Take an Interest in Pinterest

How many references to essential oils are on Pinterest? According to a recent study released by Semiocast, a consumer insight and social media research firm, Pinterest has more than 70 million user profiles-and this popular social networking platform could prove to be another way for you to connect with clients once you graduate from massage school.

You may know the basics of essential oils, the best essential oils for massage or how to create your own essential oils because of your searches on Pinterest, where users pin ideas, recipes, projects and products to an online bulletin board and share these pins with their followers. If you're not familiar with how Pinterest works, visit massagemag.com/pinning101 to learn how to get started.

Audience Reach

Pinterest, the picture-on-a-bulletin-board-style social medium, remains one of the fastest-growing social media networks, with women five times as likely as men to use it, according to the Pew Research Center. In addition to its huge following-a good percentage of whom may be your clientele's key demographic: women, people ages 20 to 45 and parents-here are a few more reasons to take an interest in Pinterest:

• 69 percent of consumers on Pinterest have found an item to buy, compared with 40 percent of consumers on Facebook, according to Bizrate Insights. Additionally, Pinterest drove more traffic to retailers last year than Google, LinkedIn or YouTube.
• Since women do most of the shopping in the family and because most of Pinterest's followers are women, it stands to reason you would want your products on it. But this platform is for men, too, as the number of male users has increased since the platform launched.
• The visually oriented social network recently made it even easier for businesses to incorporate Pinterest for product and service sales.

Pin Like a Pro

Once you are ready to establish yourself as a massage practitioner, begin work on your Web presence. To pin like a pro, here are five simple steps to make your business profile interesting:

1. Keep it professional. Set up a separate business account. You want clients to know your business, so create a Pinterest account under that name. Whether you will manage your own massage practice or work at several locations, you can still build an audience through Pinterest.

2. Choose boards that resonate with your clients. Remember who your audience is and create categories that will both interest them and promote your business. A few good ideas to get started include:

• Benefits of massage
• Charts and diagrams about the body, which help clients understand their own bodies and what is troubling them
• Your business services (modalities, prices)
• Special promotions (holiday promos and other special rates)
• Good stretches to do at home
• Healthy lifestyle information, which can include fitness and nutritional facts, as well as cooking tips
• A just-for-fun board that features funny and inspirational quotes, as well as do-it-yourself projects
• A blog

3. Pin often. Try to pin new ideas to your boards every day, or at least several times a week. This allows your business name to show up to your followers more often, and will lead to you gain a more dedicated following.

If you really want to have a strong Pinterest presence, don't just repin items-create your own pins. This requires more effort and a little bit of know-how regarding uploading photos and adding text, but this shouldn't take more than a few extra minutes.

Also, keep pin descriptions to 15 words or less. This is a great time to practice your advertising and marketing skills. Think of your favorite slogan for a product and aim for a phrase that would attract someone to your photo, business promotion or product sale.

4. Be creative. There are many ways to get creative with your boards, so search for boards that interest you and note what may work for your consumer base.

5. Keep your eyes on the prize. Always remember the ultimate goal with your posts is to encourage clients to book your services and buy your products. This doesn't need to be a hard sell, but while you are pinning massage-related quotes and information, remind clients a massage is good for a gift, to help with sore muscles and relieve tension headaches-or simply to provide relaxation so they can be better parents, bosses and friends.

With these steps, you will begin to connect with clients, and attract positive attention to the massage profession and your future practice. Just as the social network itself encourages, "Happy Pinning."