Like any social network Pinterest has its own unwritten list of do’s and don’ts, and learning them all can take time. To help you make the most of your hard work, here are the 5 things I notice many Pinterest business users miss that can hurt your ability to gain and keep followers:

Put your most important boards on the top row. When a website loads, our eyes are logically drawn to the top of the page. If you have boards you want your followers to see first, like your product boards or customer testimonials, put them in your top row. To do this, go to your profile page and click the rearrange boards icon next to the “Edit Profile” button.

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Pinterest just announced their newest feature: Business Pages! Can you see me jumping for joy?

That’s because up until now there were no special features for businesses who wanted to have a Pinterest presence. You had to sign up for a regular/personal account and enter your business name in the First and Last Name fields. But now there’s an option for your business name and for you to create a special page for your business.

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Now that you’ve learned how Pinterest works and what it can do for your business, I’d like to offer you five tips to get the most return on your time investment. Pinterest business is different from other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter because self promotion (or self-pinterest) is frowned upon. But don’t think for a moment that you can’t use this exciting new resource to promote your product, find new customers and encourage existing customers to visit your site to shop. Here’s how:

Introduce your brand

Welcome your followers into your workspace by sharing photos of your business’s day-to-day. Highlight team members, new products and new ideas to truly connect with your users and help them get to know you.

Sell, sell, sell

While this tip may seem obvious, many Pinterest business users are missing out on the opportunities the site provides. Always link your pinned products back to your site so users can buy what interests them without searching for it. Including product benefits, highlights and prices too can help users decide they want what you’re selling.

Ask for input

Pinterest offers amazing opportunities for crowd-sourcing by letting your customers tell you what they want to see. Ask your followers to pin their favorite item from your product selection or ask them to like your already pinned product photos. This will tell you what your most popular items are and help you develop new lines.

Another great way to build Pinterest business is to have your followers pin photos of themselves using your product. Remember to ask them to include a keyword to help you track the images they post and to re-pin them to their own boards.

Pinterest-only discounts

Periodically offer your Pinterest followers a special discount code they can use on your site to save on their purchases. This lets followers know you appreciate them and encourage new followers to visit your site to make their first purchase.

Offer inspiration

Pinterest is an amazing resource for sharing inspiration, and one of the ways you can do that is to post interesting photos to start a conversation. For example, if you sell surf products, you can invite your customers to pin photos of their favorite surf spot to spark a conversation. Once people start pinning and talking regularly, you’ll see more people visiting your pinboard to see what’s new.

There are so many ways to use Pinterest for business and these are just a few. Share your favorites in the comments or let me know which of the one’s above worked for you. I can’t wait to see how Pinterest business users are making the most of this great resource.

Are you seeing success from your Pinterest efforts? If so, congratulations! If not, don’t worry! It takes time to see consistent results.

Every once in a while I reach out to entrepreneurs who are using Pinterest with great success in the hopes that you’ll learn from their successes. Here’s a great interview with eMeals, who has been using Pinterest for a little over six months.

1. How long have you been using Pinterest?

We launched our Pinterest account in February of this year.

2. How many followers do you currently have and what are some of the tactics & strategies you used to get more followers?

We have over 7,500 followers. The best strategy we’ve found so far is to interact with other pinners, repin, comment, and follow others that are popular pinners. Usually people find you organically or if you follow them, they may follow back. I would also recommend you share your Pinterest account on other pages you have like Facebook or your website.

3. Have any of your pins gone viral (i.e., more than 100 re-pins) and, if so, what do you think contributed to that?

Yes, we have had a few of our pins go viral. The ones that stand out in my mind are our St. Patrick’s Day Three-Leaf Clovers and our What is Clean Eating graphic. As always, the game of getting something to go viral is tricky. The three-leaf clovers seemed to do well because they were simple and came out just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. With the general popularity of clean eating, our new meal plan made a big splash and the graphic helped explain the basics of clean eating.

4. Do you have any advice for anyone using Pinterest for their business – what do you think works best to get more followers, create viral pins and increase results from using Pinterest?

Our best advice would be to make time for Pinterest. You have to spend time to pin, repin, find new followers, people you want to follow, etc. Just like anything else, Pinterest takes time to create, maintain and grow.

5. What are some strategies that you’ve implemented that have brought you success with using Pinterest?

We find sharing pins and images from Pinterest on our Facebook account tends to get more people interested and aware of our page. Holding Pinterest contests helps to get our boards and name out there as well.

6. How does Pinterest compare with Facebook and Twitter in terms of traffic and sales for your business?

We find that in general Pinterest falls below Facebook and above Twitter in terms of generating traffic and sales.

7. What’s the best way to approach marketing on Pinterest, in your opinion?

You have to approach Pinterest much like you would any other social site. If all you do is pin your products or self-boasting images, not many people will want to come to your boards and check them out, let alone follow them. Be yourself and stay true to your brand, but be willing to feature others on your pinboards.