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.

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

Personal account

A personal Pinterest account, as the name says, is a place where you can get inspired and collect ideas for your 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 objective is to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, grow your email list, or attract problem-aware 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 aligned audience).

Your business account has a clear, intended purpose – 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 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, to keep 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?

Well, if your personal account is already aligned with your business, it makes sense to remove or archive personal content unrelated to your business and transition it to a business account.

You should remove personal content to avoid confusing the Pinterest algorithm with off-brand content. For example, if your profile says you’re a copywriter for business coaches but keep pinning casserole recipes and bathroom DIYs, Pinterest will struggle to understand and categorize your content and show it to the right audience.

You can always start a new personal account on the side (makes more sense to do it this way since there’s no urgency or pressure to grow your personal account).

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 downward arrow in the top right corner and Add an account to make your other account appear on the list.

Your profile, boards, and followers will stay the same

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

Converting to a business account won’t remove the followers you’ve already amassed, the 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 aligned 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, attract your ideal client, and grow your email list. It has a clear purpose and a niche (for example, web design).

To grow your business account, you 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 archive any boards that don’t align with your business.

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 (that’s good because we don’t want to confuse Pinterest and your audience).

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

Before you go, pin this for later!