Yesterday I talked about the basic pins every author should have on Pinterest to promote their book. Today I want to take one step backward and talk about the basic considerations for the setup of your Pinterest account.
If you are new to Pinterest or have never really set up your profile, let’s take a few minutes to work on that today. This is important because, just like any other social media site, when potential readers view your Pinterest account, they are getting a snapshot of you and your brand. The image your profile portrays should accurately reflect who you are and help sell your book rather than inhibit your sales by turning people off or distracting them from what brought them there in the first place.
My profile may not be the best example because I only use Pinterest for personal interests, not to promote a book (yet), but I am including the following images to show you how easy this is.
When logged in to Pinterest, there is a small pencil icon you click to upload a photo and edit your profile information:
When you click that, a popup box will appear and, as you can see below, there are very few boxes to work with:
You can enter your first and last name, upload a photo, modify your username (which I recommend be related to your name or the title of your book), enter a bio and your location. As you can see, my bio section currently clarifies that Pinterest is my “fun” place — “things I like to think about when I am not working.” However, you may want to include a sentence or two about you, your book and why people would want to follow you.
For example, if I wrote a book about gardening I might change my bio to something like, “As the author of Growing Vegetables, my pins are typically related to gardening, plants, vegetables and healthy cooking.”
Once you are happy with how your profile appears, you can link your Pinterest account with your other social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Gmail and Yahoo. You can do this by clicking on your name in the upper right hand corner and then selecting Settings. Linking your accounts will help your followers find you across the different platforms.
Then, if you haven’t already, set up a few Boards and begin pinning. Yesterday’s post contains a list of the basic pins you should include and this week we will discuss how to get more creative on Pinterest to promote your book.