An Intro to Pinterest Business and Board Covers

by Bethany Jett @BetJett

Last month we discussed some Pinterest basics, like choosing a great username and profile picture, writing a great a bio, the difference between public, secret, and collaborative boards, and briefly touched on business accounts. Today we’ll go a little more in-depth on the business account and how to create great covers for your boards.

Open a Business Account

A business account lets you utilize special features like analytics and rich pins, which allow you to set a price and product details inside the pin. Want to see the demographics of your audience and track your popular pins? Analytics to the rescue. Want to sell books or other products directly through your Pinterest account? Rich pins for the win!

Analytics provides an amazing amount of insight into your audience. Your dashboard shows you the average daily impressions and daily viewers you get on your pins, as well as data regarding your top pins: impressions, saves, clicks, and pin type (“R” for rich pin, or a blank space if not).

The “People You Reach” section breaks down your followers by country, metro, language, and gender. The tab next to demographics shares what your followers are interested in. This is the real value. It doesn’t matter if you love to pin quotes if your followers are into home decor and crafts (which is exactly the situation I’m in). You can also see which users have saved a lot of your pins to their own boards, and which brands your audience engages in.

Additionally, the website feature of your analytics shows you how many views pins from your own website received and the average number of daily impressions and viewers.

You can also create ads to generate traffic with the business account, which is great for running book deals or promotions

If you haven’t converted to a business account and think these features will be helpful, click here to get started.

Create Covers for Your Boards

Pinterest is a visual “online magazine” of content. The cover of your boards need to draw people in. You can choose your board cover from a pin already in your board, or you can upload your own image so that you create a cohesive look. Heavy text doesn’t work well on the cover.

Recently I decided to create custom board covers using Canva. There are recommended pixels for Pinterest board covers, but I found they didn’t look “right” on the mobile application, so I used the Instagram template (1080 px x 1080 px) and centered my text. I simplified my board names to be extremely clear and chose an image that represented the board. My board is still a work-in-progress, but I’ll stop uploading board covers temporarily so you can see how the covers create an intentional look and feel versus the boards that don’t. If you want, checkout my Pinterest board.

To change a board cover, first upload the photo you want to use to the specific board.

Next, click on the board you want to edit. At the top left hand corner of the board above the title, you’ll see a pencil icon. Click the icon and a new small window will open. You can change the name of your board, add a description using keywords (hashtags not necessary), a change cover area, the category of the board, if you want the board to be “secret” for your eyes only or not, and if anyone else is collaborating on the board.

On the “cover” line, click “change.” Your current cover will appear with a small window highlighting what appears in the thumbnail of the board. You want this area to highlight the best part of your pin. You can drag your photo up or down to center the area. If you want to pick a different pin for the cover, click the arrow button to the right of the pin.  The last pin that you pinned will be first in the list.

This is a great activity for evenings or anytime you want to relax. I’d love to see your pins and boards so feel free to leave your Pinterest link and any questions in the comments.

TWEETABLES
An Intro to #Pinterest Business & Board Covers - @BetJett on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Why you need #Pinterest Business & GREAT Board Covers - @BetJett (Click to Tweet)

Military wife and all-boys-mama Bethany Jett is the award-winning author of TheCinderella Rule, speaker, ghostwriter, Co-Owner of Serious Writer, Inc., and a marketing grad student who unapologetically overuses exclamation marks.

Bethany is addicted to suspense novels and all things girly, and writes on how to #LiveBrilliant at BethanyJett.com and micro-blogs on Instagram.