Pinterest for Business – Are You Embracing The Visual Revolution?

I don’t know about you, but when Pinterest was first released it had me intrigued. Maybe it was the initial invitation-only registration process or the fact that it promised to offer something innovative when it came to visual content.

Then again, I thought to myself, there’s only so much longevity in pinning things to boards – maybe it won’t really catch on. That was four years ago and it’s safe to say that Pinterest has definitely caught on! And, like all great social networks, it has coined its own verb: pinning.

For those of you who aren’t that familiar with Pinterest, it’s promoted as a visual discovery tool that allows people to create visual collections (boards) and visual bookmarks (pins), containing all the things that they like or that inspire them. These can then be shared and ultimately appear in other users’ Pinterest feeds.

So what’s the big deal?

The big deal is that Pinterest is now huge and fast becoming much more than just a visual discovery tool. In fact, it’s being lauded as a budding ecommerce leader, which could end up rivalling Google in terms of product search – interested now? Imagine the potential that Pinterest holds for your business.

It’s no wonder then that a price tag of $3.8 billion was placed on Pinterest towards the end of last year. The social network is growing and your business needs to embrace its visual revolution. But how?

Become pin friendly

Much like Facebook’s ‘like’ button, Pinterest’s ‘pin it’ feature allows people to pin your content directly to their Pinterest boards. Start by making all of the content on your website and blog pin friendly by adding an on hover pin it button to your images. There are detailed steps on how to do this on the main Pinterest site.

By adding this functionality, you will inevitably increase the chances of people sharing your business’s content on their `pinboards’. In turn, you will start to see what types of content your customers engage with the most and look to focus on more specific visual marketing campaigns going forward.

Organise your content

One of the great things about Pinterest is that you can organise your content into themed boards, thus making it easier for people to find more of the stuff that interests them.

For example, if you are a company that sells home décor, it would be highly beneficial to organise your pins into categorised boards like accessories, furniture and bedding.

Brand your pins

It may be more time consuming, but including your company logo on images is definitely worth the extra effort. It serves to further implant your company’s image in the mind of the reader and every `repin’ will ultimately share your logo.

It’s important, however, to be subtle when it comes to logos. A small corner logo is expected, but large watermarks can put some people off `repinning’.

Be shopper friendly

Unlike most other social networks, Pinterest users have a shopping mindset. Bear this in mind when you pin any content to your boards. For example, include useful information that the reader might want to know like product features, benefits and even price.

This ‘shopper-friendly’ information will undoubtedly increase the engagement factor and inevitably lead to more Pinterest referrals to your business’s website.

Engage your audience

Some businesses focus too highly on getting as much content out there as possible and often neglect one of the most important aspects of social networks: user engagement.

If one of your customers or potential customers asks a question about one of your products then you should furnish them with a prompt response. Failure to do so will harm your brand as people will come to think that you don’t care about your demographics.

Engagement can also come in the form of `repinning’ other people’s content; commenting on pins that are relevant to your industry; and leverage your community by forging relationships with influential pinners – those who have a lot of followers.

If you haven’t explored Pinterest yet, it is definitely time to do so. The benefits to your business are potentially huge and it should undeniably be a part of your social media strategy.

Photo Credit: MRBECK via Flickr