It’s no secret that social media is an important marketing tool for small businesses. It’s most often free, and it’s easy to manage. Pinterest is one platform that is especially useful for marketing your salon studio. It’s a bulletin board style photo sharing social network where images are either uploaded by the user or shared from someone else’s pin boards. Pinterest has more than 70 million users worldwide, and since the salon industry is a visually based industry, Pinterest is a perfect fit. 5 Reasons to Have Pinterest Easy to Use Pinterest is an intuitive social media platform. It’s easy to figure out, easy to maintain, and easy to use! Unlike Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which require that you monitor and engage with other users, you only need to upload your photo and add a description on Pinterest. After that, sit back and let the Pinterest community share away! Attracts New Customers Pinterest is the place to go for new hair and beauty ideas. If a customer is looking for a particular service and sees one of your photos, he or she may reach out to schedule a service if they’re local. Generates Website Traffic When you click on a photo in Pinterest, it takes you to the original source of the image. The trick is that you need to make sure that your website is listed as the image source when you upload it. If you don’t have a website, make sure that all your images link back to your Sola website page, so potential clients know how to reach you. Click here to read more about setting up a website. It’s a Digital Portfolio It takes dedication, talent, and passion to be a stylist. Show off your talent by posting photos of your work to Pinterest. It’s an easy way to create a searchable digital portfolio. All About Inspiration While Pinterest is great for generating web traffic and attracting new clients, it’s also a great resource for inspiration. When you need to recharge your creative batteries, and you’re looking for new ideas, Pinterest is the place to go! Seeing what other stylists are doing will inspire you to keep elevating your own work, and looking for new ways to express your talent. 5 Pinterest Best Practices Make Boards Craft a healthy Pinterest presence by cultivating several pin boards under your salon’s profile. The most important boards to create should showcase your work and talent. Either create one board for all of your work, or split it out depending on the style. For example, you can create one board for cuts, one for highlights, and one for updos. You can also create inspirational boards. Maybe you want to post inspirational quotes or photos of exotic places that you found on your own Pinterest adventures. Showing off your personality is a good way for potential clients to get a sense of your salon busines. Link to Your Website Make sure all the photos you post link back to you website. The only way to turn Pinterest viewers into clients is if they know how to reach you! When you upload an image, put your website in the source field, so when interested potential clients click on the image, it links back to your salon. Utilize the Description Space The description of a photo is what the Pinterest search algorithm uses to find photos a user may be interested in. If you search for “blonde ombre,” it’s going to pull up images with that phrase in the description. So make sure each of your photo descriptions are accurate and include enough detail to make them searchable. Use Your Hashtags Hashtags are important across all social media platforms. It’s what is used to categorize posts into searchable subjects. Be sure to include both subject hashtags like #ombre and brand specific hashtags like #solasalons. Click here to read more about hashtags. Watermark Your Images The unfortunate truth is that sometimes Pinterest users share images they find without including the original source. That me