As business owners, we understand that the best storytelling lets customers use their imagination to insert their lives into our story. Pinterest, the 4th most popular social site, is a natural fit for social storytelling and customer imagination.

Pinterest users flock to the site because it allows them to indulge in two things humans love to indulge in (besides ice cream) – discovery and inspiration. These two responses drive the shopping consumer to engage with your products/services and then your company itself. This is how you motivate customers to take a real interest in learning more about you, what you do and why you do it.

If your business story creates ongoing discovery and inspiration and also makes room for the customer’s imagination, then you’ll have a customer who shares your stories with enthusiasm to all of her connections. That’s how social sharing and social storytelling come together perfectly on Pinterest. It’s ideal for communicating in a way that never feels like advertising.

It’s also important to understand that the key to Pinterest success is reciprocity. Like, share and Pin the Pins of other people to your boards. Don’t just focus on pinning your own stuff. Take a real interest in what other Pinners are creating. Mix it up. Pinterest is not a one-way street. It’s all about social collaboration. And you might find yourself inspired to create new Pins based upon the Pins you like.

Also, keep in mind that Pinners are using the search function on Pinterest to find content. They aren’t simply scrolling through their Feed. So when you’re creating your power pins, make good use of searchable keywords. People will have an easier time finding, pinning and sharing your content. It also helps to design your pins with a certain look and feel so that people learn to recognize your Pins in their feed just by your “style”.

So, what are the most powerful types of Pins to put on your Pinterest Boards? Here are our top 5 in no particular order.

Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 1.53.34 PMTutorials – Pinners love do-it-yourself pins. They want to know how to hack their lives with tips and tricks for doing something without having to spend a ton of money. They also like being creative and making stuff. Make-up and fashion tutorials are popular, so are home decorating, cooking, gardening, and exercise pins. And if you offer a service rather than a product, what better way to showcase your knowledge than by providing some how-to tutorials which will inspire Pinners to explore all of your service offerings? You can set up a DIY Pin as a series of images with the steps overlaid on each image as text or a link to a more involved blog post where the steps are written out.

A note about instructions: Make them easy to understand. Break things down into simple steps and short paragraphs. Too much text can be overwhelming and make people think a task is more complicated than it actually is. Think of a writing a tutorial the way you would write out a  recipe for baking a cake. Video is also a great medium to use in DIY tutorial Pins. A lot of people often learn best by  watching someone else do something first. So choose the visual medium that you’re most comfortable with and go for it.

 Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 1.46.05 PMFood – Following on the recipe idea, Food Pins are extremely popular on Pinterest. We live in a world where everyone has an inner Foodie who loves to look at beautiful photos of food they want to eat and then click on those photos to find the recipe for how to make that delicious meal. Holiday recipes, Food trends are attention-getters: recipes for crock-pot spareribs, salted caramel drizzled cheesecake and craft cocktails all get lots of rePins right alongside Healthy Eating Pins. The key to great Food Pins is paying attention to your photography – Pin images (or videos) that really showcase the deliciousness of the food item. Quality over quantity is what gets Pinners to “Follow” your Boards and rePin your Pins.

Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 1.41.38 PM Quotes – Some of the most popular pins are quotes that inspire, motivate or simply resonate with Pinners. A captivating image that echoes a quote is always a good choice. And don’t think you have to use famous quotes. Mix it up. Maybe you have quotes from your business storytelling that can be you can use. Pin them! Mix them in with the more popular quotes you love. Quote Pins really give you the opportunity to let the values of your business story shine and be shared.

Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 1.47.55 PMFashion – This is a big one. For men and women alike. Clothes are part and parcel of everyone’s lifestyle. Your customer tells her story by the clothing choices she makes. You should want to be a part of that story. So if you sell clothing or accessories, use images that really highlight your products. A useful Pin you can create is a checklist of seasonal staples that every person should have in their wardrobe, seasonal staples that you just happen to offer. And yes, it really goes without saying that any fashion related to weddings should be showcased on Pinterest. Pinners create entire boards to showcase the fashion they love and want to wear and then they share those Pins with their friends and followers.

Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 1.51.48 PMLifestyle – Pinterest is all about dreaming and exploring and being inspired. The cool thing is that anyone can click on a Pin, go to the item they fall in love with and find an opportunity to try it or buy it. If someone wants a pair of new kicks, or a hand-knitted scarf, a recipe for banana-nut-raisin bread or new paint for their dining-room, they can find it all on Pinterest. If your customer wants to create a lifestyle that is urban-chic, country- cool, all-organic, vegetarian, rock-climbing, international jet-setting or backyard garden partying…you can help them create that lifestyle right from your Pinterest boards.

So as you get busy creating your 5 Power Pins for Pinterest, keep the following advice in mind:

  • Focus on the quality of your images and video.
  • Make instructions easy to follow.
  • Design a certain “style” for your Pins to make them recognizable.
  • Follow other Pinner’s Boards and share their Pins to increase engagement with your own.
  • Try to create Pins that let other Pinners use their imagination to fit your product or service into their lifestyles.

There’s an entire audience of folks on Pinterest, searching for the information and inspiration that your business story has to tell. Start Pinning.