Here’s a bit about Pinterest:

Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, ‘re-pin’ images to their own collections and/or ‘like’ photos. Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing. Pinterest allows its users to share ‘pins’ on both Twitter and Facebook, which allows users to share and interact with a broad community.

Check out The Marketing Company’s Pinterest Profile (http://pinterest.com/themarketingc/) for examples of what you can pin about. Feel free to also follow our pins for more ideas and to get updates about future resources.  Because Pinterest is relatively new, this is also still somewhat new to us but we’ve had huge success with it already.

Benefits of Pinterest

• Users can either upload images from their computer or pin things they find on the web using the Pinterest bookmarklet, Pin It button, or just a URL. (see below for how-to-instructions)
• If a person clicks on a pin it takes them directly to the link associated with that image. This ensures faster conversion of leads. In comparison, when you click on a image in Facebook, the image only opens up in a bigger screen, on Pinterest it takes you directly to the source, e.g. your website!
• As with most other social networks, members are encouraged to interact with the content by reposting it, sharing others’ pins on Facebook and Twitter or via email, and even embedding individual pins on their website or blog.
• Any business that relies on driving a high-volume of website traffic to increase sales, should consider joining Pinterest. In fact, early research indicates that Pinterest is more effective at driving traffic compared to other social media sites, even Facebook.

Quick tips:

1. Definitely install the Pinterest bookmarklet and here is how in 3 easy steps –

• Display your Bookmarks by clicking the Wrench Icon > Bookmarks > Show Bookmarks Bar
• Drag the “Pin It” button to your Bookmarks bar
• When you are browsing the web, push the “Pin It” button to pin an image

2. It is a fantastic platform to keep all your favourite images in one easily accessible place. When you see stuff on other websites, it is so easy to just grab it with the Pinterest Bookmarklet, organise it on a specific board, and keep it all neatly together for future reference and use.

3. Create fun images that depict who you are and what your company does, see below for an example of a theme-based image that we’ve created for a client that does corporate gifting. Creating infographics is also a very good way of generating leads.

4. Follow other pinboards. Pinterest is a great platform for sharing content and especially images, but also fantastic for finding the things that you love, creating visual planning boards for projects, etc.

5. For instance one of our clients is an Events Planner, she will use Pinterest and the boards to pin and organise various images of flower bouquets, gift ideas and table décor. This is like having a whole folder crammed full of images and ideas, but all in one place, neatly organised and impossibly easy to add to.

6. It is then just as much a platform for idea sharing, just like our Events Planner would pin her favourite ideas, others would come and re-pin, share, like, etc. In this way it becomes a brilliant visual social sharing platform.

7. When you pin images, write good descriptions, this helps with your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). It also makes it clear what it is you’ve pinned, when tweeting about it.

8. If you are using Pinterest to increase your Social Media footprint, you should already have a Blog. Make sure you include a striking image with every blog you post, so that you can pin the image as well. The great thing about this is that your image will always be linked to your blog. If your blog is on your website, or linked to your website, this will drive traffic to your website. This, together with the correct lead nurturing will convert the leads into sales. In a way what you are doing is creating a wider net to catch those potential clients with.

9. Pin all the images on your website to your Pinterest account, this way you point people back to your website again. Go back to your images, hover over the image and click edit, make sure the link to your webpage is correct and working. You can also upload images directly from your drive, unfortunately Pinterest only allows one image at a time, so this is a bit time consuming.

10. Another great way to drive traffic and interest is Pinning videos about your company. See below for an example of a video we’ve done for a client in Animoto.

As Social Media channels go – This is a fun one! Go search for topics and things you like and pin them. You can create different boards by theme, project or interest.

Happy pinning!

Sources:
Pinterest
Hubspot