A Guest Post from Coryanne Ettiene of Kitchen Living with Coryanne

At the end of 2013, Pinterest surpassed Facebook as the fastest growing social media platform. But did you know that American women sharing food related content contributed to a majority of this growth? And surprisingly, with nearly 70 million Pinterest accounts in use, only 500,000 of those are business accounts. There’s certainly opportunity for fresh produce here – but that’s not all.

81 percent of Americans are more likely to trust the content of bloggers over traditional media outlets. These blogging “influencers” are thriving on Pinterest, building strong communities with a broad reach, creating golden opportunities for the brands they are eager to collaborate with.

Building relationships with these influencers (or “pin-fluencers,” if you will!) on Pinterest is very similar to building a consumer relationship. Here are the top 5 ways to start working with bloggers on Pinterest:

1. Build a quality board.

Weed out any pins that are not adding value to your brand or your audience. If a pin is not being repinned, it is not adding value and it’s okay to remove it. An influencer needs to trust the quality of your content before she will share or collaborate with you on Pinterest.

2. Seek out a variety of bloggers.

Both big and growing “pin-fluencers” add value to a Pinterest campaign, and both should be integral to your Pinterest marketing platform. Bloggers with over 20K followers are important for building a wide reaching Pinterest audience, but with that exposure comes a real estate price for either hosting a board or collaborating on a group board. Bloggers with an audience of 5K to 20K may work with smaller budgets and are often keen to partner with brands on Pinterest, which will go a long way to populating a group board hosted by the brand.

3. Showcase influential bloggers.

Create a board entitled “Bloggers We Love” and pin their home page, headshot or recipes that you love from their website, crediting their blog name and linking to them in the comments section of the pin. Then let them know that you love their work. Engage with bloggers on Pinterest by repinning, commenting and liking their pins – they will take notice of the attention and likely approach you with a collaborative idea.

4. Host Pin Parties.

Like Twitter Parties, Pin Parties are a way to bring a collection of bloggers together to build a conversation around a topic of shared interest that ignites consumer interest. Here is a step-by-step guide to hosting a Pinterest party of your own.

5. Create Shared boards.

Invite bloggers to pin to a group board that focuses on a shared interest that your audience will embrace. If you are working to grow your audience, ask a “pin-fluencial” blogger to host the board for you to rapidly grown your message and your pinterest profile.

Want more tips on how to leverage Pinterest to drive traffic to your website and connect with “pin-fluencers” for your brand? I recommend downloading The Produce Marketer’s Guide to Pinterest, featuring my very own Pinterest party tips and recipe for pinning success! Click the image below to get your copy: