Did you know that there are over 100 million active users on the platform Pinterest? Amazing right? Another fun fact about Pinterest is that of those active users, around 77% are female. This will help you to decide whether or not your target market is spending time on this social media platform.

Let’s back up. Pinterest is a social media site that started in 2010. It’s very visual as it allows users to save or “pin” things they enjoy in an organized fashion and to separate, themed “boards.” I think of it more like file folders than a bulletin board.

As a business owner and someone in the book industry, you can use Pinterest in the following ways:

• “Pin” blog posts or other content you own that is on your blog or website. By “pinning” it, it allows the public to share and save it to their boards. Major visibility here for your brand!
• Paid advertising for your products
• Analytics to see what content is pinning the most and aim to create MORE of that content.
• Create boards based around your work. For example, I have a “Books to Read about Character” board, a Read and Eat board (since my books all have titles with food in them), a board on Business Marketing and more!

A few other things to know about Pinterest:

• Hashtags are not the most effective on Pinterest
• Build your brand here by engaging with the community-this means pinning your content, repinning others, liking and commenting.

When working on this platform, keep the following in mind:

Keep a sense of balance with the content of your boards- 40% of your boards should be motivational and inspiring, 40% should be instructional and educational, and only 20% should be directly about your brand.

My name is Maria Dismondy. I am a children’s book author who also founded the publishing company, Cardinal Rule Press.

Finding ways to market my messages is a passion of mine. I want to help you gain greater recognition of your brand, to generate new readers and improve your sales. Why? Because I love to GIVE and CONNECT and I truly believe we are all in this together!

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