Pinterest is the fastest-growing social network in the history of social media – granted it’s a short history. Pinterest exploded onto the social media scene and shows no signs of slowing down. Not only has it attracted millions of users, it is also responsible for generating more referral traffic than Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ combined. Creating a strong presence on Pinterest helps build engagement, supports conversion, and establishes your brand.
However, simply setting up a profile and adding pins isn’t going to be enough to get the traffic and the exposure you need for your business. You will need to create a Pinterest strategy including increasing customer engagement. Doing so will help you get your followers invested in your profile and encourage them to share your information with others so that they create exposure for your brand and visit your site to learn more about your products and services.
Here are a few tips for how you can increase engagement on Pinterest to get more exposure for your brand:
1. Be an Active Pinterest User
To get others engaged with you, you are first going to have to engage with others. That means being an active and involved user on Pinterest. Comment on other people’s pins. “Like” their pins. Re-pin them. The more you interact with the people you follow, the more they’re likely to interact with you. The more they comment on, like or re-pin your posts, the more exposure you’re going to get with their followers. The more engaging you are, the more likely the people you follow are to check out your content and decide to follow you back.
2. Create Group Boards
Pinterest made a lot of changes lately. One of the new features it introduced is the group board. With group boards, you can invite others to pin items to a board that appears in your profile. The pins they share on the board will appear not only in your feed, but in their feed, exponentially increasing the number of users who see your content or who see content linked to your account.
Not only do group boards help get you more exposure, they increase engagement from followers who you asked to participate. Simply putting out the invitation is often enough to inspire people to join. The more people you have on the board, the more quality information you are going to get to share with your readers and the more engagement you will get from those followers and their followers.
3. Create Customer-Focused Pin Boards
One of the best ways to make customers feel engaged in what you’re doing is to appeal to their ego. You can do this on Pinterest by creating customer-focused boards. Some ideas include sharing photos of your customers wearing or using your products or asking customers to share their own photos of your products in use. If you are a consultant or offer services, you could create a board that links to your customers’ businesses or to a profile that you’ve written about them.
Your followers are much more likely to comment on, “like” or re-pin these items when they are about them. The more they do these things, the more exposure you are going to get for your brand.
4. Try Market Testing
Another way to appeal to your customers’ ego is to ask for their opinion. This will not only increase engagement, it also leads to valuable insights for your business. Try market testing new products or services on your Pinterest boards. You can pin a photo of your prototype or link to a blog post about what you have in mind for your new offering, then ask your followers to “like” or re-pin the items that they like the best. The item with the most likes or re-pins will be the one with the most viability for development.
5. Host a Contest
Giving away something for free is bound to make people sit up and pay attention. Pinterest can host your contest and you’ll see engagement increase almost effortlessly. As a method of entry, ask people to follow you, pin a certain item or post on Pinterest, re-pin certain items, or even just “like” and comment. You can identify a primary method of entry and then select some optional entries to provide more chances to win and to encourage more engagement.
Pinterest is a growing site, with a ton of potential to get more exposure for your business. Make sure you employ the right strategies to get optimal engagement from your followers and you’ll see your traffic soar.
