We talk about Facebook all the time, but Pinterest is definitely a channel that you should consider for generating leads and sales for your business. Especially for photographers. 

Almost 1/3 of Americans use Pinterest; the majority of them female, educated and affluent. If this is your target market, Pinterest is definitely where you want to be. Pinterest is a visual medium, which is perfect for putting your work centerstage and generating healthy clicks to your website.

How can you get more interaction on Pinterest? Use this guide to help draw in customers with pins optimized for engagement.

Pin on Pinterest, not your website.

Creating pins directly on Pinterest (instead of just pinning from your blog or website) gives you finer control over your own content and how it's seen. This is true for a number of reasons. 

One, you can post images more intelligently to get more interaction. Maybe you're selling makeup. But pinning plain boxes of eyeshadow isn't as appealing on Pinterest as beautiful shots of fully made-up eyes. Showing a product in use is more effective than showing the product by itself. When you create pins with purpose to drive traffic, you can frame your product in a way to reach your audience better and encourage more clicks to your website.

Another advantage is that you can create image sizes and layouts that work well on Pinterest. Images that are optimized for horizontal websites are not necessarily ideal for a vertical Pinterest format. Taller images give you more space to create collages, "How-Tos" and richer, more valuable content that gets more engagement.

And last, you can create evergreen pins that will continue to pull in traffic no matter what changes happen on your site. If you pin an image from a proofing gallery, for example, it may eventually expire, leaving you with broken pins that don’t help generate traffic. Same for limited-time products or seasonal landing pages. Pin on Pinterest (not your website) to control your links and finely direct your visitors to pages that perform.

Making the Perfect Pin:

Pin tall, vertical images

Tall pins almost always perform better. Think about the recipes, DIYs, and other pins you see that get a million views… they’re usually long and skinny, often using a collage of images. Indeed, research shows that tall, vertical pins perform better than horizontal or square ones.

Pinned images should be at least 600 pixels wide, with an aspect ratio between 2:3 and 1:3.5.

Take advantage of all this extra legroom! Vary your pins by mixing in collages and photo stacks along with single images. (Need an easy way to make perfect-sized pins or collages? Canva is a free online tool that lets you make instant collages & graphics already sized for Pinterest.)

Use awesome high-resolution, professional photography

Well, of course. Pinterest is visual, so the most important part of your pin is ensuring it’s gorgeous to look at. People pin beautiful pins. Use your best photographs to stand out.

Minimal Text that’s EASY TO READ

Titles are good. Even some text. Just make sure not to overwhelm your followers with a bunch of text that’s hard to read. Save the details for the description.

Speaking of descriptions…

The best ones:

• Are 75-100 characters long and really informative.

• Include relevant keywords. (Don’t overstuff!)

• Resist the urge to use hashtags. Instead, focus on writing keyword-rich descriptions.

• Don’t sell! Instead, encourage your reader to take a positive next step, like visiting your website to see more.

• Use correct grammar and punctuation

Don’t overbrand

There’s a huge difference between a tasteful logo in the corner and a huge watermark. Remember what we said about people pinning gorgeous posts? Let your work speak for itself and generate buzz – but always link back to your website to do the selling.

Remember to link to your website or product page

That way people don’t just land on your homepage. Instead, point them to targeted destinations that are helpful for getting you sales. Lead visitors to a product’s “buy” page, a special offer landing page or booking page. It’s better user experience and will help secure more conversions.

Pin to targeted boards

Babies and boudoir don’t mix. Make separate boards for your different areas of photography, products, or inspiration to target your different audiences.

Pin often

How often should you pin? Try to pin at least 5 times a day, even up to 30!

Frequent pinning helps you gain a following who can rely on you to post consistently great material. Experiment on when the best time to pin is to find your peak engagement window. Some find Saturday afternoons & evenings seem to do the best. Whatever your findings, pin around your peak engagement periods to get the most interaction. 

Repin, like, comment & follow back! 

One of the biggest mistakes is not interacting with your audience. Don't just wait around for people to lavish their attention on you – get involved by liking, commenting, and repinning great posts. And when someone follows you, follow them back! Don't be afraid to follow like-minded businesses, too. Build relationships through interaction. 

Feeling good about Pinterest? Great!

Now go out there and get more traffic with perfect pins!