Ep 46 | Pinterest with Missy Campbell

Annie: Well, hey there, Leah.

Leah: Hey, Annie. How are you?

Annie: I'm great.

Leah: So we have Missy Campbell with us today, and she's an expert on Pinterest, which just really piques my interest because I have not dabbled in Pinterest much and I. I have for recipes recipe, but I haven't for much else, and so I'm so excited to see what we can be doing on Pinterest to really boost our business. So welcome, Missy.

Missy: Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Annie and Leah, I

Annie: we're happy to have you here because you guys won't know this about Missy, but she's like. The juice that makes this whole podcast go. She handles all the backend stuff for us. She does our social media, so it's just really fun to have her on the mic to talk about something that she's an expert in that. Yeah, like Leah, I really, I go onto Pinterest and my brain just kind of melts. I'm like, I don't even know what I'm looking at. So Missy, what got you into Pinterest? Why do you love Pinterest so much? I love Pinterest.

Missy: I too started using it just for my personal saving ev literally everything. And I started learning about how it can work for business, and I saw my numbers going up and up and up, and then I started offering services and I watched people just skyrocket and say, it's our number one traffic source. I thought, okay, well, I'm onto something. I guess I understand, you know, sort of the momentum you can get from Pinterest, and that's really what you can gain over time. One of my favorite things about it is that you can just start. And you don't have to be very consistent. It's not like social media, like if you don't post, no one sees you. You don't really have to do that. You just have to like set it up and exist and just by existing you gain visibility. That's like the best part of it.

Leah: That is the best part of it. 'cause I know our last talk when we had. Tiara, we were talking about social media, and I leave those talks feeling really revved up, but also like, oh, I gotta do a lot of things. So it's kind of relieving to know that like, okay, you could piece this together step by step.

Missy: It doesn't have to be as you know, every day, all the time thinking about it. That's awesome.

Leah: So when you think about the type of business, you kind of know what we do as. Lactation consultants and our audience as private practice lactation consultants. What would be the main reason that we would wanna be on Pinterest? Like what truly is the advantage for somebody who does like a service based type of business? What can we get out of Pinterest or what's the reason?

Missy: First off, I wanna thank all of you, Annie and Leah and everyone listening. I think what you all do is so, so important. And Annie and I actually met in person in Florida in February, and we were sitting on the couch together and I was telling her my lactation story about, so I have four kids and I breastfed all of them, and it's a total of one. So it's a total of 10 years. So. Yes. 120 months total of breastfeeding. That is amazing. So I super appreciate everything you guys do and I actually come from like a doula background and so I'm definitely, that's why I love working with Annie and Leah so much. 'cause I think this important. Yeah, so back to your question, I think you know the main reason. Why, like I'm a service based business too. So the main reason you would use it is for visibility, and I think with Pinterest you can really have some fun with it without it feeling too much like social media obligation. And still, um, get some traction from it. So I think that would be the biggest reason why I would say to use it because if you're already using and you already have a personal account, you could just get a little bit strategic and add a couple of boards and start curating some stuff around what you teach and what you do, and start to gain some visibility that way. So really you can just start right where you are without too much of a plan and start to. Become more visible. Yeah, so I think that would be the biggest reason why you would use it.

Annie: So I'm gonna have to jump in right there, because when you said that like you're gonna create boards, like I don't even understand what that means.

Missy: I love it. Yes. So in p Pinterest, the sort of the hierarchy is, you know, your account. And then there are boards who pick, think of it as like, like, um, what do you call it? Like a cork board, you know, like a bulletin board where you stick stuff up. So you create a board, it's like a folder, and then that's where pins go. So you pin stuff, which is the image that you see, that's the content. So you've got like folders with stuff inside and you're like. Curating this for other people. So if you can curate really well, people will want to follow you because you have all of the best information in one place on a topic. So that's really,

Annie: so I'm looking for other people's pins on topics that relate to what my business is doing.

Missy: Yes, absolutely. So you wanna think like 80% other people's content, 20% yours. You're really curating stuff and your content is what's gonna drive traffic to you, but you can get more people finding out about you in general by just curating really good stuff,

Leah: other people. Is there a way to address this, to help with local traffic? Because I know like a lot of us we do in media. For local versus, you know, worldwide interaction versus, you know, by the hashtags you use and things like that. Are there ways to get that more local engagement with Pinterest?

Missy: Yeah, there are. So Pinterest is essentially a search engine. It's not a social media, so think of it like Google, but for pictures and pretty stuff and organizing on bulletin boards. So you definitely, you wanna think, you know, if it's a search engine, then you think about. Your area, that would be words that you would want to include in your bio, in the descriptions on your board. So you're adding, you know, if you are in Orlando, Florida and you're a lactation consultant, you want that specifically, you want those phrases because somebody might be typing that exact phrase and, and even they could search it in Google. Pinterest account could pop up in top Google results 'cause Pinterest does pop up really well in Google results. So if you have your account optimized with that information, then people could find you that way.

Leah: See, I'm already doing it. I'm getting all excited. I'm like, I need to do all the things. I'm gonna go do my bio in just a minute. I'm like, I'm, I'm literally, you guys can't see me. I'm literally taking notes because I'm like, I'm gonna figure this Pinterest thing out because I use the heck out of it for recipes and I always think like. I could be on here doing something also helpful for my business, and now we're getting to hear all about it. What kind of things would you be pinning? Just like blog posts or like, what else do people pin?

Missy: I'm, I'm not quite sure. Yeah, yeah. You could pin products, you could pin like your favorite lactation either. Even either for other lactation consultants, like things they would want, like that would be a great one for Annie to do, or, you know, just information for moms with either toddlers, newborn babies, you know, thinking of ways that the person who would want to work with you would find you. So, yeah, it could be it. You just start curating stuff. So I would say, yeah, blog posts would be really good. I mean, if you have a blog or you're creating content, that would be obviously things that you would wanna pin, but even just other people's information that you think would be really helpful to your client. I mean, you could send your client to a Pinterest board and if you are like pinning a lot of things from like local places that's going to bring that like. Leah was asking about, is this good for local businesses? That's gonna be ways for people. If people search any of those businesses, your board will pop up and then people, then your account will become visible to them. It's a really powerful tool. You think of it as like Google, but you don't need to know like Google Analytics. You know, you just have to, I would say, you know, getting started, it's really simple. I probably, everybody listening has a Pinterest account. I'm assuming, you know, 90% at least. What I would say is just switch it to a business account, like just log into your personal account, switch it to business, and it looks a little bit prettier. It's still totally free, and then you're gonna get that more. You'll get analytics, it'll just look a little bit nicer. It does change the look of it like Instagram business and regular doesn't change the look, but Pinterest does change the look a little bit and it does look a little bit more professional. So that's all I would say is just go in change to a business account, clean up your bio and really think about, you know, what words of people search. If they're gonna look for me. Type that in your bio and then start even just two or three boards with some things that you think would be helpful, that would be the best place to start.

Annie: How much. Time per week or per day. Is it valuable to spend on your Pinterest account? I

Missy: would say like come up with a plan of, you know, like usually in the beginning you get excited about something. I would say, you know, decide to spend a couple of hours at first like making a plan about. Two or three boards that you're gonna have, what are you going to call them? What's the purpose of them? The more specific, the better. Because if somebody searches, you know, what things do I need as a lactation consultant? What would you call that? Like tools. I'm not sure what phrases specifically you would use, but you would wanna name your board that so that if someone searches for that, they'll find it.

Annie: And do you, okay, I'm gonna, I have a two part question. So the first is okay from the. Content generation side. So I'm making content, I'm writing blog posts, or what kind of content performs the best on Pinterest? I'm actually gonna give you three, a three part question. You can answer it in any order. What kind of content performs the best on Pinterest? Do I need to create special graphics that are different than the ones that I'm creating, like for my blog and for Instagram and Facebook? And are there paid advertising options on Pinterest that I should know about for my own content?

Missy: Yeah, those are great questions. So yes, what content is best? This is what I would say, like in general, everybody is on Pinterest. There's really only a small niche of people that I would say are not on Pinterest, and that would be corporate people. Like if your audience is corporate. I would say, no, don't use Pinterest, but you know, definitely your audience is on there, so that's why you should use it. So what content is best? Any content that those people would be interested in. So if you're creating any content on your website, it's all good for Pinterest. And as far as the graphics go, yes, you do want to have a vertical graphic, and the rule is two by three ratio. So you want the pixels, it's 1500 pixels tall by a thousand wide. That's like on any screen, it will look good. No matter how high people's retina is on their screen. So 1500 tall by 1000 wide. And in a free Canva account, you can create those. They have a ton of templates in there. They have pin templates in there. I mean, literally you could just pick one and switch out what you want it to say. They have graphics in there, they have pictures in there. So that is the graphic. So yes, you wanna create another graphic. You can either. Put that on your website, or you can just load that directly into Pinterest, and it only lives in Pinterest and not on your website. And yes, they do have paid ads, and the paid ads are a little bit simpler than Facebook ads most. Most of us could figure it out. The targeting is fairly simple. It's not nearly as complex. So yeah, I, I do recommend that. I think paid ads and they do convert fairly well. The niche on Pinterest is the smaller number of people, and your people are more condensed in there, versus Facebook is the whole world, so you don't have to target quite as much.

Annie: And then this is just a follow up question. So any content I'm putting on Pinterest, I'm creating it outside of Pinterest. So there's no like native content on Pinterest itself. Like I'm not, like I go into Instagram and I'm making something in Instagram. You can't do that in Pinterest. You're making something outside and bringing it in through pinning.

Missy: It's just, think of it like Google. The whole point of Pinterest is traffic. So you're creating, it's like when you go to Google and you search, it's all stuff you can click and go someplace else. That's the exact same thing on Pinterest. It's all stuff that leads you someplace. The point of Pinterest is leading you off the platform versus with Facebook and Instagram, it's to stay on the platform, it's to go to these places. So yeah. That's, that's really, that's what all of the images you click and they take you to people's websites.

Leah: That's cool. Cool. I, my question was about the, like, I know there's specific things that you can do to be seen on, you know, like the algorithms thing to be seen on Facebook, just to be seen on Instagram, like very specific things, how does that work in Pinterest? I'm sure there's something that gets you higher up on your, you know, somebody's little homepage. What are those? Insider?

Missy: Yeah, and they're actually not followers. That is the best thing about Pinterest. You don't need any followers to get visibility. And that should never be a goal on Pinterest is getting like, I don't even think about that for anybody. I help. It doesn't even matter. It is all about optimizing everything. So, you know, thinking about the words like you wanna have lactation consultant, you wanna have like what are the words and phrases that people are going to search for? That's really how you're going to rank high. And you don't have to be. You know, like a genius at keywords. Literally. Think about if you were looking for this, what would you type in? I would just go on Pinterest and start typing those things in and seeing what comes up. And if it feels like you fit in there, then I would. Add that as keywords that you would use. So yeah, lactation, consultant, breastfeeding, you know, all of these things that you can think of. I would just start brainstorming them and typing them in. And then, so you would have those in your bio. You would use those words in your bio, and then you would use those words in the names of your boards. So you've got lots of keywords floating around for people. Ways of people

Annie: finding you. I think what I like about this is that it feels like, because I'm, as you're talking, I'm like, I'm sure there are people, other Lactations who are out there doing this already. They're killing it. They've got it all set up and going, but because you're saying the goal isn't to have followers, it's just to have a presence. It's like, oh, just because other people are doing it, I can still do it too. 'cause it's, it's just about like, like the differential is me versus trying to like. I don't know. I like that and not, not trying to keep people in Pinterest because they like me, but using it to direct them and just be available like that. Yeah. I
Missy: really think of it as like a community. It's like your boards, and like I said, you're pinning other people's content. So think of yourself as like a community builder, which, you know, I love that idea and you guys do too. How can I build this curated community of ideas where I'm. Even if it's somebody who sells something similar to you, you're still willing to share their content with your people. I think it's such a beautiful idea and yes, so don't need to worry about followers, don't need to worry about competition. I just, I, it, it's like a very soothing marketing tool in my mind. It's not stressful at all. It's really not. And I think you asked me, Annie, how long do you need to spend on. You know, pinning and stuff, it's really, if you set it up with your keywords and all of that stuff, you are visible because it's a search engine, you are already visible just by doing that. I would say in the very beginning, I would spend a little bit of extra time building up your boards. I would get 30 pins on each board. If you have any personal boards that just, you obviously don't want your clients to see, you can just toggle. A little thing and to make it secret. And you can still see it, but nobody else can see it. So you can still pin your birthday party plans and all that stuff, but everybody doesn't need to see it. And that we don't feel like you have to start from scratch with an account. Just start right where you are. Use that account. Make any boards you don't want other people to see secret. And just add a couple of new boards, spend a couple of hours getting 30 pins on each board with some really. Good content that makes you feel excited and then you're good to go.

Leah: That's so helpful that it doesn't seem, it definitely doesn't seem overwhelming and the way you described what Pinterest is, I was like, this seems like the best thing for lactation consultants because our main goal is to share information. We're not here tell you how to do X, Y, and Z, so to speak. We're more like sharing information we wanna. Help the family understand so they can make the choices that work for them. So it seems to really go in line with what we are trying to achieve. And I wonder, is there advantages to sending a link to your Pinterest board, to your client? Is it something like if you get more hits on that, then it, it, you know, goes up in ranking or is seen more visibly? So it's better to like, because I know I send my clients, you know, a couple of links about latching and then I send them a couple links about this and I'm curious if it would be better or helpful if I sent one linking. To Pinterest, and it's my board of newborn latching tips. Is that advantageous or just an extra step? Doesn't need to happen.

Missy: It could be, and they could follow your board. I mean, like I said, followers in my mind are never a goal, but obviously it does help. I mean, there are accounts with, you know, hundreds of thousands of followers. Obviously they're going to get more visibility, but. It's not essential. So yeah, it could, because if they go, they're probably going to follow that board and then you will get a follower. So that can help with your visibility in getting followers. But I would say optimizing with keywords is going to be the most important thing. So that's why it's like stress free. It's like. It's completely internal and you're completely in control. You don't have to be like, are people going to follow me? But yes, I would say definitely sending links to your Pinterest account could help you. And it's also just really beneficial to your client that you have put together this information. It's a great way to share that information with them. Yeah.

Leah: Yeah. I think it. Would look really nice too on a care plan. Not so overwhelming. 'cause sometimes I'll send so many links and there's like link, link, link, link, link. You know, and then I'm thinking other information got pushed down further. Soif it was just one link, that would be amazing.

Missy: Yeah. Yeah, I like that. I will say, you know, one other part of Pinterest that's, you know, to gain visibility is collaborative boards. So, like I said, you know, creating your boards, you can, anybody can create a board and invite anybody else to share in the pinning. I think that will be a great way for like a regional group of lactation consultants to. Come together and gain visibility and help each other grow. I rec, like when I set up someone's Pinterest account, I always get them on collaborative boards because you can start pinning to other people's boards and you now, your content is in front of their audience and the audience of everybody on the, you do gain a lot of visibility. I would say that could be a really fun. Way for local business especially. 'cause I'm sure every area has a really nice community of

Annie: Oh yeah. I am gonna be mentioning this to the New York Lactation Consultants Association. Those of you who are listening, we should do this. It's a great idea. I love it. That would be so fun. And I, I really like that you're. Like you keep reminding us that it, it can be such a collaborative tool and I think that's something that, you know, is a core value for me and Leah is just this idea of working together and you know, we, I think, yeah, there, there might be a, Leah and I get our Pinterest board set up a collaborative board. Yeah. Between our two. That could be really fun. And thinking about like other partners, it's just, yeah, all of the wheels are spinning. So, um, Mm-Hmm. This was amazing. Missy. If people wanna learn more about you and what you do, where should they go and how can they follow you?

Missy: Yeah, my website is taste of simple.com and I'm at Taste of Simple Everywhere, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, all those places.

Annie: Misty, this has been awesome. I can't even tell you, like I think I'm a little bit like brain exploded from it, but this was really good. I loved how you broke it down for us, so thank you so much.

Missy: Thank you so much for having me, Annie Ann, Leah, I love you guys.

Leah: Aw, we love you too. We love you too. We appreciate all the work you do for the podcast. You're amazing. And we're so excited to get started on some Pinterest work now.

Annie: Yeah, yeah. By the time this airs, you're gonna, guys are gonna see some, some Pinterest, so you can maybe we'll make a little promise to ourselves. Me and Leah, we're recording this in advance that by the time this episode airs, we'll have a a few pins up there. We'll keep it. We'll keep it a small promise, but there will be something. There will not be nothing up there. Just get started. Just get started. Just get started. Alright, well thank you so much, Missy. Thank you. Thank you. Bye lady. Bye

Leah: Bye.