Pinterest is a social media site that’s growing in leaps and bounds. It’s been called the ‘visual Twitter’ because it’s all about images. You create boards and share your images with other users. While it may good for traffic, I see its real power in how you can use it for branding.
For us its all about using all the marketing avenues available to us to promote our online activities and naturally social media plays a part in that and will grow substantially over the coming years.
However a word of caution here don’t let the other more traditional methods slip, article marketing, blog and forum commenting etc are still vital – it’s all about doing little and often across as many promotional platforms as possible.
What People Do on Pinterest?
First of all, it’s important to understand Pinterest’s users. When the site started out, it was overwhelmingly young and female. Businesses that catered to that demographic posted pics of their clothes, fashions, hairstyles, cute pets, food, travel destinations and more. But now it’s much more than just young ladies who are using it.
So, why do people use Pinterest?
They’re not there to hang out like Facebook or to network like LinkedIn, and they’re not looking for written content. What people mostly do is use Pinterest to relax, take a break and look at some cool images. For marketers, this means we need to avoid hard sell tactics at all costs and content needs to be visually appealing.
What to Pin
On Pinterest, you create ‘pinboards’ where you put your pics. Each of your pinboards is based around a common theme. One simple thing you can do with your boards is use them to show off your products. You can create one for each product line.
Another way to use them is to find images that your fans would enjoy and posting them, kind of like sharing images you’ve found. This is good for business niches because you can show infographics. For the self-help niche, you can pin images with inspirational quotes.
I mentioned that Pinterest is powerful for branding. One of the ideas I came across was from GE’s pinboards. They used them to brand the company, showing it from the inside out. They made boards that showed how their products go from the factory floor to the store shelves. If you can find a way to use your boards to showcase your business’s inside operation, this is great for branding.
It’s All About Engagement
Like all social media sites, Pinterest is all about engaging your audience. You’ve got to do that as much as possible. You can ask for opinions, get comments going, and conduct surveys with a free giveaway.
There’s a cool feature offered by Pinterest that can really get your fans involved. It’s called Me + Contributors and it allows your fans to contribute to your boards. I see lots of potential here for blowing up your boards.
Another engagement idea is to get your fans to take a picture and post it on your board. It could be a picture of them with your product or them doing something related to your brand.
When Pinterest started out, like all social media sites, nobody knew if it was going to go anywhere. Now it looks like it’s here to stay and if you don’t get on board, you’ll miss the train. Yes, I meant to say ‘board!’
Tony
