Learn what Pinterest can do for your real estate or design business. Since "home" is the number one category on Pinterest, there is a huge market for what you're selling. We'll show you how to get started, what to pin, and even who to follow for great ideas you can use for your

2. What Is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a social media platform that acts as a virtual pin board.

3. Is it Really a Good Platform for business?
• 70% of users say they visit the site to find items to purchase.
• Pinterest sends more traffic to websites than Yahoo!
• The average purchase generated by Pinterest is double the
amount of those started on Facebook or Twitter - about $180.
• 80% of pins are repins (as opposed to about 5% or Tweets that are
ReTweets) – can you say viral?!

4. Is Pinterest a Good Platform for Real
Estate and Design?

5. Getting Started on Pinterest
Visit Business.Pinterest.com to set up your business account.
Use keywords in your description.
Hashtags are not functional here.
Uploading a business profile photo is
quick and easy, but choose wisely. While
a logo may work for large
companies, given the audience that
Pinterest has, you may choose
something a more personal.
Make sure you verify your website after
you set up your account.

6. Set up Some Boards
Create a board by clicking on the
"+" button next to your name.
You might want to create only
secret boards at first. You can
make them public when they are
ready for the world to see.

7. Start Pinning!
Get the bookmarklet for
on-the go pinning:
http://about.pinterest.c
om/goodies/#browser
You can add a price to
the description and your
item will appear in the
“gifts” category.

8. Some Strategies for Success
1. Make it easy for
website visitors to pin
your images with plugins
that show either a floating
"share" button, or one
that appears when a
visitor hovers over an
image.
2. Make custom
“pinnable” images for
your blog posts. Including
the content description in
the image itself improves
performance.

9. Timing is (almost) Everything.
3. The most popular times to be
on Pinterest
(and, ostensibly, the best times
to post) are early morning, late
at night and Saturday mornings.
Try ViralTag for scheduling,
But experiment – your
audience could be different.
4. Accept a few Group Board
invitations and contribute! Try
repinning from your company
boards.

12. Nordstrom has a hugely
popular Pinterest
account. This is one way
you can bring Pinterest
offline - by sharing a
“most pinned” label on
items in your design
store. Great for
designers with a physical
location.

13. Looking at Real Estate examples on
Pinterest
• http://pinterest.com/stricklandsnc - Customer Fred allowed us to experiment on him with our
new “Pinterest Setup/Strategy and Training Service”. Our goal was to create a dynamic way to
share trends with designers and end-user customers, as well as to build on existing business
partnerships.
• http://pinterest.com/BHGRealEstate/- Heavy on decorating, staging ideas and homebuyer help.
• http://pinterest.com/corcorangroup/ - Boards featuring current local trends (like exposed
beams, minimal). Also, boards by feature (gorgeous yards, entryways, etc.) pinned from their own
site.
• http://pinterest.com/rajqsar/ - Independent realtor account seeks to become a resource for
everything Orange County. Not just real estate, but attractions, food, fashion.
• http://pinterest.com/denverrealty/ - Very specific to Denver, in part. Also shares personal
passions.
• http://pinterest.com/parkcityliving/ Created a board for one luxury home has 119 followers

14. Designer and Builder Pinterest Accounts
Some Decorators Using Pinterest Well:
• http://pinterest.com/decoratorgirl/ - Boards dedicated to specific rooms in the house and a few for
particular colors.
• http://pinterest.com/Napdecor/ - She’s actually a decorator wanna-be with nearly 4,000 followers. Does
some room-specific boards, but lots of stuff for kids and “great ideas” for the home as well. I even followed
that one!
Some Builders Using Pinterest Well:
• http://pinterest.com/jjcustomhome/ - He has beautiful photos of his work. He only has 22 followers and I
noticed his boards are lacking descriptions. He would do better to frame the photos as inspiration, rather
than advertisements of his work (ie., “Funky bedroom decor” instead of “My custom bedrooms”).
• http://pinterest.com/DHomeBuilder/ - With nearly 400 followers, they do a good job presenting images of
different styles and rooms, but it feels a little too much like a sales brochure.
• http://www.pinterest.com/RuralProper/renovate/ - Not actually a builder, this pinner shares DIY projects.
Show people the inspiration, the work that goes into it, and 9 times out of 10 they’ll decide to hire you
instead of doing it yourself!

15. What Makes a Great Pin – Infographics and
Checklists

16. Tutorials and Teaser Text

17. Videos! Pin from your site or from
YouTube.

18. What Makes a Great Pin Caption?
• Use a Call to Action. This
increases engagement 80%!
• Use keywords.
• Add a price to your caption.
• Use a hashtag or two.
• Tag your business partners.
• Include a link to the article
or page, if on your site.

19. Keep Learning!
• On our blog: http://bit.ly/PinterestSSM
• Subscribe to our blog: http://bit.ly/SSMEmails
• Our ebook: http://bit.ly/PinterestHomes
• Official Pinterest for Business Blog:
http://businessblog.pinterest.com/
• HubSpot’s Pinterest Blog Topics: http://bit.ly/HubSpotPinterest