If you haven’t come across Pinterest, firstly why, and secondly, how? The pin-board style social bookmarking site is one of the fastest growing social networks in the world; in fact it was the fastest standalone website to reach 10 million unique visitors, according to comScore.
Launched in March 2010 by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, Evan Sharp, the virtual pin-board allows users to bookmark, organise and ‘pin’ images from around the web. Continuing to grow at 145%, Pinterest is becoming a strong contender in the battle of the social network
Source: google.co.in via SEO | SMO on Pinterest
Why should businesses care?
When used properly, Pinterest can create brand recognition and promote your business’s brand personality. Businesses use the social site as a content sharing platform, seeding current content, resulting in business and user interaction.
Pinterest provides businesses with a unique approach of using images to attract cliental in a creative way. This unique avenue of advertising allows users to identify with your brand on a more personal and interactive level.
Businesses can promote their products in a subtle way, while avoiding looking too commercial or ‘sales-like.’
Simply just pinning something interesting can excite and inspire Pinterest users, which in turn will boost traffic and hopefully result in more sales.
Pinterest has become a big referrer of organic traffic, which may outrank other traffic sources in the future. As search engines are considering social signals more closely now, leveraging Pinterest may be a beneficial method to help improve brand awareness and drive sales.
Other incentives of a Pinterest campaign:
- It’s free!
- You can show your audience, rather than tell
- You can connect to users quicker
- You can reach a wider audience
How can Pinterest improve brand awareness?
Source: google.com via Imaginet Internet Services on Pinterest
Using Pinterest in the appropriate way is crucial to achieving success. First of all, you don’t want to pin absolute ‘rubbish’ just for the sake of pinning. Pins are supposed to be fun, but it’s important that they are relevant to your brand. So for example, pin product images, blog posts, videos, infographics, photos from the office and even customer testimonials. These are appropriate pins.
Pinterest acts a kind-of storyboard which invites users to join your business’s journey. By sharing things important to your business and your industry, your followers will begin to develop a connection with your brand. Grow this allusion further by giving audiences a glimpse of what it’s like in your company’s ‘world’, by pinning images of your daily ‘goings-on’ including images of events, conferences, new products and office news.
Encourage further interaction by allowing your followers to pin content onto your boards. This strategy will not only boost user interaction, it will convert users into buyers.
Best practice tips to improve brand awareness with Pinterest
Think ‘Audience’ – if you were a user what would you want to know? What would matter to you?
Inspire – Users are attracted to Pinterest because it excites and inspires them. How could you inspire your audience? Create themes and pin images which are visually attractive and relevant to the theme. Remember, your boards are not aiming to ‘sell,’ they are aiming to inspire, so make sure they are as non-commercial as possible, whilst still reflecting the values behind your brand.
Be Proactive – Don’t leave your account to sit there and go stale. If something isn’t working, think why. Which boards/themes are working and which ones aren’t? Re-think your strategy and create fresh, inspiring boards.
Don’t take it too seriously – Pinterest is popular because it is current, visually satisfying and fun. If you have fun populating your boards, your users will bound to find your boards appealing too.
Maintain Momentum – Engage with your users regularly and pin ideally every day. Continue to produce compelling pins and monitor their success.
Check out this insightful infographic by Gerry Moran on MarketingThink.com about How To Build The Perfect Pinterest For Business Profile. With these handy tips you are bound to build a successful Pinterest campaign for your business.
The Most Popular Pin Of All Time
With 104,500 repins, 14,181 likes and 192 comments (and still counting), this pin featuring very cheesy garlic bread is the most popular pin to date! It does look yummy though! To find out other ‘Pinteresting’ facts visit Repinly.com
Heard of ‘Pinfluence?’
Pinfluence is a desktop application which measures and manages your Pinterest campaign. The advanced marketing tool allows you to track traffic and identify which boards/ pins are converting. You can schedule your pins during out-of-office hours to ensure that you are engaging with your audience at all times. Pinfluence can help you find the right people to interact with by creating community boards, reaching these target communities in a wider demographic. To find out more visit Pinfluence.
To sum up then, Pinterest creates brand awareness by driving traffic to your website, building relationships with your target audience and converting users into buyers.
