Pinterest Rich Pins for your Blog Pages or Online Store

Let’s discuss what Pinterest Rich Pins are and why you should be using them.

Pinterest is a social network that allows users to share, and discover interests by posting or “pinning” images to their own or another user’s board. These images are clickable objects that link back to a webpage containing the Pinterest image.

Pinterest users can create boards to plan upcoming trips and pin things they’d like to do on their trip such as sights they’d like to see, places to eat or activities they’d like to do. Or a board may be created for an upcoming party, pinning concepts for table decorations, venues, activities or catering ideas.

Pinterest is all about the visuals and the content linked to those visuals and that’s why brands that have visual products or online stores should be taking advantage of this platform.

If your market is mainly female, Pinterest should be on your radar, as 80 per cent of Pinterest users are women between the ages of 25 and 44. And, if your products or services are something that can be visually represented, such as a clothing, or food, then Pinterest would also be a perfect fit for your brand.

If you’ve now determined Pinterest is the right platform for your company it’s time to dig deeper, and that’s where Rich Pins come in.

Rich Pins, are pins that include more information than a regular pin. There are six different types of Pinterest Rich Pins.

  • App Pins: allow Pinners to install your app without leaving Pinterest.
  • Place Pins: display information about a location: map, address and phone number.
  • Article Pins: include a heading, author and story description, which help pinners find and save stories that are relevant to their boards.
  • Product Pins: are useful to businesses that are running eCommerce sites, they make it easy for users to buy products. They include price, availability and direct links to purchase a product.
  • Recipe Pins: include ingredients and cooking times.
  • Movie Pins: include ratings, cast members and reviews.

The information displayed on Rich Pins is obtained by pulling data directly from the linked pins website. Therefore, when a change is made on the linked website such as a price change, that new price is automatically reflected on the Rich Pin.

Rich Pins can also help to increase online sales or increase site traffic, in turn exposing your products to new consumers who may also share the pinned product on another social network.

In order to display Pinterest Rich Pins, meta data needs to be added to the backend of your website. Once the correct data has been added, your site then needs to be validated by Pinterest. Validation usually takes a day to complete.

Happy pinning.

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Cathy Earle

Cathy Earle is a WordPress Web Developer and Internet Consultant. She has been developing websites and consulting clients in Australia and North America for over 15 years. Her degree in Public Relations and Management Communication, in addition to a 12 year career as owner of an independent publishing company, have proven beneficial to her work today — navigating the vast world of the internet and online marketing.