Converting a personal Pinterest account to business account is something most businesses struggle with. This definitive guide will show you how to accomplish this.
In our previous post, we considered how you can convert your Instagram personal account to a business profile. Today, we will be doing something similar; but on Pinterest.
Pinterest has allowed businesses to have accounts with business profiles. Now, you need to see Pinterest as an important tool for your B2B and B2C social media marketing strategy.
In this article, we will take a look at why you need to have a business Pinterest account and the steps you need to take to convert your personal Pinterest account to business account.
But first, let’s consider the differences between personal and business Pinterest accounts.
Differences Between Personal and Business Pinterest Accounts
Although the appearance of both personal and business Pinterest accounts are the same, some features differentiate the two accounts.
1. Terms of service agreement
The first key difference since the introduction of business Pinterest accounts is the newly formulated Terms of service (TOS) for both account holders. Pinterest states that any account that wants to use Pinterest for commercial purposes needs to create a business account and must also agree to the TOS for business accounts.
2. Ability to specify business name
Another difference between a personal Pinterest account and business account is the ability to specify one’s business name.
Instead of opening a Pinterest account with the first name as “Fat-Free” and last name as “Menu,” those with business profiles can create their account by using their business names the way it is.
3. Marketing resources targeted at businesses
Pinterest is providing educational resources that will help businesses get tangible results from their marketing activities. The platform has tutorials that teach businesses how to tell their story via their profile, how they can build a community by collaborating, tactics businesses can use to drive targeted traffic, thereby making their products discoverable on Pinterest.
There are also tutorials also teach businesses how they can learn and grow by finding out how others perceive their brand on Pinterest.
4. Access to new features
Pinterest is always working on dishing out new features for businesses to help them increase their coverage and have a better understanding of their Pinterest audience. You will be notified as soon as new features are released if you have set up your business account.
Step-By-Step Guide On Converting Personal Pinterest Account To Business Account
1: Log in to your personal Pinterest account and click on Settings
2: Click the “Account Settings” tab
3: Scroll down (under Account Changes) and click “Convert Account”.
4: A pop-up will appear; click “Continue” on the pop-up.
After clicking CONTINUE, you will be taken to the dashboard of your business account.
That’s all. It is a simple process that you can complete within 2 minutes.
If you don’t want to link your personal Pinterest account to your business account, you can create a stand-alone business account. The disadvantage of this is that you need to sign in separately.
If you want to follow this route, you can create an account at http://pinterest.com/business/create/, click “Create Account” and follow the steps that you come across.
Furthermore, if you have created an account by mistake and you want to deactivate it, you can do this on the same page by going under Account Settings and selecting the options you want from the bottom.
How To Get The Best From Your Pinterest Business Account
1. Choose your niche
To get the best result from your Pinterest business account, you need to know what your business is all about and what you want to share with your audience. For instance, if your business is into graphic design, you need to pin information that relates to color combinations, typography, and small business tips.
Also, you will help your current customers by pinning about complementary items (such as coding or copywriting). Ensure you include categories that will appeal to your target customers.
The main idea behind this tip is to know what is relevant to your business and audience. You need to ask yourself, ‘What is my ideal audience looking for on Pinterest?’ You can use the answer to this question to pin content that will make you discoverable by your target audience on Pinterest. This will also help you increase your followers.
Once you have figured out the boards where you want to include your business Pinterest account, you can then go ahead and get rid of the other boards. You can keep the pins that relate to your business account by re-pinning them to secret boards. You cannot move a public pin to private; what you can do in this case is to re-pin each of them individually.
You can also go into the board and copy them to the secret board of your choice by selecting “Edit Pins.”
2. Organize the pins that you have left
You can find this step to be easy depending on how you designed your Pinterest boards. If you don’t find it easy, that’s not a problem. Working from the list you have about what you want your business to convey and what you want to share with your audience, take a look at your pins and create or modify boards that align with them.
To make the appearance of your Pinterest boards appealing and unified, you can design board covers that align with your branding. You can use Illustrator or Photoshop to do this. You can also use Canva. Doing this will make your Pinterest profile stand out from its competitors.
If you want to add these branded images to your board, you need to create graphics with the dimension 844 X 570 pixels. Pin the image to the board you’ve selected, then go into the board’s “Edit Board.” Change the photo under the “Cover” section to the pin image you just uploaded.
After doing these, look at your Pinterest to see the boards that are missing. You also need to find out the subjects that you could use to communicate with your audience and things that you’re good at. Knowing these will help you to be conscious of what you share with your audience.
3. Pin your content
This is the most important thing that you need to do to get the best from your business Pinterest account. It is the main reason for having a business Pinterest account. Irrespective of the type of content that you want to share (blog post or infographic), ensure your content is floating on Pinterest.
Creating pinnable content may seem like a lot of work. However, it pays off.
4. Pin, follow, and, comment
This is the fun and easy part of the whole process. You need to consistently pin because this is the only thing that will compel people to follow you. You should also follow others. It is easy to get the followers and content that you need. Commenting on pins can help you accomplish these. You will be able to interact with people on a more personal level and make your voice heard by commenting.
FAQs
What are the next steps that I need to take after converting my personal Pinterest account to business account?
1. Verify your website
When you take a look at the top left corner of your Pinterest page, you will see the word ‘Analytics.’ If you scroll over this word, a dropdown menu will appear.
In this menu, you can choose to see an overview of your analytics or your profile analytics. The dropdown menu can also help you see the people you reach and your insights. The only thing missing at this stage is your website analytics.
It is missing because you have not verified your website. So, you need to verify your website by going through this guide: How to Verify Your Website on Pinterest.
After verifying your website, the Pinterest analytics will show you the pins that are driving the highest amount of traffic to your website, and the boards that are generating the most traffic amongst others.
Verifying your website will make a tick mark appear next to it on your profile. This injects credibility into your profile, and more people will click on your website.
2. Claim your Instagram, YouTube, and Etsy accounts
If you have not claimed your Instagram, YouTube, and Etsy accounts while setting up your profile, you need to do so now. Pinterest will show data about the pinning activity on the accounts. This data will help you generate more traffic.
3. Try ads
You will be able to run Pinterest ads after converting your Pinterest personal account to a business account. Try them out because Pinterest ads are very affordable at the moment. Although Pinterest is great for generating organic traffic, generating some paid traffic will also be helpful.
4. Use a management tool
To get the best result from Pinterest, you need to be pinning 15 o 25 times a day and at regular intervals. Doing this manually can consume a lot of time. That’s why you need to use a Pinterest management tool. This tool can help you get this done within 1 hour a week.
So, find a good Pinterest management tool for your pinning activities.
Why do I need to convert my personal Pinterest account to business account?
When you convert your personal Pinterest account to business account, you will have access to Pinterest Analytics. Although it is better to rely on Google Analytics, it is still good to see insights from your Pinterest account.
Pinterest Analytics will help you see data such as top boards, audience insights, as well as interests that relate to your Pinterest audience. You can use these to improve your Pinterest marketing strategy.
Also, converting your personal Pinterest account to business account is free and easy. You can even link up to four business accounts to a personal account.
Conclusion
Although converting a personal Pinterest account to business account requires work, it pays off almost immediately. If you have a business (whether online or offline), you can start its conversion process today by setting up a Pinterest business profile for the business.
Within a few weeks, you will see your followers growing, and you’ll be glad you took the pain of giving your business a profile on Pinterest.