As a Pinterest Expert and Online Course Creator, I always take great care about my students. This is one of the reasons why I have the privilege to see lots of Pinterest Accounts.
What surprises me, again and again, is how many basic steps are simply ignored by some Artists.
One of the biggest mistakes (besides missing or bad descriptions): using a personal account for a business. And yes, selling art is a business.
Do you find it hard to decide if you should use a business account to promote your art?
Legalese
The thing is: In reality, there is no choice. You are legally obliged to use one:
“If you want to use Pinterest for commercial purposes you must create a business account and agree to our Business Terms of Service.”
Source: Pinterest Terms of Service
Good news: Business accounts are free, and they have many advantages. Here are the things you can only do with a business account:
Claim your website
It is highly recommended to claim your website, blog, or shop. You will gain trust with your customers and (in complete contrast to Facebook) your pins can get more engagement (views, saves, clicks)!
Access to Pinterest Analytics
Believe me, you want to have this! Analytics is a powerful tool that will help you understand what works for you.
Video Pins
Video content is hot right now. If you have a business account, you can upload video Pins directly to Pinterest.
Shop the Look
Shop the Look tagging allows you to tag Pins from your claimed website with product links! What does that mean? If you ever used Pinterest not only to sell your art but as a regular pinner, you might have noticed these pins with white dots on them. Look:
When someone taps on the shopping bag in the lower-left corner, they can see which items in this pin are for sale. Every one of the white dots does offer one or more links to products. What a great way for us artists to present and sell our art! The click-through rates for Shop the Look Pins are higher than for most other types of Pins, especially on mobile.
By the way, I don’t get tired of mentioning the fact that Pinterest traffic is more than 80% mobile…
Carousel Pins
I’m sure you guessed it: yes, you need a business account to create them. Carousels are a great way to tell stories, users can swipe through up to five images (Pinterest calls them cards), each image can lead to a different destination.
There you have it, 6 reasons why you want (and need) to have a business account!
Learn more
Want to learn all things Pinterest in an easy to understand way? My online course How to sell more Art with Pinterest will teach you how to find more buyers for your Art.
The first lessons are free to read, just register for the Free Trial.
Matthias, I’m very interested in learning more, but am confused as to what website is claimed. Is it the pixels site we have on FAA, or a site on Pinterest itself? Thanks so much! – Adan
ps – saw your blog post link not the blog thread on FAA 😊
Hi Adan, we can claim the Pixels Premium Website (Artist Website). Example? Okay, this would be mine: https://matthias-hauser.pixels.com
Hope this helps! 🙂
Ahhh, I understand now, thanks! (Just saw your reply; not sure I got an email alert, but then I’m also “way” behind catching up on msgs etc, lol! 😊
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We are currently in the thick of learning Pinterest for promoting our blog. Great post! 🙂