Pinterest is What's Poppin'!
When you plan a party are you using Pinterest for inspiration? Do you pin things you want to buy? What do you pin? Why do you Pin It?
Pinterest helps me feel organized. I'm able to research all my ideas and put them in one place. Those pictures and ideas give me inspiration. More than half of the things in my boards are things that link to items I can buy. Invitations, decorations, clothes, candy and yes even desserts. Pinterest is a wonderful tool for exposure and you can reach actual clients through it.
I added my business to Pinterest about 2-3 years ago. When I did, Facebook was the only place to find evidence of my cake pop business. I had an email address, a PayPal account and Facebook. Those were the good ol' days of Facebook, when the people who liked your page always saw what you posted. Now we have to pay to promote things our on page in order for the people who like it to see it. After Facebook changed, I started to feel it business wise. Not as much as I thought I would, but I did start noticing my calendar wasn't filling as quickly and some weeks I only had 1 or 2 orders. I had to expand into using Instagram more seriously and got a website (a big asset that we will discuss in future post). But back to Pinterest, I was pinning things to my boards mainly for fun and to show off back then, but I soon discovered it could also be a free way to advertise.
I have taken many orders from people who have found me on Pinterest. I've had people drive up to 5 hours away to pick up cake pops they saw on Pinterest. I just completed an order for a beautiful Mother of the Bride who drove from Tampa which is about 4 hours away from Jacksonville. She stayed over night in a nearby city, picked up her order the next day, and drove home. They were such a huge success that she sent me a glowing email that made my year!
From my experience, all the orders that have come from Pinterest have been of at least $250. Of course, I've had some people find me that wanted me to ship. Unfortunately, under the Florida Cottage Food law, you can't ship if you are a home baker so I had to turn those down. However, if you can ship, are shipping and aren't using Pinterest shame on you! Pinterest is a FREE way to advertise your work!
If you aren't pinning your best work to Pinterest let me be the first to tell you, someone else already is. You may have a Pinterest presence and not even know it! Worse, you may have a Pinterest presence, inspiring thousands of people and getting no credit or benefits from it. Last year I created some fabulous Kate Spade themed cake pops. You may have seen them. White with a black stripe, pink flower with a gold middle on cute white with black polka dot straws. They were accompanied by some white cake pops that had black and gold dots on black and white striped straws. They were very popular, in fact some of my most popular. I didn't pin them. A few months ago I'm cruising through Pinterest pinning some things for my son's party when I come across my picture of them. I click them and discovered they had been pinned. 8.6 THOUSAND times! Yes I said 8.6 THOUSAND. I clicked the link and prayed it lead back to me. It did not! It lead to a picture, that's it. It did have my signature and Facebook page on the picture but still, every time someone clicked that picture they could have been sent directly to me. I missed out on exposure. Don't let that be you. I immediately added them to pinterest. Remember that recent pinterest order I mentioned? That was from these cake pops that, now, lead back to me. There is still that orgial pin that has been pinned 8.6k times but at least this time I benefitted from it. Sometimes we don't realize what will be best recieved. Often the work I like the least is the most popular and the work I like the best isn't as popular. Do yourself a favor, always self promote and use Pinterest. You should benefit from you work. Whether that's an order or a like on your social media pages
Our job is very visual. Clients want cake pops because of how they look with their celebrations. The first impression is with sight. Pictures are the crux of our business. That's why it's important to take good, bright, clean pictures (we'll discuss this in future post). Pinterest is a place where people go to specifically look at pictures. They can collect those pictures and save them for later. You are reaching so many people with this one social media site.
If your work is primarily on Facebook or if just want people to be lead back to your Facebook page listen up. You can't pin from Facebook directly to Pinterest. However, there is a way around that. Below are the instructions to create pins that lead back to your Facebook page. These instructions can also help you discover how to pin from Instagram and webpages.
*note this need to be done from a computer.
Here is my Pinterest. I have it set up like a business and hide boards that are personal. That way I can still have personal boards but put forth a professional appearance. I have some fun things in there like cake pop supplies, different companies. I have also pinned some of my favorite and most ordered boxes from BRP Box Shop so I can always remember what to order and can share my favorite boxes with other poppers.
1.) Go to your Facebook page. Then click on the picture you want to pin. Right click on the picture and select open image in new tab/window.Do not close this window we will use it later.
2.) When it opens in a new tab/window copy the link by selecting the entire address, right clicking and hitting copy.
3.) In a new tab/window open your Pinterest and go to your board (by clicking the little person)
4.) Click on the board you want to put the Pin into, in this case Cake Pops, and click Save a Pin.
5.) Click The web
6.) Paste the link in the box. After the link is pasted (and not highlighted) hit the space bar. Putting a space at the end of the link will turn the next button red. Push Next
7.) Choose an image to create the pin. Obviously you'll want to choose your picture.
8.) Pick a board to put it in. I chose cake pops. You can also create a board from here.
You have officially pinned your picture! However, when you click on the picture it will just lead back to the picture on the web. It will not lead back to your Facebook. To link it back to your Facebook follow these next steps:
1.) After you've pinned it select see it now from the pop up or go to your board and click on it.
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2.) Switch back to the Facebook tab/window that has your picture open. Cop the link in the address bar.
3.) Switch back to the Pinterest. tab/window. Select Edit. Delete the link in the website section and paste the link you copied from your Facebook page. You can also fill out the description and location if you want. Remember your pins our found according to description. I put website in the description as well. Save.
You're done! When you are done you will see saved from Facebook.com under the picture. To ensure it worked properly just click the picture. It should take you straight to your Facebook picture and Facebook page. Now instead of a picture leading to no where you lead them straight to you!
