So, Pinterest…perhaps you’ve heard of it?

This handy site is the best thing to happen to creative entrepreneurs since the invention of Mod Podge.

• Amazing, easy organization
• Simple, accessible sharability
• No prose required
• Pictures rule the day

But as great as Pinterest is, far too many pinners are leaving money on the table when it comes to using Pinterest as a marketing tool.

Your Two Pinterest Hats

If Pinterest is part of your online marketing plan, then you have two important roles to play.

The first is curator.

This is when you get to gather amazing, beautiful photos from around the web and curate them onto your boards building an overall impression of your style and artistry. This attracts followers who connect with your style, which in turn builds your authority as someone with incredible taste, which of course increases your sphere of influence as you gain more and more followers.

You are already rocking the curator aspect of Pinterest marketing.

Next, you have to be an actual marketer – one who has a plan to capitalize on Pinterest authority, one that’s going to get a return on investment for her business or blog.

Here’s where it gets a bit dicey. The actual value you get from Pinterest is hard to quantify. You can’t really say, “100 people repinned my photo and therefore, I made 5 extra sales.”

What you can say is, “100 people repinned my photo therefore, I’ve had 100 marketing impressions.”

Well, you can say that IF your images aren’t buck naked.

Real Marketing Impressions vs Fake Ones

Marketing impressions only count if a viewer can easily connect an image with your name. The more times they make the connection the closer you bring them into your marketing sphere of influence.

If a fellow Pinner can’t make the connection between the photo and your business, you are missing out on the biggest opportunity Pinterest can provide.

Put Some Clothes On Already

Dressing up your photos for Pinterest is really, really easy. First you have to decide: what are you marketing? Your personal name, your business name, Etsy shop or blog? It really doesn’t matter what you use,  just pick one and use it consistently.

Next, make sure every photo is identified with your name. Do this in two ways:

1. Put your blog/business/shop name in the title of the photo. When people pin your photo the title automatically fills in the pin description, tagging your photo with your business name.
2. Add a watermark or logo directly to your image, this way you are protected in case some overachiever adds their own pin description and erases your name.

If you want to see exactly how to do this, watch this quick video and then join the fight against bare Pinterest photos by never pinning another naked picture.