How Pinterest Can Help your Business
Marketing with Pinterest
Pinterest is quite possibly the hottest thing to come along in social networking since Twitter, or perhaps even Facebook. As with any new social media venture, marketers are looking at it to see if it can help their company gain new customers.
Think of Pinterest as an old-fashioned bulletin board where you pin your ideas, recipes, notes and other information. Pinterest is a very visual medium, which makes it particularly useful to companies that are selling products that are visually appealing and even some services like landscaping or hair styling. But the visual element doesn’t mean that content driven “pins” aren’t successful, quite the contrary.
Currently, Pinterest is an invitation only website, but you can go to www.pinterest.com and request and invite and you should get one in a few days. Or, as a friend to invite you and you’ll almost immediately receive the invitation. Make sure you register your business account with a business email and Twitter account, this way you can instantly share information from Pinterest. At this point in time, Pinterest does not offer a direct connection with a Facebook business page, but it does for individual pages.
When you’ve signed up on Pinterest, take the time to complete your profile, using solid keywords that identify your business. Take particular note of the “Hide your Pinterest Profile” question and switch it to off. If you’re hidden you will not be listed on search engines, and you definitely want to be searchable.
Because Pinterest is a social media outlet it should be treated as such. Just like Facebook and Twitter, you want to encourage social interaction, not blatantly sell your products. Users of social media are turned off by salesmen and they’re savvy enough to see through thin smokescreens.
If you want an excellent example of a company using Pinterest correctly, check out Oreck. People absolutely love pet pictures and videos and Ha! Vacuums are a great way to clean up pet messes! But Oreck doesn’t have to make that connection for you, they let you do it yourself, they simply show you the cutest little critters around. Their pins are so cute that you feel compelled to follow them so you can see the next installment of their furry friends.
Another way Pinterest is similar to other social media is that you will get the most out of it by interacting with others. Follow other companies and people and repin their posts. Establish a company identity and find pins that would appeal to that type of person.
One way to take advantage of the social aspect is to let the personalities behind your company shine through. Take some fun pictures of the office in team building activities or working hard on a project. Invite them to share a favorite vacation photo or one of them pursuing an outside activity. This opens you up to an even wider group of potential followers.
The real key to developing a Pinterest following that may turn into leads is to think about your ideal consumer’s lifestyle and how your products fit into it. Highlight the lifestyle elements, not your products. The more social you are as a company, the greater success you’ll have with social media.
Contact Graphic Design to have a Pinterest button added to your webpage so your friends and customers can easily pin your products to their bulletin boards.
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