Pinterest is a great way to connect with your clients. How? Because most of them find their inspiration on Pinterest. Secondly, it’s a great way to showcase how you design and level up the design for future clients. Best of all, it helps people become aware of you. So how do you leverage Pinterest to work for your design business? Kate Ahl—the owner of Simple Pin Media—shares her best strategies in this episode of Wingnut Social!

What You’ll Hear On This Episode of Wingnut Social

[2:31] Wingnut Premium members only!
[4:16] Mini New Sesh: Pinterest Livestream Events
[6:54] How Kate Became an expert on Pinterest
[10:35] The importance of Pinterest for creators
[12:45] The difference between Instagram and Pinterest
[14:33] The pros and cons of Pinterest
[20:43] The verified merchant program
[25:21] What’s changing with story pins?
[27:18] Pinterest: the intellectual property dilemma
[30:35] Kate’s thoughts on Tailwind (and other apps)
[32:06] The What Up Wingnut! Round
[37:22] Blooper Reel!

Connect with Kate Ahl

Resources & People Mentioned

The difference between Instagram and Pinterest

According to Kate, the largest difference is that you go to Instagram to get caught up on the lives of people you follow. You have to follow them to see them in your feed. You’re looking to wander and get lost in people’s stories. People also rarely move off the platform.

But the intent on Pinterest is “How can you serve me?” or “I need a solution to my problem.” Someone is looking for inspiration and they don’t care about you. They’re not interested in a brand. They’re only interested in the goal. There’s no attachment to a brand name—just the design. Pinterest is all about search and discovery. Keep listening to hear Kate share some of the pros and cons of Pinterest.

The Verified Merchant Program

Pinterest is reintroducing the concept of shoppable pins with their “Verified Merchant Program.” They’ll show that it’s a shoppable pin but will link to your website for the actual sale. The challenge is that the user's habit isn’t to buy right away. But Pinterest is putting a lot of effort into shop integrations, videos, and story pins. They’re trying to find diversified ways to get people to the shopping point quickly.

Unfortunately, Kate points out that the Verified Merchant Program is still clunky, glitchy, and picky about who is approved. If people don’t want to go that route, Kate recommends using images and keywords that will lead to places you know they’ll sign up for a consultation. For now, Kate believes the shop tab is useful for people who sell things that are $100 or less. For higher-end products, Kate recommends leading people to a form that has a question that asks how they heard about you.

What is Kate’s overall opinion of the Verified Merchant Program? Listen to hear her unfiltered response!

What’s changing with story pins?

Story pins allow creators to showcase something they offer or the steps it takes to complete a project. They just changed the name to “Idea Pins'' because people were getting story pins confused with Instagram Stories. These pins stick around forever—no 24-hour shelf life—and people can save them to their boards. However, there is no link.

But it does encourage people to follow your profile where they can then click to your website. Kate has actually seen an increase in home page traffic when people use idea pins. It’s a great way to showcase a new design and even increase your follower account.

How does Pinterest handle intellectual property dilemmas? What are Kate’s thoughts on Tailwind (and other apps)? Listen for the whole conversation!

Want even more great content? Head on over to Wingnut Premium for the extended interview with Kate Ahl!

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