Are Pinterest’s Idea Pins worth using?

Pinterest is the ideal platform for finding visual inspiration. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for home décor ideas, new recipes or free workouts, there’s plenty on this incredible platform to keep you informed, entertained, and discovering new things!

While Pinterest does provide similar features to other social networks, such as the ability to follow friends, like and comment on boards and sharing information on other platforms, the site has always been unique in its offering. As its name suggests, it mainly gives you the ability to create mood boards and ‘pin’ your favourite content to them so you can collect your favourite photos and come back to view them later.

What are Idea Pins?

In September last year, Pinterest introduced a new feature. Idea Pins were created as a way to give creators a tool to easily publish visual stories directly to the platform, making it easy for them to wider reach more people – and potential customers! – who are searching for inspirational content.

As opposed to a regular pin, which is just one image or video with a description and link, Idea Pins allow the creator to incorporate multiple pages of images, videos, links, and text. Providing you with the ability to create up to 20 slides, Pins allow you to build more of a story around your content and engage your audience on a completely different level.

Unlike the so-called story features on many other social platforms, Idea Pins are not time sensitive, so will not be auto-deleted (although you can remove them manually, of course).

What kinds of businesses tend to do well on Pinterest?

Pinterest is a very visual platform that largely focuses on imagery and video content to draw users in before you can direct them to your shop or website.

Any product-based business tends to do particularly well here. If you sell clothes, make-up, or even properties, your content will go down a storm. Tutorials are also the order of the day here, meaning those in the food, design, and art industries can use Pinterest to share their knowledge as well as their original ideas.

How can Idea Pins benefit my business?

As this is a relatively new feature, it’s difficult to quantify exactly how popular these will be for users. But similar functionality has been well received on popular sites such as Facebook and Instagram, so it’s absolutely worth giving Pins a go if a) you’ve been enjoying Pinterest’s format so far, and b) you’ve already seen good engagement from the site up until now.

There are heaps of brands taking advantage of this new tool already, including How Sweet Eats, who have used the feature to create simple, easy to follow guides on making delicious home cooked meals. Better Homes and Gardens use Pins to provide inspiration to their followers on all aspects of home living, from gardening tips through to advice on cleaning products and even a little info on the latest beauty trends.

When it comes to using Pins to your advantage, the trick is to really understand your audience and know what kind of content will resonate well with them. Once you know exactly who you’re talking to (and why), you can build your stories using high-quality visuals and content that people simply can’t find elsewhere.

How to create a Idea Pin

Creating a Idea Pin is pretty straightforward:

1. Log into your Pinterest business account and click the “Create” tab
2. Click “Create Idea Pin”. You need to make sure you have access to Idea Pins to enable this option. If you don’t have access yet, you can submit a request via the Pinterest website.
3. Select 1-20 images and/or videos to upload, ensuring your videos are no longer than a minute.
4. Use the features provided to add design elements to your pages, such as different text and layout options.
5. Click “Next”.
6. Pick a theme for your Idea Pin.
7. Add any additional details, such as materials you’ve used.
8. Click “Next”.
9. Add a title to your Idea Pin.
10. Choose the Board you want to publish your Idea Pin to.
11. Select up to 10 Pinterest tags relating to your Idea Pin.
12. Click “Publish”!

Want to explore Pinterest? The Social Brain can help!

We’ve got a full team of talented social media experts here at The Social Brain – including our very own Pinterest Manager, Lianne Harris, who can help you build Pinterest campaigns that will drive traffic to your website. Lianne has been helping clients optimise their Pinterest accounts for more than four years, and she’s a well-respected speaker and teacher on the subject, too! Get in touch to find out more.