How to Use Pinterest for Your Brand | BBSM
Originally published February 4, 2012 · Updated Oct 2026 · By Black Box Social Media
Quick answer: To use Pinterest for business, set up a free business account, create themed boards that show the lifestyle around your brand rather than just your products, and pay attention to what your audience saves. Pinterest works best as visual inspiration, so Black Box Social Media recommends leading with helpful ideas and keeping the selling light.
If your brand hasn't learned how to use Pinterest yet, now is a good time. Pinterest is a strong place to show your brand's essence and style. It's like an online bulletin board where people save ideas: wish lists, recipes, home projects, outfits and things they plan to buy. Pinterest reported 661 million monthly active users in the third quarter of 2026, and because people use it to plan purchases, it's a natural place for brands to show up.
Pinterest offers free business accounts and advertising, but users come for ideas, not ads. The brands that do best are the ones that inspire rather than push.
How do you show your brand's essence on Pinterest?
In 2012, Mashable explained how brands should use Pinterest: promote a lifestyle, choose good content and provide solid information on a niche. That advice still holds:
Pinterest calls for a more holistic approach to marketing, and it can be more effective and engaging than traditional advertising because the consumers can really see how your brand fits into their lives. For example, Bon Appetit can't just pin pictures from the website or magazine, but it can pin images of cooking appliances, beautiful kitchen decor, cutlery, dinner parties and delicious creations or recipes — basically anything related to cooking and food.
How should you set up Pinterest boards?
The key to using Pinterest is boards: collections of pins built around a theme or category. Here's how three brands approached boards in Pinterest's early days, as described by Mashable in 2012:
Etsy: As a marketplace for handmade and creative goods, Etsy pinned images of handmade weddings, stationery, fashion, gift ideas, "cool spaces" and holiday decorating tips.
Rent the Runway: The fashion-rental site grouped boards by occasion (bachelorette party, fall wedding, New Year's Eve), with looks for each event.
Birchbox: The beauty subscription service pinned close-ups of hair, makeup and nail looks, plus a board devoted to food.
Create boards for different interests and lifestyles so you attract several types of customers. For more ideas, see tips for using Pinterest for brand promotion and how to smartly add Pinterest to your marketing strategy.
How can Pinterest work as a focus group?
People use Pinterest for self-expression, so when someone follows your brand or saves your pins, look at what else they save. These are your customers. Learning their interests and lifestyles gives you an insider's view of their lives and can even inspire new products. Pinterest's business analytics also show which of your pins get saved and clicked.
How do you crowdsource content on Pinterest?
Mashable also described crowdsourcing as a big perk of Pinterest: ask customers to pin photos of themselves with your product and tag you, then save the best ones to a featured board. That gives fans a shoutout and shows prospects that real customers love your product. After an event, encourage attendees to pin and tag photos as a crowdsourced scrapbook. Around the holidays, invite them to build wish-list boards.
Pinterest is a powerful, free way to promote your brand. Just don't come across as too salesy. If you're ready to put paid reach behind your best-performing content, our growth consulting team can help you decide where Pinterest fits alongside your Meta advertising.
FAQ
Is Pinterest good for business marketing? Yes, especially for visual, planning-driven categories like home, food, fashion, beauty, weddings and travel, where people save ideas before they buy.
How many people use Pinterest? Pinterest reported 661 million monthly active users in the third quarter of 2026.
Should a business have a separate Pinterest account? Use a free Pinterest business account. It gives you analytics and access to ads, which personal accounts don't.
Ready to talk it through?
Want a second set of eyes on your own plan? Black Box Social Media has been known for Meta advertising since 2010 and has managed over $250M in ad spend for growth-focused brands. Book a 30-minute strategy call and we'll show you where the biggest wins are.
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