Darnelle O’BrienThe social media platform, Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save ideas for projects and interests. Think of Pinterest as social media’s answer to scrap booking. Create multiple “boards” for varying topics, interests and projects. From a business perspective; you can create boards of your products, content, services and additional boards relevant to your audience. For people, it can suck a huge amount of time as you find yourself going down a rabbit hole, discovering new content and beautiful things to add to your boards. A marketer’s playground right?
But it isn’t all fantasy holiday boards and dream wedding inspiration. Right now, hundreds of thousands of businesses are leveraging the power of Pinterest to drive traffic to their websites and increase sales. In fact, according to Search Engine Journal’s Quarter 3 Search Engine Traffic Report, Pinterest is the second largest driver of social media website traffic second only to Facebook.
Okay I’ve joined up. What next?
Once you’ve set up a business account with a strong profile, start creating boards. Your boards should be consistently aligned with your social media strategy and existing social platforms to communicate a clear brand message. I find it useful to map out boards on two levels: Core Boards and Relevant Boards.
Core boards
These are the boards that are your core business. They can include your content, products, blogs, or sales messages. This is where you can push your products and services and drive traffic to your website.
That doesn’t mean it’s just sell, sell, sell. Make sure you tell the story of the product and explain in detail how your products can benefit your audience. E.g. a clothing retailer may have a board of dresses. Instead of simply uploading the pictures and prices of the dresses, create a story around them. Describe where you could wear the dress to, when and how. This creates value, engagement, and shareability.
Relevant boards
These boards add an extra layer to your content. Just like on Facebook, you aren’t spruiking your goods and services 24/7, so don’t do it here. E.g. a jeweller may have a wedding inspiration board that has among other things rings, venues, dresses decorations. These are topics that a jeweller’s audience are interested in, driving engagement and shareability.
Once you’ve mapped out your core boards and relevant boards, before you Pin anything, consider the following:
- What’s your primary goal for the Pin?
- Does the Pin communicate your brand value?
- Is this Pin relevant to your audience?
- How do you want people to feel after interacting with your brand?
What makes a good Pin?
Pinterest believes three foundations make a good Pin:
- Helpful
- Beautiful
- Actionable
Helpful
How useful and informative is the Pin to your audience? Does it deliver value?
Beautiful
If your Pins are compelling and creative your audience will engage with you. Always use high quality images. The lower the quality the worse the Pin. Photos should be 600px wide and between 900px and 2100px tall.
Actionable
Just like anything online, include calls to action that help people take action on their interests. You can also link out to places that will help your audience make a purchase or complete an action.
Want more information?
Pinterest have compiled a great eBook that details everything you need to make great business Pins. Download it here.
And for those more experienced Pinners, @beccacaddy has some great tips to share on her recent blog 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pinterest.
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