If you think Pinterest is just for sharing recipes and making ideas, think again. The fastest-growing social media platform, almost doubling the base of active users in 2014. Many businesses, schools, and other organizations have embraced it as a powerful tool for reaching their audiences. If you do not know Pinterest, do not worry. Creating an account is quick and very easy. If you follow the five steps below, you can get your account up and running in less than an hour.
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Subscribe to Pinterest.com.
Start the process by going to www.pinterest.com. You will be given the option to sign up with a Facebook account or email address. If you have a Facebook school account, that might be the fastest way to sign up. However, do not register with your Facebook email account as Pinterest will transfer some of your personal information from Facebook.
Once you have registered, you will need to verify the account via email or Facebook. Once the account is verified, you can choose your username. You will need to choose a different name, but still want it to be associated with your other social media accounts. You will also want it to look as easy as being associated with your school. After choosing your username, you will choose a password. Then your account is live and active.
Customize your account.
Just because your account is set up, does not mean you are ready to share it with the world. Before you can start advertising your new Pinterest account, you need to customize it to your school type and create content boards. Pinterest offers you a few ways to customize your account to match your school marketing. The first one has a picture. In this area, you will want to mark your school or your school’s compass. It should be something that is easily associated with your school. You can also add a website for your school, city, and state, and a brief description of your school. There are a few things you will want to check in the account settings. First, you will want to leave the “Sex” field to remain neutral, as this is not a personal account. Second, make sure the “Hide” function is turned off. That way everyone wants to see your boards. After all, getting more views and traffic is kind of the whole point.
Create your boards and pins.
Your boards are at the heart of your Pinterest account. Think of them as scrapbooks that contain a wide variety of content. Apart from any boards, there is no reason for anyone to follow you on Pinterest.
You can create a board by clicking on the plus sign in the top right corner. Just think of the different topics you would like to highlight and create boards around those topics. For example, you may have boards for your sports teams and student organizations. You can create a board with parent information or study guides. There is no limit to what you can focus on with your boards. Start with three to five boards. You can add more later.
After you create your boards, you will want to fill those boards with content. This is called “pinning” in the Pinterest world. You can add a new PIN by clicking on the “pin” icon in the top right corner. You will then be asked if you want to pin it to your computer, somewhere online, or elsewhere on Pinterest. For example, you may want to share an image from your school’s latest basketball game on your sports board. If you have that image on your computer, you can simply select one from there. Then choose which board you want to pin on. That’s all. That’s all there is to it. If you are on a website and want to share something on your Pinterest account, look for the Pinterest icon between the social sharing buttons on the site. If you don’t see it, you can always copy the URL, then go to Pinterest and click on the pin icon. Just paste the URL into the box and the content will appear on your clipboard.
Upgrade your account.
Now that you have a customer account and content boards, you are missing only one important ingredient – fans. One of the best ways to get followers on Pinterest is to just follow others. Start with groups in your community, such as nearby schools, local governments, and family-friendly businesses in the area. Also, most of your teachers and administrators may be on Pinterest. Start following them and they will probably follow you again.
Lastly, you will need to advertise your account among your students, parents, and teachers. Include Pinterest announcements in your school newsletters, emails to parents, and all other forms of communication. Share your anchors and boards on Facebook and other social media accounts. If you have boards dedicated to specific groups of students, make sure the group leader announces the board to all team members and parents.
There is no secret way to gain Pinterest followers without keeping track of content and continuing to improve your account. If you do that, you will accumulate fans over time.
Continue where you are.
Pinterest is just like any other social media platform. The way to get the most out of it is to stay active. Continue to add boards and pin content to those boards. And, in time, you will begin to see what kind of content is most popular among your readers, parents, and other fans. Check to see which posts are repeated on other boards more often. Are the posts about student achievements? Those about sports or other student teams? Anchors about home learning resources or learning activities? Use your fan function as a guide for the type of content your fans would like to see. That will help you decide what kind of content to pinpoint. Pinterest is a great tool for sharing useful information and content with your community. Getting started is easy and fast.
