Account Types
Did you know Pinterest offers two different account types – Personal and Business? What are the differences? Should you personal? Business? Or both?
There are five main areas where a business account differs from a personal account:
1) Pinterest Analytics for Business Accounts
The Pinterest analytics tool is available for business accounts. By reviewing your account’s analytics, you’ll be able to see the pinning activity on your website, plus your account’s most popular Pins.
There are two Analytics dashboards available: one for activity on your Pinterest account and another for activity from your website.
Once you sign up for (or convert to) a business account, you’ll have access to your account analytics immediately. Data will include activity on your Pins from your Pinterest account, as well as information and activity for your audience.
You must confirm your website in order to access to analytics information. Once you’ve confirmed your website, you’ve established an official link between your site and Pinterest. You’ll know you’ve confirmed a website by checking your Profile settings and will see a checkmark next to your website.
If you decide not to confirm your website (or do it at a later date), you will not have access to analytical data until you confirm the website and data will only be available from the date you confirmed the site – not prior.
Note: You can only confirm one website for each Pinterest account.
There are 2 ways to confirm a website.
2) Rich Pins for Business Accounts
“Rich” Pins are a step above the standard Pin: extra details are automatically added to Rich Pins, including pricing information and a direct link to your website. This is intended to make your Pins more “useful” to users and result in more traffic to your site.
There are 6 types of Rich Pins: movie, recipe, article, product, app, and place.
If you sell products, note that Product Pins include real-time pricing; plus anyone who’s pinned them will get a notification if your Product Pin drops in price.
Setting up Rich Pins involves specific steps that may require the help of your web developer. For more information on setting up Rich Pins, go to http://business.pinterest.com/rich-pins/.
You aren’t required to create Rich Pins on a business account, but if you have an online store, it’s definitely worth the extra effort. if you don’t create Rich Pins, you can still include a product’s price in a standard Pin’s description.
3) Different Terms of Service for Personal vs Business accounts
Pinterest has different terms of service based on the type of account you have. You can read their terms of service for a business account here: http://business.pinterest.com/tos/.
4) Future Tools for Business Accounts
Pinterest states that future tools and features could be made available for business accounts only.
Once you’ve created a business account, Pinterest will send periodic notifications about new features and/or updates. You can also refer to their business help page here:http://business.pinterest.com/.
5) Promoted Pins
Promoted Pins are available for business accounts in the U.S. They are just like regular Pins, but you pay to have them seen by more people. They are referred to as “native ad units” by Pinterest.
You have a separate Promoted Pins dashboard to track, and manage your campaigns.
6) Settings are Different for Business Accounts
Your username is a business name rather than a first and last name.
You will choose a business type from available categories (which helps in search on Pinterest).
There is no automatic link to a personal Facebook profile; so you’ll want to add a Pinterest tab to your Facebook Page. You can use free Apps like Woobox or Pinvolve to easily set this up.
7) Buyable Pins
If you use a select merchant (like Shopify), you can create Pins with a “Buy” button (on mobile devices only). Learn more about Buyable Pins and future roll-outs here: https://business.pinterest.com/en/buyable-pins.
Creating a Personal Account
Step 1: Go to Pinterest.com
Go to http://pinterest.com.
Enter your email address and a password.
Click the Sign up button.
By using a personal account before your create your business account, you can get a feel for how the network works before you start your business campaign.
Step 2: Following the prompts by selecting topics and your account will be established.
Step 3: Confirm your email account.
Creating a Business Account
Step 1: Go to http://business.pinterest.com.
Click on the Join as a business button.
Enter your email address, password, business name, website address, and select your business type.
Click the Create account button.
Step 2: Following the prompts by selecting topics and your account will be established.
Step 3: Confirm your email account.
Step 4: Confirm your website address.
- In your settings, click ‘Confirm website’ in the Website field.
- Follow the instructions on the next page. You can verify with an HTML file or a meta tag.
- Once your website’s confirmed, you’ll see your logo or profile picture on Pins that people saved from your site.
- You’ll also have access to web analytics in Pinterest Analytics. It may take up to 48 hours for your website data to show up in your analytics.
Your Account is Ready
