Pinterest is indeed a holy grail for visual search engines with a 522 million active user base. It is more than just a social media platform that drives traffic, builds brand awareness, and attracts engaged audiences.
Industries that mainly depend on images and dynamic visuals – like e-commerce, fashion, and even DIY – often look for skilled virtual assistants to reach a large spectrum of audiences and convert leads to customers.
If you’re passionate about Pinterest and enjoy crafting visually appealing content, a career as a Pinterest Virtual Assistant could be the perfect fit.
So, this article will help you to know – how to become a virtual assistant for Pinterest.
What is a Pinterest Virtual Assistant?
A Pinterest Virtual Assistant (Pinterest VA) is a specialized professional who manages and optimizes a client’s Pinterest presence to boost brand visibility, increase traffic, and drive conversions.
Unlike general social media managers, Pinterest VAs focus on Pinterest-specific strategies, leveraging the platform’s unique search engine capabilities to help clients reach their target audience.
They play an essential role for businesses looking to capitalize on Pinterest’s potential to drive website traffic, generate leads, and enhance brand reach.
Why Become A Pinterest Virtual Assistant?
Providing virtual assistant services for the 15th most popular social media is undoubtedly one of the most promising careers.
While many people are still unaware of this new term, the job opportunities in this field are enormous.
A major plus point is the earning and flexibility perks. Whether you are tech-savvy, a homemaker mom, or a general social media manager – anyone can handle the job sitting on the couch.
And the compensation is incredibly more than any side hustle, ranging from $25/30 per hour to 1200+ per month. But depending on your skills, services, and experiences, you can charge up to 5k+ monthly.
What Does A Pinterest Virtual Assistant Do
A Pinterest Virtual Assistant (Pinterest VA) strategically handle everything from creating visually engaging pins to implementing Pinterest SEO tactics that boost visibility, traffic, and conversions for brands.
Here’s a breakdown of what a Pinterest VA typically does:
- Pinterest account management: Account management is the basic duty of the virtual assistant specializing in Pinterest.
From optimizing the profile to the relevant and current data, selecting the correct categories, and using proper keyword research – everything that helps to increase engagement and visibility of the account is under this roof. - Creating and scheduling pins: Pins are more than just images – they are the digital fingerprints of the brands.
Creating visually appealing images that resonate with the brand ensures how much the audience will engage with the brand. But the cherry on the top is the scheduling time and technique.
Depending on the active hours of the followers, VAs can actually take the brands to a larger audience in a shorter time. - Analyzing Pinterest analytics: If pinning boards and scheduling are all then why hire a virtual assistant? Without proper analytics monitoring, all these efforts can go in vain.
Thus, VAs need to analyze the pins’ performance by paying attention to the views, likes, and comments and rebuild the strategies and SEO practices accordingly. - Engaging with the Pinterest community: Social media platforms are all about networking and building relationships.
Rather than simply pinning and re-pinning, virtual assistants must also engage with similar brands, influencers, and potential clients by commenting and sharing it with the audience.
This sense of community is what escalates the brand to its goals.
Required Skills for Becoming A Pinterest VA
You will need a mix of creative, strategic, and analytical skills tailored to Pinterest’s unique platform, to become a successful Pinterest Virtual Assistant.
Here are the required skills for this career:
- Knowledge of the Pinterest platform: A Pinterest virtual assistant must know the ins and outs of the application, how the pins work, and the analytics to help the businesses achieve what they aim for.
- Graphic design skills (basic or advanced): It’s no new news that you must possess some graphic design skills to become a virtual assistant on such a visual platform.
Whether it be basic knowledge or an advanced grasp, Pinterest VAs need to have a knack for creativity and the ability to think out of the box.
- SEO and keyword research: To completely utilize and enjoy the results of your efforts, there is no alternative to research keyword maintaining SEO throughout.
For this, Pinterest VAs must have a fundamental idea of SEO and how it works to optimize the account appropriately.
- Time management and organizational skills: As a VA, you can’t afford to be unpunctual and clumsy.
Managing time properly and having strong organizational skills are required for every virtual assistant service, regardless of the platform or sector in which you work.
Thus, before moving to specific skills, every VA should focus on them.
How to Become a Virtual Assistant for Pinterest
To become a virtual assistant is not rocket science. Following these easy steps, tips, and tricks, you can be a successful Pinterest VA, earning six figures in no time.
Let’s get started:
1. Assessing Your Skills and Interests
Before hopping on to the trend and going with the flow, you must know yourself. As each business has their own kind of visuals and images, you need to make sure which one interests you.
Consider the business for which you will be working and examine whether your interests align with them.
Assess, evaluate, and compare your managing, designing, and researching skills with the other VAs.
You would be lucky if you have them all, but if not, don’t be demotivated. Instead, try to work on these skills and be the perfect version of the VA that you aspire to see.
2. Check Necessary Tools and Software
Besides the skills, many tools and software are ready to make your job a lot easier. From designing, scheduling, and monitoring, everything is a piece of cake if you know how and when to use them.
Here are the tools types you need to check:
- Pinterest Business Account: Pinterest is the top choice for brands globally. However, using the business account is the only option to get the best out of it.
Businesses, creators, and influencers use it to access analytics, ads, and exclusive content formats, achieving five times more impressions than any other social platform.
- Graphic design tools: To design and stand out with the pins, you need to be professional and think creatively. And this is only possible with graphic designing tools.
You can use free tools like Canva for basic designs and premium advanced tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, or Other Adobe software to translate your imagination into real visuals.
- Scheduling tools: Scheduling pins and posting them from time to time when the followers are most active is the traditional practice to increase brand engagement. But to do this single-handedly is a daunting job.
Therefore, scheduling tools like the built-in Pinterest scheduler and premium tools like Tailwind or Buffer come in handy.
- Analytics tools: To leap your skills to new levels, analytics tools help with the entire performance monitoring of the account.
Apart from using Pinterest Analytics, you can use Hootsuite, Piaonly, Buffer, and even Google Analytics to assess your pins’ reach, impressions, and engagements.
| Essential Skills | Popular Tools |
|---|---|
| Graphic design | Canva, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Visme |
| Account Management | Pinterest Business, Trello and Asana |
| SEO | Pinterest Keyword Tool, SEMRush, and Ahrefs |
| Content Strategy and Scheduling | Tailwind and Pinterest Scheduler |
| Analytics Monitoring | Pinterest Analytics, Google Analytics, and Buffer |
3. Gain Relevant Skills and Experience
To thrive in that field for the long run and to make a living out of it, you must gain specialized skills by following education resources and practical experiences.
a. Educational Resources
- Online courses and certifications: Paid online courses that provide certificates can help you gain and improve practical skills and authenticate your skills and experiences.
Various ed-tech platforms, including Udemy, Skillshare, and even personal trainers, can help you gather step-by-step knowledge to become a top Pinterest VA.
- Blogs, webinars, and YouTube channels: If you are looking for free resources, there are also myriads of options on the internet.
Starting from blogs and webinars curated especially for Pinterest (e.g., Pinterest Business Blog) and even YouTube channels (e.g., The Virtual Savvy) can help you learn the inside-out to master the VA course.
Here is a list of Pinterest VA courses:
| Course Name | Offered By | Cost | Features | Ideal For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How To Become A Pinterest Virtual Assistant | Udemy | $13.99 |
| Beginners who are looking for a Pinterest VA career and budget-conscious |
| Pinterest Marketing 101 for Creative Entrepreneurs | Skillshare | $167.88 |
| Creative professionals and marketers |
| Pinterest Business as a Marketing Tool | Doméstika | $19.99 |
| Entrepreneurs and new learners of Pinterest Business account |
| Pinterest VA Course | Kristen Larsen (Pinterest VA) | $99 |
| For newbies that want complete beginner to advanced training |
| Launch Your Dream VA in 30 Days | The VA Foundry | Starting from $845 |
| Beginners, especially working mums and intermediate learners. |
| Pinterest Business Blog | Pinterest Business | Free |
| Best for in-depth learners and gaining strategic knowledge |
b. Practical Experience
- Setting up your own Pinterest profile and experimenting: There is no alternative to practical experience when you are looking to build a career as a Pinterest VA.
The best way to get this is to set up your Pinterest account and understand the platform.
Also, do use the business account and experiment with how the internal system works to get a practical view.
- Offering services to friends or local businesses for free or at a discount: Charging for your services is, of course, necessary, but new starters should also provide virtual assistant services for free or at a discount to businesses or friends.
This helps to have real-life experience and identify areas for improvement.
c. Building a Portfolio
- Showcasing your work: Clients rarely take VAs seriously without a proper portfolio.
To stand out from other options, you should have a dynamic portfolio with impressive visuals that introduce you, your passion, and skills and mainly showcase your work.
- Collecting testimonials and case studies: Client reviews, testimonials, and case studies are the main game-changer.
Decorate your portfolios with the best and most insightful reviews about your work and include case studies of businesses you have worked with.
Help them see why they need to hire you, leaving tons of options.
4. Setting Up Your Business
With the unwavering growth of Pinterest, there’s no better time to set up your business for a Pinterest virtual assistant. You can plan your strategy with little to no investment, and become a successful virtual assistant provider.
a. Choose a Business Structure
Before moving forward with your online business idea, the primary decision is to choose its structure – sole proprietorship or LLC.
We know, this might sound a bit technical. Still, it is hard to survive in online business models without knowing these laws.
So, what do they mean? If you want to own a small online business of your own with little package, without any external investments, then you are aiming for a sole proprietorship scheme.
It is the simplest structure with some easy-peasy paperwork where your assets don’t get separated from your business liabilities.
On the other hand, choosing an LLC or Limited Liability Company offers more complex paperwork to give extra legal protection and sets apart your assets from business liabilities.
Both schemes have their own sets of pros and cons. So, depending on your business model, goals, and liabilities, you can consult a legal expert or shoot an email to learn more details.
b. Providing Necessary Tools and Access
Although virtual assistant service providers have the required tools for the job, sometimes they might lack some. In that case, you should give them access to the tools.
It might not seem like a good idea at first, but believe me, it’s your business that will shine.
c. Create a Service Offering
The most important part is to create your service packaging with competitive prices. Some of the services that you can offer as a Pinterest virtual assistant are –
- Pinterest Account Setup and Optimization
- Scheduler Setup
- Pinterest Account management
- Entire Account Audit
- Custom Pin Design (both image and video)
- SEO Audit
- Account Growth Monitoring
- Training and Consultations
As a beginner, you might be overwhelmed to provide all sorts of services in a single package. But, to be honest, it is a flop idea. You should cater your services according to your skill levels.
Also, offering tire packages, from basic to advanced, providing clients with options for service and budgets is a good idea. Outline the details of each package and set the pricing following the market rates.
Lastly, you can visit businesses like Green Feather Technologies that offer virtual assistant services to get an idea of the rates and services.
d. Building a Brand
Transforming your business into a brand is the final stage of building a successful VA career. For this, you can follow the below steps-
- Creating a professional website: You can’t be professional enough without a professional website! Create a complete website highlighting your services, packages, and client feedback.
Show your top skills and why hiring you should be a win-win for your client’s business and goals.
- Developing a marketing strategy: Without proper marketing, you can’t reach your clients, let alone sell them. Devise a 100% marketing strategy before expecting clients.
Use social media platforms, especially Pinterest, to create informative content and pins and connect with the community to promote your services.
- Networking with potential clients: Network and build relationships with potential clients through Pinterest or other professional forums and platforms.
Communicate, collaborate, and work closely with them to create positive, long-lasting impressions about yourself.
5. Finding Clients
As you successfully launched your career as a Pinterest VA, here comes the most challenging part – finding the clients.
Unlike virtual assistants for Airbnb, Pinterest demands a more holistic and foolproof plan to market and pitch your services.
So, here is some tips on how to find clients for your virtual assistant service:
a. Marketing Yourself
As studies predict the number of virtual assistants to hit 8.4 million by 2028, attracting clients’ eyes without marketing yourself sounds impossible. In order to do that, you can apply some of the following methods –
- Utilizing social media: Having a solid online presence is what your clients will often look for before investing in you.
Apart from the website, using social media to post personal and professional content can genuinely influence them to work with you.
The best way to rank yourself in the top positions of Google and connect with clients and businesses is to use LinkedIn.
- Leveraging job boards: You can also scout through the job boards to find businesses looking for virtual assistants or service providers.
Identify if these match your skills and reach them with your unique service details.
- Use freelancing platforms: Freelancing platforms display various service providers and their clients.
Interact and connect with them and build a network so that they refer you to their clients for such needs.
- Ask for client referrals: Referrals and word of mouth also increase the chance of finding new clients and create a strong impression.
Thus, without any shyness, encourage your clients to refer you to their friends and other businesses if your service satisfies them.
b. Pitching Your Services
Start with the story by focusing on your interests and keeping yourself at the center of attraction.
Showcase your services and pinpoint your uniqueness, which will help them find the change you will bring to your client’s business. And mostly, clarify why you should be the one to lead their goals rather than any other VA.
After you have created your perfect pitch, start to approach your clients. Before moving to the professional landscape, experiment with your friends and known businesses and gauge their reactions.
This will reveal where to improve. Subsequently, hunt new clients from different social media, job boards, and freelancing platforms, and even reach previous successful clients to pitch your services.
6. Managing Your Business
From project management and client communication to staying updated with continuous learning, you can secure your business goals.
Here are the ways on – how to manage your business:
a. Client Communication
Your communication with your clients should be clear-cut and proactive without any exaggerations. Concisely discuss your services, timeframes, and prices to avoid unnecessary expectations that lead to mood bummer.
Discuss the project requirements and their demands with them before moving on to the project.
Even after you have started working, do regular check-ins and give them updates on the project. Reach out for any issues and feedback.
This will help you improve the relationship between you and your clients.
b. Project Management
You can use various management tools to track your project and ensure they follow the deadlines. Trello, Asana, and Clickup are popular tracking tools that help you streamline all the services and satisfy your clients.
c. Continued Learning and Improvement
Never think you have learned all the skills in this evolving tech environment. You need to keep an eye on the regular updates on the Pinterest app and follow its trends.
Along with keeping an eye on the platform, also do notice your skills. Upskill yourself, learn new trends, and increase your specialized expertise.
Not only will it help you charge more, but it will also ensure your business’s long-term success.
Challenges and Solutions
There are always ups and downs; to fight back, you must have complete solutions for every anticipated challenge.
Common Challenges
- Staying updated with Pinterest changes: Pinterest often launches updates to improve user experience and engagement.
Being a specialist in such a platform can sometimes be highly pressurizing to gather this knowledge and update yourself while handling your business and clients.
- Balancing multiple clients and tasks: As a newbie, serving numerous clients, completing the tasks, and communicating with them regularly can be hectic. Juggling from one task to another can hamper your productivity and mental health if you’re new to this online business.
Solutions and Tips
- Developing a system for efficiency: Keep yourself aware of the recent trends and platform upgrades, and serve the clients’ needs with proper planning.
Use professional tracking and managing tools, schedule your daily tasks, and design a complete system to increase efficiency and productivity.
- Seeking support from professional communities: Visit forums and social media platforms, reach experts in this field, and learn how they manage their schedules.
Learn from them and try to follow their techniques at your convenience.
Conclusion
Working as a virtual assistant to clients on a platform like Pinterest is the most rewarding job, and we are sure you are convinced about it, too.
From gathering basic to advanced skills, going through resources, and setting up your business, you can easily jump on this new career choice.
Afterward, try to learn the specialized skills, launch your brand, design your service package, and start to market yourself to pitch your services to clients.
We have another article on ‘How to Become a Virtual Assistant for Airbnb‘. If you are interested for this career, you can explore this guide too.
