Over the weekend I met my friend Jamie at a local coffee shop. We hadn’t seen each other for a while and had a great time catching up. After about half an hour, we were joined by Caitlin, one of Jamie’s friends. Some years back Jamie had been sitting next to me on a train ride while I had a coaching call with a client. She knew Caitlin was struggling with her business and asked if I would spend time talking with her about those struggles.

Caitlin had started her business a year ago. She felt a calling to help young women in our town improve their circumstances. She knew that I worked with creatives to help them build their businesses and wondered if what I did could translate to her.

The thing is that how I help artists — whether they are fiber artists, jewelers, or writers — is exactly how I helped Caitlin. This is an abbreviated version of what I shared during our conversation.

Know what you have to offer that is unique.

Everyone has a unique message to share based on their life circumstances and experiences.

I once heard someone say “make your mess your message.” It’s so true.

I love Pinterest. What’s not to love? You can be inspired and you get to dream. I have got so many ideas about decorating, cooking, dressing and art. If only I would live long enough to fulfill all those dreams!

I know many of you are already using Pinterest. Are you using it to your advantage, business wise? Here are three ways to do that.

1. Become the expert. How do you have time to develop all the content, pictures, etc., that you will need? The quick answer is you don’t have to. It is already on Pinterest. What you are doing is becoming a curator of information and sharing what you find. You might create a board called Art Tips and share relevant information that has already been pinned. By gathering and sharing useful information, you become the expert.




2. Drive your Pinterest traffic to your website. Did you know that Pinterest is the largest referrer to your website of all social media? And, even more important, people who come to your site from Pinterest spend more than those who come from other social media sites. Pinning great content is one way to get people to your site where they can sign up for your newsletter.
   
   
3. Engage your customers. One way you can do this by creating user-generated boards or by creating a board to promote your happy customers using your product. Look for ways to turn your pinners into your unpaid sales force.
   
   

What is your favorite business way to use Pinterest?