Have you heard of Pinterest? If not, you may want to find a female aged 18-44 to explain it to you before you get too far behind the growing social media site!
The Pinterest site was launched in March of 2010, but I can even say I didn’t know about it until last fall, which is the timeframe the site started to catch on. However, the invite-only site has now climbed to third in the rankings of social media sites in total number of visitors according to Experian Hitwise. Pinterest falls behind Facebook and Twitter, but has passed LinkedIn and Google+. The site, co-founded by Iowa native Ben Silbermann, can no longer be ignored, especially in the marketing world.
In order to join Pinterest, an invitation is needed. An invitation can be obtained by requesting it from Pinterest or from a friend (which is faster). Log-in then requires going through a Facebook or Twitter account, which allows for postings about new pins to show up in the feeds of the other social media channel. This connection to Facebook and Twitter is what has made Pinterest take off so quickly. It automatically finds your friends already on Pinterest – and you can follow all of them with only one click.
What makes Pinterest different than other social media?
Pinterest is an online bulletin board,and users can ‘collect’ items of interest by pinning them to their boards. Images, videos or articles, can be ‘re-pinned’ from other users, uploaded or pinned from any website with the ‘Pin it’ button. The items are pinned with an image, which is linked to a source website, unless it is an uploaded image. The boards are simple, with the image featured on a white background and the text is minimal. The images and simple design are appealing to the eyes of users and it keeps them scrolling down the page, which continues to load pins as the scrolling continues.
From a business standpoint, Pinterest, according to Shareholic, has been driving higher volumes of website referral traffic than Twitter and other social media sites in the past months. Pinning an image, article or video that links directly back to your site will draw followers into visiting your site.
Tips for Businesses:
- Make your site ‘pin-able’. Add a ‘Pin It’ button to the business website, have attractive pictures to pin on your site, rather than just words.
- Build a lifestyle around your brand. Start your own Pinterest site and pin more than just brand items. It makes creates a lifestyle for your brand, makes the brand engaging, more personable and develops more than just a ‘push’ relationship with followers.
- Keep it consistent. Don’t pin a large amount of pins every once and awhile, build it up. Every time something new is pinned it is featured on the Pinterest homepage, so scatter your pinning and the business name will come up more on the homepage.
- Use keywords. In the description bar, insert keywords or use hashtags or include a link back to the original page. Keywords will help the Pin come up in Pinterest searches.
- Create a promotion. Whether it is through a pinning contest or by pinning coupons, followers will take notice and may become more engaged as followers.
- Check out HubSpot’s Ebook: How to Use Pinterest for Business
Pinners to Check Out:
- Drake University: The Drake marketing team has developed their Pinterest account to help showcase the college experience and lifestyle at Drake.
- Panera Bread: Panera is building up their Pinterest site, while dispersing items that drive followers to their site they also pin items to promote a happy, healthy lifestyle. Their contest called #MakeTodayBetter, is a great example of getting followers engaged with the brand.
- Visualities Videography: The videographer does more than showcase their videos, they help suggest ideas for the entire wedding planning along with recipes and gifts.
- Salvation Army Family Stores: Salvation Army, a non-profit, has used their boards to promote the sales of the Family Stores with boards that suggest how to re-purpose items that may be found in their stores.
Connect with HRB:
