Pinterest is an increasingly popular choice for businesses wishing to build their following online and engage in some free promotion. It is especially powerful as a marketing tool for retail and lifestyle businesses. Here’s why we think that you should try Pinterest, if you have not already joined millions of others who are benefiting from this amazing image blogging platform.
Pinterest is a huge social network of picture blogs. Each image that is ‘pinned’ can have a link added to it and users are able to create themed boards in which to store their pins. Very quickly, it has turned into a huge scrap book of internet users’ interests, wants and wishes. And this is why it has attracted the attention of e-commerce.
The demographic for Pinterest is predominantly female; they make up the largest percentage of users regularly using the site. This female audience tends to be economically stable with a healthy disposable income. In addition they are highly fashion conscious and interested in items for the home, family and in travelling, cookery and all things retail! As a result, their boards have quickly become huge commercial wish lists of much desired and coveted shoes, handbags, outfits, cookery tips, and style ideas for family events, homes and interiors.
From a marketing and promotional angle, this kind of audience provides rich pickings for many commercial enterprises. Because the behavior of Pinterest users centers on users posting items they like, have or want, it is perfect for any company wishing to promote itself and put its products right in the spotlight. If your business retails any items to this demographic, you really should be considering Pinterest as a promotional tool.
The next step is to create a range of interesting and eye-catching boards that have themes which will be of interest to your customers and Pinterest users. For example, if you are a shoe retailer, then create boards for different colors, or seasons. Don’t stick to only pinning images of shoes though, you should aim to pin a variety of images which create virtual mood boards and design concepts that can be shared. The whole point of Pinterest is to pin gorgeous images that have links within them leading a pinner straight back to your website. It is a natural, free, and highly effective back-link.The easiest way to do this is to post the images onto your website with some information and then pin them directly to your Pinterest board.
At the moment, Pinterest is still free so the time is now to act and get as much free publicity as possible. As the number of users grows, we believe that it will not be too long before commercial users are charged for promoting goods on Pinterest. They are already offering promotional and advertising opportunities to companies. So, get cracking now and build your following as much as you can before there are additional charges involved in doing so.
Re-pin others’ pins too. This is a great way of building up your collections, learning what is popular and finding followers for your own boards. The more you pin the more people you will attract. And if you are sharing high quality images that lead to excellent content that your customers can respond to, you will see your following increase and a positive influence on sales too.
Pinterest is very different to Facebook and Twitter. There is much less direct, one-to-one communication, and the focus is always on the image. There are some similarities however. The site uses the hash tag method of tagging pins so they are easier to find, and the search facility allows you to search for specific topics, or users. When Hash for sale you are pinning your own pictures and creating boards, ensure you use hash tags and common descriptive terms so that your boards and pins are easily found in searches too.
For each of your pins, insert a caption or description and add a hash tag descriptor too. These can include your own specific keywords that you use for SEO. In fact, we highly recommend you do this. It will increase the level of activity associating your business with these keywords.
Another important step toward taking full advantage of Pinterest is to encourage others pinners to post your content. This is done by simply adding a ‘Pinit’ button to all your content. When a user likes what they see, they can click the button and pin your content onto one of their boards. Remember however, that this will only happen if you make your content Pinterest friendly, that is, you use images that lend themselves to Pinterest.
When it comes to social media, there have been many articles and webinars about how to succeed and build a following. And there has been a great deal of discussion online about whether these platforms really do help to build businesses. We believe they do. However, it is not a quick fix and does take time and commitment to build a healthy and loyal following. If you are presenting your business in an effective way, and targeting the right demographic, you will have success. This is true for Pinterest too. Think carefully about your type of business. Spend some time on Pinterest and see how it works and who uses it. This will help you decide whether it will be beneficial to your business.
