I recently attended an interactive marketing meetup this week where Cynthia Sanchez, a Pinterest expert, presented some tips on getting started on the popular platform. I found that Pinterest, which nearly tops Twitter and Facebook in popularity and usage, is not only valued for social media purposes but also SEO value, particularly in image searches and backlinks. Below are some tips I manage to collect from the meetup and hopefully this may prove useful as we continue to develop a Pinterest strategy for our hotels because of its ability to drive traffic back to the hotel websites. If you want to know more about Pinterest, check out Cynthia’s site at OhSoPinteresting.com.

• Short text can be easily repinned on Pinterest, keep it at a minimum of 500 characters.
• Google loves Pinterest, it enhances image search.
• Pinterest now has a business account, take advantage of it. It’s very easy to convert from a personal account.
• Keywords are important in Pinterest. It lets people know who you are and your interest.
• First thing to do after opening a Pinterest account, each board should have 5 pins to start.
• Use Google Keyword Tool to find relevant keywords.
• Don’t pin anything Flash based, it won’t work. GIFs won’t animate either.
• Images should be tall, colorful and at least 5k pixels tall and 85 pixels wide.
• Morguefile, Flickr, Google Images and Blue Vertigo are good image sources to pin.
• Picmonkey is a good photo editor. Online and free.
• Pin Alerts let you know who pinned you.
• Pin League and Curalate are good compliments to analytics. They measure influencers to your Pinterest.
• Repinly follows the latest trends.
• How To’s in Pinterest are very good. People go on Pinterest to find useful info.
• Hashtags are no longer clickable but Pinterest is still changing, may work again but you can still apply hashtags, just make them unique.

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