Pinterest Business Account vs Personal: Should You Convert or Create a New Business Account? – Jungle Soul Collective | Pinterest Marketing Strategist for Service-Based Business

What is the difference between a Pinterest business account vs a personal account? How do you know which one is right for you? So many questions! Let’s clear this up.

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Pinterest Business Account vs Personal Account: What’s the Difference?

Personal account

A personal account, as the name says, is a place where you can get inspired and collect ideas for your own personal use. There is no limit to what boards you can make or what pins you can save.

A personal Pinterest account is right for you if you ARE NOT marketing and promoting.

Business account

Pinterest business account, however, is designed for marketing and helping businesses make money. If your goal is to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, grow your email list, or attract people to your services, a Pinterest business account is the way to go.

If your goal is to do all those things, it is required by the Pinterest Terms of Service to use a Pinterest business account.

There is a distinct difference between a personal and business account: a personal account is about you and a business account is about them (your ideal audience).

Your business account has a clear, intended purpose and that is to attract your target audience with content that is relevant to what you do and what your audience needs help with. To grow your business account, you need to commit to creating Pinterest content about topics that are relevant to what you do for your clients.

Since business accounts are intended for commercial use, they come with several extra benefits that, for the purpose of keeping this post short, are explained in 5 Reasons Why You Need A Pinterest Business Account (vs Personal).

So, Should You Convert or Start from Scratch?

There are two ways to start a Pinterest business account:

a) convert an existing personal account to a business account

b) start a new business account from scratch.

If you’re completely new to Pinterest – lucky for you – you only have the option to start a brand new account and build it from the ground up.

What if you already have a personal account? Should you keep it or not?

Here’s the framework I use for determining whether a client would be better off converting their personal account to a business account:

a) You have already created a lot of original pins in your niche and they’re performing well

b) You have a considerable amount of boards in your niche (and 50+ niche pins on each board)

c) You have a noticeable amount of followers in your niche

d) You’re not an avid personal pinner and/or don’t want to manage two accounts.

If you ticked the first three points, you’ve already invested a considerable amount of time and work into your business niche account. You should consider converting to a business profile and setting all personal content to secret.

The amount of followers in your niche is important because as a business on Pinterest, you want followers who are interested in your content and engage with it. If your followers engage with your content, it signals Pinterest that it’s good stuff and should be shown to more people.

Let’s say the business you’re creating the account for is a web design studio. So far you’ve pinned makeup tutorials, hairstyles, and nail art, but after converting to a business account you suddenly start pinning Squarespace tips and brand boards. People who hit follow because they liked the contouring tutorials you saved are most likely not going to be interested in what you have to say about building a biz website with Squarespace.

Not only is it confusing for your followers, but it sends mixed messages to the Pinterest algorithm.

If you’re someone who vigorously uses Pinterest for your own personal needs and wants to pin without limitations, I recommend you create a new business account from scratch for your business.

On a personal note, I prefer a separate personal account for pinning all the ideas that are unrelated to my business. This way it’s easier to keep business and fun separate: I batch task all the work for my business accounts and pin for fun the rest of the time.

What You Should Know If You’re Considering Converting to a Business Account

Switching between accounts is easy

Pinterest knows its users need different accounts for different purposes and has made switching between accounts simple. If you decide to have separate personal and business accounts, you don’t need to log in and out to switch!

Simply click on the downwards arrow on the top right corner and Add account to make your other account show up in the list.

Your profile, boards and followers will stay the same

If you’re worried about losing the content you’re already created or curated, don’t be.

Converting to a business account won’t get rid of the followers you’ve already amassed, boards and content you’ve created, or your profile settings.

Commit to your niche

There is a distinct difference between a personal and business account: one is about you and the other is about them (your ideal audience).

Your personal account is probably a catch-all of all your interests and there is no limit to what you can pin and where you can pin it.

Your business account is there to help you drive traffic to your blog posts and lead magnets, help you attract your ideal client, and grow your email list. It has a clear purpose. It also has a niche (for example, web design).

To grow your business account, you need to commit to creating and pinning content that is both relevant and educating for your audience.

Deal with off-brand boards

After converting your account, audit your board situation and hide any boards that are off-brand and don’t align with your business niche.

You can still save to secret boards but they are no longer visible to other people and the pins you save there won’t appear to your followers.

What’s next?

Ready to convert your personal account?

I have an entire blog post about converting and setting up your business profile and boards the right way: How to Convert Your Personal Account Into A Pinterest Business Account