A month ago, if a business wanted to take part in the social media sensation Pinterest, it was discouraged. The initial goal of Pinterest was to create a social network connecting people with similar interests, so businesses worked around this restriction by creating personal accounts to take advantage of reaching the site’s over 20 million unique visitors (as of June 2012). Fortunately, the folks above at Pinterest saw the immense value that businesses were adding to their community, so on November 13, 2012, they announced their new business accounts.

If you’re not familiar with Pinterest or how you as a retailer or other business can use it, check out our earlier blog:

Pinterest for Retailers: How to Make the Most of Pinterest

So, assuming that you are (now) familiar with Pinterest, what’s different about a business account versus a personal account other than the new terms? Why create a business profile, or if you already have a personal profile for your business, why convert? There are some definite advantages to creating a business profile, including:

Business Name is Displayed Prominently – You no longer need to use first & last name format, making it easier for people to find you.

Verification Badge – By verifying your account, users know that you are providing high quality content and can find you easily through your business name.

New Buttons and Widgets – Integrate the Pin It button, Follow button, Profile widget, or Board widget to get more engagement from pinners and traffic back your site.

New Resources, Case Studies, What Works and More – If you have a business account, you’ll have access to lots of resources geared to help you in your Pinterest endeavors.

Access to Upcoming Features – Receive updates on future products and services that will provide more powerful ways of reaching and understanding your audience on Pinterest.

It’s Easy to Do – Go to business.pinterest.com and sign up or click the red “Convert your existing account” button.

It’s great to see that Pinterest has seen the value of the content and interaction that businesses have provided to their community – and better yet, that they’ve taken steps to assist businesses in making the most of their site. With their phenomenal growth and continued forward movement, I’m anxious to see what they come up with next!

Now, if we could only get Facebook to allow our Pinterest business account to connect to our Facebook business account so that our followers can see what we’re doing on Pinterest, who we are, and what inspires us – what a wonderful world this would be!