There are several ways to collaborate with your clients. One of the simplest ways is to meet up for coffee, flip through magazines, go over materials and talk about their vision. But when schedules collide or distance is an issue, we bring in our most time-trusted time-waster, Pinterest. Here are four steps to using Pinterest as a collaboration tool for your small biz.
CREATE A PRIVATE BOARD + INVITE YOUR CLIENT
Now, you could go either way on this, but I recommend starting with a secret board over a public one. You can always make a secret board public, but you can’t make a public board secret. You just need a place for your ideas to marinate. I highly suggest you create this board from your account. Name the board something very specific, like Jordan’s 18 x 24 Collage. This gives you space to create other project boards with that client in the future. If you have talked with your client about their project, I recommend “seeding” the board with a few ideas you talked about. Then, you’re ready to invite your client to pin on your board.
PIN, THEN PURGE
Now it’s time to pin! Hopefully if you’ve named your board something very specific, pins will make sense. Encourage your client to update the “Description” section with what they specifically liked about each pin. This will save a lot of time down the road. After you’ve both pinned, go back through the board and purge the impulse pins.
CHAT
Now, hop on the phone, jump on a google hangout, and talk about it. You want to get a really good sense of what the client is wanting out of the project.
PROMOTE
Add photos of the completed project to the board, make the board public, and now you have an example for new clients. They can see first hand what an internet brainstorm is all about, and how you can turn an idea into a finished project. It’s best at this time to revoke your client’s pinning privileges. You don’t get to add any pins either. Preserve the board’s integrity.