Pinterest may not immediately come to mind as a way to boost your freelance business. I know I personally used to think it was simply a place for people to design dream houses, look at clothing and create a board for weddings.
Despite my biases, I began to experiment with Pinterest when I heard other freelancers singing it’s praises at the Financial Blogger Conference. With just the small amount of time I spent playing with it, I’ve come to realize there is some major ROI for freelancers using Pinterest.
Boost your brand.
I know I’m beating a dead horse here but it’s with good reason. If you want to be a successful freelancer you must build your own brand. Pinterest is just a visual way of doing so.
I like to equate marketing to catering to different types of learners in the world. When I worked for Berlitz as an English teacher, I learned about the different ways people learn new information. It’s something I’ve brought into my marketing because I think it’s so relevant. People digest information in different ways, and it’s up to us to educate them about our brands.
Okay, so what does this have to do with Pinterest? At the end of the day, building your own brand with a marketing strategy is a way of educating people about the work you do. Pinterest is where you find your visual learners. Essentially, it’s a just a different form of communicating to your audience. More specifically, you reach people who perhaps aren’t into podcasts or reading because it’s not the best way for them to digest information.
Boost the traffic to your own blog.
The cool thing about Pinterest is that you can reap the rewards of a few hours worth of work. For example, people can find and re-pin content you uploaded a year ago and bring new traffic to your site.
This is something I’m beginning to see in my Google Analytics. Images I posted with respective blog posts have been gaining more traction as time goes on. The more they get pinned, the more traffic comes to my own website. The more traffic comes to my own website, the more clients I get. This is far better than sending out a tweet that gets lost in less than a minute..
How-to articles and blogs are some of the most popular pins on Pinterest. People are actually searching for solutions to their problems on this social media platform, and it’s up to you to take advantage of this.
You can do this by creating keyword rich titles and descriptions. Basically, you want to create content based on what people are searching for – just like you would with Google!
Create a Portfolio Board
Pinterest is an awesome way to create a visual portfolio of your work. It also helps you stay incredibly organized.
First, you can use a board to showcase your published work with relevant images. This can be an easy link you send to prospects who are looking for a clips or examples of your work.
Second, because of the very nature of Pinterest, the Pins on this board can get re-pinned as time goes on – meaning you get eyeballs from potential new clients without having to lift a finger. Just make sure you let people know you’re available for hire when writing the description.
Final Thoughts
At first glance, Pinterest may not seem like an ideal way for freelancers to increase business. I certainly didn’t think so. The reality is that by building your personal brand, boosting traffic and creating a portfolio board you could easily reach people in your target market that may have otherwise not seen your work.
