Stop Using Pinterest Only for Inspiration. Your Next Client Might Be There.
When I talk to my creative friends and ask them, “Where do you usually find your clients?”, I get a few familiar answers:
Referrals from previous clients, colleagues, or friends
Behance
LinkedIn
Instagram
Other creative platforms…
But there’s one platform that often gets overlooked.
Yes, the same platform many designers use to search for inspiration, references, moodboards, and ideas.
But here’s something interesting:
Your clients are using Pinterest too.
They are searching for ideas for their upcoming projects, looking for visual references, and sometimes searching for the right person to bring those ideas to life.
So the question is:
How do you make sure they find you?
Don’t Just Pin. Pin With a Purpose.
The first step is simple:
1. Pin your best work
If you’re a designer, your Pinterest shouldn’t only be a collection of other people’s work that you like.
You should also be building a collection of your own work.
Pin your projects, case studies, illustrations, branding, photography, or any other work that represents what you want clients to hire you for.
Think of Pinterest as another place where your portfolio can be discovered.
2. Always give your work a way back to you
This is probably the most important part.
Your Pinterest post shouldn’t end with someone looking at your work and thinking, “This is nice.”
You want them to think:
“Who created this?”
And then make it easy for them to find you.
Whenever possible, your pins should link back to your:
Personal website
Portfolio
Behance
Instagram
LinkedIn
Or another platform where clients can contact you
The goal is simple:
Pinterest → Your work → Your profile → You.
3. Don’t just save your work from Pinterest
There’s an important difference between saving something on Pinterest and creating a pin that leads people back to you.
For example, if you simply save an image that you uploaded somewhere else, the link may not necessarily take a potential client to your original work.
Instead, make sure you are pinning your own projects and linking them to the original source.
You want Pinterest to work as a bridge between your work and your potential client.
So, How Do You Do It?
There are a couple of simple ways to start.
Claim your website
Pinterest allows you to claim your website, which helps connect your Pinterest presence with your own online platform.
If you have a personal website or portfolio, this is something worth setting up.
Use the Pinterest browser extension
The Pinterest extension makes it easier to pin your work from different websites.
So, for example, if you have a project published on your website, you can pin the image directly to your Pinterest account.
The important part is making sure the pin leads back to the original project.
That way, when someone discovers your work while searching Pinterest and clicks on the image, they have a path to your website or portfolio.
Pinterest Is More Than an Inspiration Board
As designers, we often think of Pinterest as a place to find inspiration.
But it can also be a place where people find us.
The next time you open Pinterest to search for references, remember:
You’re not the only one searching. Your potential clients might be too.
So don’t just use Pinterest to collect other people’s work.
Use it to put your own work in front of the people who are already looking for it.
Your next client might be one search away.
