Pinterest for Business Book by Karen Leland

I just bought a very helpful new book about Pinterest! Karen Leland  is the bestselling author of 8 business books including the recently released Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest For Business, which can be purchased at Amazon. She is the president of Sterling Marketing Group, where she works with small businesses and Fortune 500 on building stronger personal and team brands. She writes the Modern Marketing Blog. 

Why is a teacher like me writing about this book? Teachers are learning so much from Pinterest, as I have previously written.  On Pinterest we are benefiting from really seeing how others teach, while gathering the best ideas possible for our own classrooms.  Now teachers are collaborating and sharing their best ideas, not just within schools or districts, but globally.  School districts, teachers, parents, and students are all benefiting.

After all, Pinterest is a social bulletin board site. It’s the fastest growing social media site in history, the third-largest network after Facebook and Twitter.  Teachers love bulletin boards, and Pinterest is the world’s hugest one!  I wonder if anyone has added it to the Guinness Book of World Records as such?

The most recent studies indicate 72 percent of Pinterest users are female, and 66 percent of those are age 35 or older, and the average amount of time visitors spend on the Pinterest site is an hour.  I would think this is similar to stats for elementary teachers who check online for new lessons and materials while writing their weekly lesson plans.  Part of the book is about using Pinterest for bookmarking, and applies to classroom teachers who want the latest and nicest teaching ideas.  The part of the book about making Pinterest part of your social media mix is for teacher bloggers.  An example mentioned is of a Pinterest page with boards for teachers and students, by Sharon of the Animal Crackers and Apple Juice blog. Another example is the learning with literature collaborative board by Julie of Creekside Learning.

Why should teacher bloggers read this book?  We have become entrepreneurs, especially if we sell online at  marketplace stores like Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook.  We certainly didn’t go to business school, but the number of blogger teachers who are selling lessons is growing by leaps and bounds.  Many teachers began selling lessons online after hearing about the success of Deanna Jump who has earned over a million dollars on TpT !  Also, 29 other teachers have earned more than $100,000 on that site. Teachers who write curriculum should start learning about business strategies.  Blogging and using social media sites are part of the selling success equation.  We need to educate ourselves in business, and quickly.  This book is the most detailed one I have read about using Pinterest. It was a new experience for me to see Pinterest from a business, non-teaching viewpoint.  I tend to view everything with teacher eyes.

I learned so much about Pinterest from this book.  I can’t give too much of a spoiler, but I had never considered the gifts tab at the top of the page.  Did you know, if sellers of online lessons add a price to their pin, the product appears on the correctly priced gifts page?  That gives twice the exposure for one pin.  I had no idea!

Pinterest boards have been used as a means of interviewing and landing jobs, as some people upload videos of themselves answering typical questions asked of job candidates.  I hadn’t noticed that, either.  I might not do that myself, but now I know and can share that information if someone is looking for a job.

I didn’t realize that when I added YouTube videos, the reason the pins may have not always worked is that the single link line is considered spam, and the longer link will be accepted as valid.  I had no idea about that.  I just thought sometimes the site worked and sometimes not.  I thought it was Pinterest, not me.  Did you know you can fix a photo after it appears on Pinterest?  The author gives some information about this issue.  I run into photos from my blog on the site I want to fix, so I’m going to have to try this idea.

Karen Leland has created a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide about turning Pinterest into a valuable source of prospects, promotion and profits.  Reading this book made me aware of the need to establish goals for my business and to understand how Pinterest can help.  I learned many new helpful strategies.  I couldn’t just read this book straight through, as I  had to look at the many online Pinterest links for examples of what the author was discussing.  It was so helpful to immediately see visual examples.

“Great business brands are about telling compelling, congruent stories, and Pinterest is at its core about storytelling in pictures,” says Leland. “Pinterest has tapped into this visceral love of visuals . . . and no business can afford to miss the boat on bringing what they offer beyond words and into images.”

About Ultimate Pinterest Guide for Business

“The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business” is designed to help businesses use Pinterest to its maximum potential. ” The book uses step-by-step how-to, sidebars, examples, case studies, expert interviews and tip sheets to show how from setup to strategy, to use Pinterest for promotional, branding and marketing objectives. This book includes a glossary of terms, step by step instructions for the entire site, tips for adding pins and organizing boards, how to add people to collaborative boards, and information about keywords.  Leland explains how Pinterest can be used as an advantage for 14 types of businesses.  It is a an ultimate guide!

Leland stresses the collaborative nature of social media as opposed to the competitive model. Teachers naturally collaborate.  This book would help a teacher re-frame online activity as an entrepreneur by forming target markets and goals.  It really made me rethink my online activities.

About Karen Leland

Karen Leland is the best-selling author of nine business books and the President of
Sterling Marketing Group, where she works with entrepreneurs, small businesses and
Fortune 500 companies around the globe on building stronger personal and business
brands. Her clients have included AT&T, American Express, Marriott Hotels, Apple
Computer and Johnson & Johnson, among others.

She is a regular speaker for business groups and has spoken for the Young Presidents’
Organization, American Management Association and Direct Marketing Association,
among others. Karen is a frequent guest of the media and has been interviewed on
“The Today Show,” CNN, CNBC and “Oprah.”

She writes a regular branding and marketing column for Entrepreneur.com and has
been published in Woman’s Day, Self, The Los Angeles Times and others. Her latest
book is “Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business.”

I was given a draft copy of the book for this blog post, and also purchased the book.

Thank you for reading, Carolyn