Pinterest is an influential social media marketing tool that can help entrepreneurs grow their businesses quickly. Now with over 70 million users and some 500,000 business pages, this online scrapbooking platform is an amazing instrument that can help you put your brand out there and drive traffic to your website.

To grow your followers, you should share interesting, quality images that people would love to look at. After all, Pinterest is visual platform. But with millions of users doing (or trying to do) just that, how do you grab your readers’ attention? Here are other techniques to earn more followers.

If you want to show users you’re an established source worthy to be followed, you should verify your website.
 
Verify your account in 3 simple steps:
1. On your profile, go to Menu and select Settings.
2. Enter your website URL then click Verify Website
3. Follow the instructions and complete the process

Once verified, your account will have a red checkmark next to it and will be enlisted as an official Pinterest business page, boosting your online visibility and allowing users to find your business more quickly.

You’ll also gain access to the platform's analytics, which will provide you with information regarding the type of content people are pinning from your website, what your audience interests are, your highest repins, and other metrics.

Most people prefer to follow boards on topics that interest them, and not actually the whole account of the person who created the board.
 
For example, Caitlin Cawley’s Dresses & Skirts board has around 1.5 million followers, a very huge part of her total 1.7 million followers.


 
So instead of promoting your entire Pinterest profile, push your most popular boards to gain more followers. Discover which boards are the most successful or have the most followers, and promote them heavily.

For consumer-focused businesses, it’s best to include price tags on your pins. Why? Pinners aren’t only on the site to find inspiration, they’re also there to shop. Research reveals that pins with price tags get 36 percent more likes than those without.

With millions of users pinning dozens of pins by the hour, it’s hard to get your pins show up on the search results. But don’t worry, Pinterest’s search analytics are far less complicated than those of search engines.
 
When you upload original content, be sure to optimise your pins. Use keywords as part of the image’s file name. Rather than keeping the generic “IMG_0117_183,” change it to reflect what you are trying to sell, like “Guide_to_Social_Media_Outsourcing.jpg.”

Aside from that, you should also include keywords in your board name, board description, and image description. Style Me Pretty does a good job of adding strong keywords to their pin descriptions.

Don’t forget the hashtags, too. Hashtags will help you reach more people. These simple SEO techniques will help users see your pins easily. The following example from Homey Oh My! shows #DIY and #halloween:

It’s not enough to pin your own images and hope other users will repin. You must also actively engage and repin others’ content when you think they’re really great. In fact, around 80 percent of content on Pinterest are repins.

To add a personal touch, tag the original pinner in the description section. Just add the @ symbol in front of their name. It’s flattering to know that your pins are used by others, right?
 
You can also follow, comment and link to others’ pins. Instead of the generic “Great pin!” why not study the image and give a more insightful comment? By doing this, you’re not just gaining followers, you’re also building your reputation.

The best time to pin is when your audience is on Pinterest. Case studies reveal that the best times to pin are between 2PM to 4PM and 8PM to 1AM, and, according to data from Bit.ly, Saturday mornings. The worst time to pin is 5PM to 7PM.

Studies like these can serve as an effective guide for your Pinterest strategy but it is good to remember that every business is unique.. Track how many followers you have in a day and what time do you usually have the most likes.

Ever wonder what everyone’s doing to get tons of traffic from Pinterest? The most successful pins combine great images with great content. Here are some techniques to increase traffic to your website or blog.

Installing a “Pin It” button on your blog images and posts is an effective way to get readers pin and share your content easily.  When they share your content on Pinterest, their friends and followers are more likely to read it too.

Adding a “Pin It” button is free and really easy to set up. Go to this page and complete the information. You need to choose the type of Pin it button you want, submit your URL, paste your image file, and build your button. You then need to paste the code onto your website.

As a business entity, you can definitely get more from Pinterest when using Rich Pins. The difference between a Rich pin and a regular pin is that the previous shows more data. The 5 types of Rich pins include movie, recipe, article, product and place pins.
 
When an article pin is pinned, they automatically show extra details such as headline, author, story summary and link. Set your settings to include a byline image and logo.
 
Add your company name to your images.
Another way to gain traffic to your website is by placing text on images - preferably, your company name or URL. Aside from protecting your images, this gives users an easier way to identify your business or brand. Take a look at this pin from The Frugal Girls and see how they added their URL on the image:

To help Pinners find your blog posts, or even follow your blog board, create a board specifically for your blog articles. Name your blog board the same as your blog page title. Adding keywords (see above) also makes it easy to search.

Prominent social media blogger Jeff Bullas organises his blog posts into easy-to-search boards.

 
You can also categorise your blog board, depending on type:

● Tutorial boards - Pinterest is the go-to site for DIYs and tutorials. Putting all your tutorial posts in one board can guarantee getting many of your posts read.
● Blog author boards - When you put a face behind your business or blog posts, you’ll have better relationships and more engaging followers. Showcase your blog authors in a fun and personable pin board.
● Contest boards - Contests are a great way to drive traffic to your blog. Run contests on your blog, and then pin it to your contest board on Pinterest. Make sure that your content is engaging and interactive.

Using the tips above can certainly help you gain business followers on Pinterest. However, it could take some time, so remember to be patient!

What I mentioned were only a few of the many techniques entrepreneurs use. What about you? What tips and tricks can you share on growing your business followers? We'd love to hear them!