How to Use Pinterest for Business

One of the most feared social media platforms, but if your target market is there, there is a pretty good chance that you should be too! So how do you use Pinterest for your business? Here’s some ideas that can make Pinterest a valuable platform for you.

1. Direct traffic

The great thing about Pinterest is you can use it to direct traffic to your website, a product, or a blog post. With each pin you post or re-pin you can include a link. This link will direct users to your site as soon as they maximize the photo and click it for more information. Include a call to action in the description of your photo that will entice your target to continue on a click-through.

2. Set-up boards

When you start your Pinterest account you should create a few boards that you can re-pin and pin your posts to. Try and think outside the box, and create value so your target will want to follow the entire board! For example: DavidsTea has a board of recipes you can make with their tea. They re-pin from other users who create their own recipes, and also add their own.

It’s important to not skip this step! You don’t want to just be re-pinning and pinning to unrelated boards and not organizing your pins.

3. Timing

Timing is everything with Pinterest. It’s important to not just sign-on to your account, pin and re-pin a million posts at once, and then not log-on for awhile. This will first off annoy the people who were following you, and second off is it ever a good idea to only check a social platform once and awhile? No! Treat Pinterest like you would anything else.

4. Integrate

Add a “pin-it” button on your website so users can easily pin your content right on their own Pinterest. This doesn’t always appeal with all brands and organizations, but especially ones with products, or great visuals that your users will want to share!

5. Descriptions

Many people get caught up with how beautiful or awesome a photo is on Pinterest that they forget about the description. Include your keywords, and make them enticing! You want people to click through to the linked page, and you want people to get context to what they are looking at, even if you may think it’s obvious.

Pinterest is a platform that many find foreign, but in fact it can be a valuable tool, and if used the right way there is huge potential for creativity.

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Pin Down Success Using Pinterest

Pinterest is growing faster than any other social media outlet: take advantage of its growth through social media marketing. 

Even if you already use Pinterest for marketing purposes, there may be some things that you can do to make your online marketing efforts far more effective. 

1. Connecting Pinterest with Other Social Media Outlets

You probably already use social media outlets like Facebook and Google+, and chances are you’ve explored them enough to know how to maximize your marketing efforts through them. Connecting Pinterest with your other social media efforts can help you reach more of your target audience on more sites.

Add a Pinterest button so that your followers and friends have the option to “pin” the content you provide on those outlets. Suggest that they follow you on Pinterest and provide a link to your profile or a specific board you feel is most successful. “Share” your pins on your social media profiles so that everyone can see.

The idea is to cross-promote. Do not post every single thing you put on Facebook on Pinterest and vice versa. Each of your profiles should still have a unique feel, and it should show that you spend quality time on each one. 

Do, however, link to each social media site from the other. Chances are that if they like you or your product enough to follow you on one, they will follow you on the other. 

2. Use the Right Apps

Pinterest does allow you to connect your account to Facebook, but using an app designed specifically to do that is much simpler and generally more effective. There are a variety of different apps that can connect your social media accounts and pages, but Woobox is a pretty popular one that a lot of people are using.

Once you install one of the apps designed to connect your social media accounts, your activity on Pinterest will start to stream through your Facebook page, allowing users that may not know you have Pinterest or use it regularly to check out and like your posts. These apps also allow Pinterest users that see your content to check out your Facebook page and become a friend or follower. 

3. Quick Browsing

After you connect your Pinterest account with other social media accounts, users will be able to quickly see when you post on Pinterest through sites like Facebook, which means you’ll likely get more clicks from people already following you or your company. Connecting social media accounts simply means that users will see more of your content, and they’ll be able to do it all from a site they browse on a regular basis, like Facebook. 

4. Add a Pin Button

Having a pin button in clear sight makes pinning content much easier for you and the users following your content. Every piece of content that you create and share should have a pin button, allowing users to pin your content to a new board or one of their existing boards. Having a pin button will also allow you to quickly pin content to your boards – even if it’s your own content from a site that you run.

5. Be Specific

If you use Pinterest, you already know that people will create boards about anything and everything. While you might think that generic pin boards will help attract more users, the truth is that very specific pin boards will actually help you find more users. That way each board that you create will apply to a niche market of users looking for something specific or with an interest in a certain type of product.

As an example, if you sell wall mounts for televisions you can create several pinboards that indirectly relate to the product that will entice people to “like,” “repin” and “follow” you. You will have absolutely no success with a pinboard about television wall mounts alone unless they are bedazzled. 

That said, one of your boards could be about earthquake safety. That might sound boring, but you have to remember that many of the users on Pinterest are women between 25 and 35, and many of them are mothers. With close to 40 million people in California (the earthquake ridden state), 50% of whom are women and 57% of whom are women between 19 and 64 years of age, there is a significant chance that you will have a very successful board on earthquake safety granted that the information you provide is useful and relevant. Include information on how to plan a safe exit from your home with your family, properly strapping furniture to the walls (work in television wall mounts here), the best products to pack in an emergency kit, etc.

It may sound like a lot of work but it takes only about a couple of hours to set up the account, create a board, follow a few people, pin a few things, then schedule pins through an app like Pingraphy -- it’s a great idea to schedule pins throughout the day to maintain a presence. A couple of hours versus the eventual return is really nothing.

The point of this is to create a following of Pinterest users that have the potential of becoming customers by providing them with relevant information they feel makes you a credible source to look to.

Earthquake safety not convincing you? Try applying everything mentioned above to one of these:

• Tuscan Style Interior Design
• Children’s Health
• Modern Architecture
• Super Bowl Party
• Man Cave
• Educational Television for Children
• T.V. Junkie -- All the Must-See Shows!
• Film Buff

Pinterest right now is really a boundless social media outlet that is growing uncontrollably. There is no telling just how much value it has, and learning to utilize it now as opposed to when everyone else is already using it is going to give you a leg up.

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Tips to Generate Leads Online with Pinterest

In case you haven’t noticed, Pinterest is hot. In just the last year, the virtual pinboarding site has seen its web traffic grow from 700,000 unique visitors to 20 Million - half the unique visitors of Twitter. 

According to data from Compete’s Online Shopper Intelligence Survey, 1 in 4 consumers acknowledge that they are spending less time on other social media sites in favor of Pinterest. Brands are finding that a presence on Pinterest translates into sales. Roughly 25% of consumers reported purchasing a product or service after discovering it on Pinterest. Long presumed to be a social site dominated by women, Compete’s survey found that that 37% of males bought a product or service after seeing it on Pinterest, as opposed to just 17% of females.¹

The muscular traffic growth of Pinterest, coupled with the strong tendency of users to eventually purchase items discovered on the site, should be enough for marketers and business owners to sit up and take notice. Admittedly, from a workflow perspective, nobody wants to deal with another social network.

However, if these numbers have left you convinced, here are 7 tips to pin your way to the top: ²

• Post Blog Images: Get in the habit of pinning the main images from each of your blogs.  Make sure to link each image back to the related blog post, and included CTAs and landing pages to capture prospect lead data.
• Info-Graphics: People love data that’s put into a visual format. Challenge your graphic designer to take company or industry data points and convert them into a compelling info-graphic.
• eBook and Whitepaper Covers: If your company has created an ebook or whitepaper, take the front cover and pin it onto your Pinterest brand page. As with blog images, make sure to link it to the corresponding eBook/whitepaper, and include a CTA and landing page.
• Photos of Satisfied Customers: Prospects love to see pics of happy customers. As an added bonus, link any pinned photos back to case studies or positive user reviews you’ve gotten from these happy campers. Just make sure to get permission from your customers first!
• Use Hashtags: Pinterest supports hashtags to make your content more search-friendly. If you’re promoting a new campaign or launching a new product/service, create a pinboard around it. Make sure to tag it with the same hashtag you’re using on Twitter and Google+ to synch your social marketing efforts.
• Create a Video Gallery: Many people don’t know that you can pin videos on Pinterest. In fact, the site’s homepage has a separate tab for videos. Make sure to add any business-related videos you may currently have on your website or YouTube to your Pinterest brand page. As with YouTube, you’ll want to add links and CTAs to give prospects a simple path down the sales funnel.
• Measure Results: As you add more images to Pinterest, use any analytics tools at your disposal to measure web traffic and lead generation performance in order to discern which images are working and which aren’t. Try to find patterns in successes and failures, so you can pin image and video content that is most likely to generate leads and convert sales.

Follow these seven tips, and your brand should be able to generate leads online with Pinterest in no time.

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Pinterest Power: How to Use the Third Largest Social Media Site to Promote Your Business

A recent report by Experian revealed that Pinterest is now the third largest social media site based on the number of site visits in March 2012. Facebook maintains its mammoth lead with 7 billion visits, Twitter received 182 million, Pinterest received 104 million, and LinkedIn received 86 million. Considering Pinterest launched in 2010 with a small beta test, its growth has been remarkable.

A social media site built around the concept of sharing photos, Pinterest users can “pin” photos to their boards for sharing with other users. With a predominantly female audience, Pinterest is a popular place to share photos for wedding planning, home redecorating, recipes, vacation destinations, and books. However, despite popular belief, your business doesn’t need to be product-based in order take advantage of the benefits that Pinterest offers.

Here’s how to get started with Pinterest:

1. Apply for an account. Pinterest still operates under invitation only, though this is a minor technicality and after you submit your request for an account, you can expect confirmation within a day or two. Note that though you can login to Pinterest with your Twitter or Facebook account, it is beneficial to set up your account with an email address and password since Pinterest doesn’t yet integrate with Facebook business pages.

2. Create your pin boards. When defining your boards, consider what would be of interest to your target audience. You can and should have multiple boards with various themes such as books you love, photos from events, featured products, inspiring places you want to visit, products you love, client success stories, etc. For ideas, surf around the Pinterest site to see what others are doing with their boards. You can search by keywords to find boards related to your topics of interest.

3. Name your boards. You don’t have to use the default board titles that Pinterest suggests. Instead, rename your boards with descriptive, keyword-rich titles that will help Pinterest users find your content.

4. Download the Pin It button. Pinterest makes it easy to share content by allowing you to download a handy button to add to the toolbar on your web browser. This makes it easy to get in the habit of pinning interesting content to your boards.

5. Start pinning content. One of the great benefits of pinning photos to Pinterest is that a link is automatically included back to the source of the pinned photo. So if you pin a book from Amazon, a link will be added back to the book’s page on Amazon. The same is true when you pin photos from your own website or blog—and you should do so regularly. By pinning each new blog post, you add links back to your blog, which can lead to increased traffic. Note that you can also add descriptions to each photo that you pin to your board so be sure to include a descriptive title. You can even include an additional website link if you want to, which can also contribute to improved search engine optimization for your website since Pinterest currently allows Google to follow those links.

6. Build your audience. You can cross-promote your Pinterest presence with other social networks by periodically sharing links to your boards. You can also integrate Pinterest with your Twitter and personal Facebook accounts to automatically share your new pins there—just be careful not to share too often or you could risk annoying your followers. Also, be sure to add a link to your Pinterest profile from your website alongside your other social media site links.

7. Engage on Pinterest. Spend some time visiting Pinterest boards by other users where you can choose to follow a user, leave a comment on a photo, like their pinned photo, or repin their photo to one of your boards. As with all of the other social networks, the more you participate, the better results you will see as other Pinterest users begin to return the favor.

8. Add a Pin it button to your site. To encourage website visitors to share your content on Pinterest, install a Pin it button across all pages and blog posts on your website. WordPress users can easily install the Pinterest Pin It button plug-in.

9. Get creative with your pins. Start paying attention to the content you come across online and pin interesting articles, news, info graphics, or products to a board on your site (you can always create a new board if needed). As long as the content appeals to your target audience, anything goes. You might be surprised to discover how many others will begin to engage with you, visit your website, and repin your content as a result.

10. Mix up your strategy.  Avoid making Pinterest all about selling your products or services. Make sure to include interesting content that provides value for your target audience.

Some Final Pinterest Tips

• Pinterest isn’t just limited to photos. You can pin videos too!
• If you want to monitor who has pinned content from your website onto Pinterest, use this link format: pinterest.com/source/<your website.com>.
  Here’s an example for pins of Forbes content:http://pinterest.com/source/forbes.com/.
• Engage your customers by asking them to share photos of themselves using your products or services.
• Send out a link to your Pinterest account in your next e-newsletter and ask readers to leave comments.
• Use boards to emphasize what your brand represents. For example, you might have a board featuring favorite charitable causes or one featuring articles on recycling.
• Make sure you aren’t infringing on copyrights. Pinterest is facing some legal trouble due to concerns about copyright infringement and photos being shared illegally. Never add a photo to your website without having permission to do so.Just because a photo is available on Google, it does not mean you have the right to use it for commercial purposes. To be safe, invest in a royalty-free image service such as Clipart.com.

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8 strategies for Pinterest for business

Pinterest has become a running joke to many. Still, the traffic reported coming from this site cannot be ignored, and  the ways people are leveraging it’s popularity to market their businesses is very interesting.Here are just a few.

1. It’s not about you

You don’t need to be blatant about what you offer your customers. Be subtle.  Post pins that are interesting and tangentially related to your product. Best example? Oreck on Pinterest.  They barely mention vacuum cleaners or air filters but when you visit their page and see all the pins you can’t help but think of them.

2. Everybody loves a story

Nordstrom has quite a few fashion boards, including this one from New York Fashion week. Notice that the photos are from fashion week backstage, but the photos link to the products in the shop on their website. Users love the backstage glimpse of Fashion Week, and then end up on the Nordstrom shop pages.What stories does your market love to hear about?

3. Have one board that’s pure showoff

You don’t have to bury your brand identity to do a good job on Pinterest. Go ahead and show off a little. Here’s a good example of a brand page for Vineyard Brands, a wine importer on Pinterest.  Notice how they appeal to the fun, crafty side of people with their boards, and  they also have a board for press on the wines in their portfolio. After people browse the other boards they’ll explore this one too.

4. Reach for the sweet spot

Food is one of the most shared topics on Pinterest, often the more decadent the better, still not everybody wants decadence all the time. Take The Mother Company for example. They are all about the social and emotional issues of raising young kids. Of course food plays a big role and on their board “Sometimes Food”. they explain that while you can’t eat these goodies all the time, once in a while it’s OK to splurge a little. They balance this page with healthy snacks the kids will still love but with a healthier attitude called “Kid Friendly Food“.

5. Give away the good stuff

If your job revolves around sharing information, then share great links to resources your clients will love. Here’s a great example of this from entrepreneur Alyssa Gregory. Her small business resource boards are a great model to follow for any service business. Alyssa knows you can’t give away too much information. If people like what you say they’ll come to you for more focused information for their business.

6. Collaborate

You don’t have to do it alone, in fact, if you know a bunch of people who share good information, why not leverage your networks and share information together? Letting others posts to your board takes the pressure off one individual and allows everyone who contributes to benefit when everybody posts. Win win. Here’s a collaborative board I participate on with some of my social media pals pinninginfographics, created by Mark Ivey. And here’s another collaborative board from Thirsty Girl and their fans “Share a Glass” with 190 pins related to wine and other tasty beverages.

7. Use Pinterest as a focus group

Just look at what West Elm is doing with their Pinterest pages. They have several boards focused around design, colors and landscaping. You can bet they are watching these closely to see what’s shared most and what isn’t, what gets collected on other boards and what the content on those boards tells them about their market. What do you want to know about? Ask it in videos and pictures on Pinterest.

8. Don’t be all business

Like in the case of Oreck, this is not about the widget you sell, it’s about the mindset of the person who might be interested in it and also to show a bit of the human side of the company. Be funny. Be inspirational. Whatever suits your corporate culture. Whole Foods has boards about food, strength, recycling, gadgets and even buildings. It’s about the culture around what they sell.

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