• Start a related conversation in a LinkedIn group.
• Tweet a link to the blog with teaser hashtags.
• Share a photo from the blog on Instagram.
• Pin it to one of your Pinterest boards.

Get started with your variations of the ideas presented here and don’t be surprised if the creative ideas just start flowing soon after.

Are you already using Pinterest and Instagram in your business? Leave a comment with your social media handles and we’ll follow you. Also, tell us if your small business is benefiting from having a presence on these social media sites. We look forward to hearing from you!