Pinterest is a social photo sharing website where users can “pin” images (and video) they like and tag them with appropriate keywords which others can find and share, or “repin”, on their own similar boards. The inherent value of Pinterest comes from its ability to help introduce new things to people through content curation, and then build relationships based on mutual shared interests.
It has enjoyed a rapid rise to become the third largest social media channel behind Facebook and Twitter, with over 10 million unique visits per month. These visitors skew female (70%) and spend an average of 16 minutes per day on the site. With that kind of reach and stickiness, it’s time to consider participating on behalf of your business to put more social bait in the water and incorporate it as part of a larger multimedia content strategy.
1. Show the Human Side of Your Business
By showing people a human side to your company, whether it is through images of your culture, your beliefs, or a look behind the scenes at your people, you are being more conducive to gaining followers. That makes earning their business easier, as people tend to do business with people they know and like, more than anything else. Make sure you acknowledge and follow the people who repin your posts.
2. Be a Creative thought leader in your category
Think about your business category: how can you get more creative about showing why you are different from your competitors? For example, you might think that a bank would not have any tangible imagery they could use to engage an audience. However, there may be more than you would think. Banks handle money, correct? Why not create a Pinterest Board with repins of different images of cash as art? Or, maybe they could show a mortgage infographic or unique houses in their market. The possibilities are only limited by your time and imagination. Just make sure you are not violating any copyrights and not blatantly promoting your products and services. It is more inferred than anything. However, you should post images from your own products, so in this example, a mortgage calculator app wouldn’t hurt!
3. Search Engine Optimization Benefits
At this time, all links from Pinterest are “followed” links. This means that a link to your website will carry a small percentage of the domain authority of Pinterest, and thereby considered a quality link, something Google prefers. Another way Google ranks your website is by the overall quantity of links to your website. By posting lots of images and videos on Pinterest, you are also building your backlinks. Moreover, by optimizing your images with keywords, you can help people find your images when they perform searches through Pinterest, and hopefully over time, on the search engine image results pages as well.
4. Gain Exposure and Drive more Traffic to your Website
Pinterest is quickly becoming one of the top referring websites for many companies who actively utilize it. The more repins you receive (80% of all pins are repins), the more chances people will be visiting your website to check out the source. That’s where you have an opportunity to close the sales loop. Once people have seen or interacted with you across several social channels, and that engagement has hopefully been helpful or meaningful, the likelihood of them doing business with you greatly increases. This is one of the core tenants of social media success. Social media is not the best environment for your sales pitch. Participating in social media is a great way to help turn your customers into advocates for the long-term. The key is not to DO social, but to BE social. If you remember to interact as a human (see #1), you’ll be sure to gain followers.
How to Promote your Pinterest Page
Unfortunately, there are no advertising opportunities on Pinterest – yet. Therefore, start by adding a Pinterest icon to your website. Add a Pinterest app to your website images to encourage people to “pin them”. Include a link in your email signature, your LinkedIn profile and definitely link your account to your Flickr, Twitter and Facebook pages. In fact, many marketers are seeing the largest referring traffic to their Facebook page is from Pinterest.
Have you tried using Pinterest for your company as part of a larger social media marketing effort? Please share your thoughts below and “happy pinning”!
