HOW TO USE PINTEREST & INSTAGRAM TOGETHER TO MARKET YOUR CREATIVE SMALL BUSINESS
Growing your Instagram followers isn’t as easy as it used to be. But did you know one of the best ways to expand your Instagram audience is with Pinterest?
We will show you how you can use Pinterest and Instagram together to grow your audience and market your creative small business.
Pinterest & Instagram are visual platforms
Pinterest and Instagram are two of the most visual platforms out there and work well for creative businesses and independent brands. They are perfect for showcasing your products or services and discovering a community that will buy them. When used together, they can help you expand both the reach of your business and new audiences along with potential new followers.
Unlike Instagram, Pinterest is visual search engine. When you click directly on a Pin of your product or service you will be sent to the product page or blog post thereby learning more about and ultimately purchasing the product!
The limitations of Instagram
Instagram is the master of creative visuals, using it will inspire potential customers to engage and learn more about you and your business story. However, annoyingly people can’t click on a link directly from an Instagram post, except from tagged products. As a result it will take time and care to get to the point where your perfect customer discovers your website.
It can take hours to create the perfect shot or video and edit your content to make it stand out on Instagram. You then have an instant to post your image and repeatedly comment to encourage engagement. By tomorrow it’s gone into the lost world of forgotten Instagram posts. This can be pretty disheartening after all that hard work!
How Pinterest can give your Instagram posts longevity
Don’t despair because this is where Pinterest comes in. Once on Pinterest the life of your Instagram post is extended and becomes evergreen, being shared and saved onto other peoples boards to be appreciated and admired again and again.
Unlike Instagram, Pinterest isn’t designed to show only the most recently published content. This means posts from 6 months ago and much longer can still drive significant traffic to your website, online shop or Instagram account. Remember it’s important to think of Pinterest more like a visual search engine full of beautiful, themed content, rather than a social media platform.
TOP TIP: Claim your Instagram account on Pinterest.
How to claim your Instagram account on Pinterest
Did you know that you can now claim your Instagram account on Pinterest? This is a fantastic new Pinterest update and we will show you how.
Here is a step by step guide on how to claim your Instagram account on Pinterest:
-> Log in to your Pinterest account -> Go to Settings -> Claimed accounts -> Go to your Instagram section -> Click on ‘Claim’
Make sure you’re logged into your Instagram account and you have a Pinterest business account.
See if your Instagram account is claimed by looking at your Pinterest account profile. When viewers click the link (on your desktop) they will go straight to your Instagram account.
Why should you claim your Instagram account on Pinterest?
If you’re just getting started on Pinterest but you have an established presence on Instagram, claim your Instagram account to build authority and credibility on Pinterest.
There are more reasons why linking your Instagram account to your Pinterest profile is beneficial:
- If anyone shares your Instagram content on Pinterest, it will be attributed to you. A link to your Pinterest profile and a follow button will appear alongside any Pins with your content.
- Track the performance of all Pins featuring your content. You can see data and analytics, for example Pin Engagements, Outbound Clicks and Saves.
- Cross-post instantly from Instagram to Pinterest. When you set up auto-publishing, your future Instagram posts will be turned into Pins automatically.
How to set up auto-publishing from Instagram
Once you claimed your Instagram account you then have the option to cross-post Instagram posts to your Pinterest account instantly, by setting up auto-publishing. Set up this feature to turn your Instagram posts into Pins automatically. Simply select the board (or create a new one) you would like your future Instagram posts published to. Choose whether you want to include your Instagram posts from the last 90 days. Then click ‘Allow’.
Good to know:
- When an Instagram post has multiple images, all images will be imported as separate Pins.
- Your Instagram posts will always auto-publish to the same Pinterest board.
- At present, videos can only be imported if you have a Pinterest business account and live in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom or Australia.
- If your Instagram posts feature music you don’t have permission to use on Pinterest, it will be muted. That might affect any video voice overs.
Reasons why you might like to consider auto-publishing or not
The auto-publishing feature is optional but there are reasons why you might like to consider it or not:
- Your Instagram content is easily repurposed to Pinterest without much modification. This means your image/video and caption make sense once they have been turned into a Pin automatically. If they don’t make sense there is the option to edit your auto-published Pin to modify your Pin title and description. Don’t forget to include relevant keywords.
- Your Pins make sense to be posted to the same board in Pinterest. If you post about different subjects, your Pins should be posted to the most relevant board first, which might be different to your auto-publishing board. Then you have to consider changing the board by editing your Pin after it has been auto-published to Pinterest.
- Any product tagging done on Instagram isn’t automatically done on Pinterest. You’ll have to tag your Products on Pinterest separately to make your Pins shoppable.
Use Pinterest to search for content ideas for your Instagram account
Pinterest is one of the best places to discover new ideas. Search on Pinterest, explore Pinterest trends or follow Pinterest boards you love, to give you ideas for inspiring new ways to create posts for your Instagram feed.
TOP TIPS to grow your audience by using Instagram and Pinterest together
- Turn your Instagram posts into evergreen content by saving them to your Pinterest account.
- Claim your Instagram account on Pinterest.
- Add relevant keywords to your Pin titles and Pin descriptions.
- Save your Pins to your most relevant Pinterest boards first.
- Create Pins by repurposing your Instagram photo and video content.
- Use a time-saving scheduling tool like Tailwind* to publish your Pinterest and Instagram content.
- Use Pinterest to search for content ideas and inspiration.
*This is an affiliate link, which means we may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you upgrade to a paid plan.
HOW TO SHARE YOUR PINTEREST BOARDS
Have you tried the new board-sharing feature yet? Pinterest has released a fresh way of sharing your Pinterest content on social media and beyond. Easily download video clips of your individual Pinterest boards and share them to your IG stories or other platforms. We love this new feature! Find out more in our ‘Latest Pinterest updates and features to grow your business’.
SAVE FOR LATER
Pinterest and Instagram are two of the most visual platforms in your marketing toolbox. Use them together to increase your reach, sales and build stronger connections with your online community.
More Pinterest Help
Check out our Pinterest For Business Online Course, One-To-One Pinterest Sessions, Pinterest Account Audit, Pinterest Management and Free Recourses that show you why Pinterest works and how to implement an effective strategy.
“I’ve completed the course and found it super useful, and already I’ve more than doubled my monthly unique viewers and am seeing much more traffic to my website! yay!”
” This online course was refreshingly achievable and incredibly helpful for getting a comprehensive jumpstart on Pinterest. If you have been meaning to get a handle on Pinterest this is a fantastic place to start. ”
“I highly recommend this online course to anyone looking to understand more about Pinterest and how it can help to market your small business. I’ve learnt so much on how to use Pinterest more strategically. It has really helped me focus on my brand!”
“I would recommend Curly Carrot to any small business, Georgie and Dörte share plenty of practical, achievable advice on how to maximise a potential audience on Pinterest through simple steps and personalised feedback.”
“I found the online Pinterest course so useful and I’m totally amazed that I’m starting to see results so quickly”
“I’ve just signed up to your course. Only two lessons in and I’m already making improvements to my Pinterest feed! Can’t wait to see the rest ? ”
“The Pinterest Workshop was delivered in a chilled out, collaborative setting. We were taught the technical ways of Pinterest in a very easy to understand way. I would highly recommend to anyone looking to get under the skin of this app which can offer such good returns on investment. .”
Although I actively embrace all forms of social media for myself and my clients, I have previously only ‘dabbled’ in Pinterest. It was after taking part in one of Dörte’s Pinterest coaching sessions that I truly began to find the love. Understanding that Pinterest is more of a search engine than a social media platform, and creating content that really works and drives traffic has been part of this journey.
“I loved the Pinterest Workshop. It was inspiring, motivating and also really impressive how such a huge subject was tackled so clearly and concisely.”
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