Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social
networking sites and it has become very popular during 2011. Pinterest had
attracted several million people by the time we’ve reached January 2012. Many
businesses see this and they all want a piece of the pie. Pinterest is driving
tons of traffic to websites and blogs and it is currently helping businesses to
build their brand. It is important you learn how to use Pinterest for your
business while the website is still in the early stages of its growth. When you
learn to use Pinterest effectively, you will be positioning yourself and your
business for greater success.
The internet is changing daily and businesses have to
change with it. The net is inching more and more towards a visual and social
world, not that the net isn’t already visual or social. I’m talking more in the
line of social media. Google and the other major search engines are relying
more and more on social media to determine where a site will rank in the search
results. It is almost impossible for people to find your website if you are not
apart of the social media world because Google is implementing new and stricter
rules daily preventing people from manipulating the search engines. Plus, they
use likes and shares as votes to see just how popular your site is. Pinterest
can make your site popular when used correctly, and because people love to
share pictures, Pinterest went viral. Since they went viral, people will
continue to use the site for many years to come.
So
What Exactly is Pinterest
Pinterest is a social networking and photo sharing site
that lets its users share interesting content on their pinboards. Members of
the sites can search out other pinboards for their entertainment or to be
inspired. But what is shared must be associated with a picture of some sort,
usually from another website, but members can also share photos of their own.
Members can also find other people who share their interest. Pinterest helps
members connect with others on this unique platform. Pinterest have most of the
same features as other popular networking sites. For example, users can follow
friends, comment on pins, re-pin what they like, and share things from their
Twitter and Facebook accounts.
How
To Use Pinterest For Your Business Or Affiliate Marketing
In order to use Pinterest for your business and get the
exposure you desire, you need to focus on two main things. These two things are
creating appealing, eye catching content, and making your content pinnable.
In order to make your content pinnable you need to use
the plug-ins which helps visitors pin your content. If you have a Wordpress
website it is easier for your visitors to pin your content, but if you have a
site that’s hosted by blogger or something else, you will still be able to
create pinnable content. An example of one of the plug-ins you can is the
Pinterest “Pin It” Button.
To be certain the content on your website is pinnable,
you need to test your site by pinning some of your content. This way you can
see how it looks on Pinterest. You need to have images that are of high
quality. They need to be clear, crisp, and pleasing to the eye. If when you
test your content and it don’t look pleasing, make sure you change it quickly.
You want to make sure you make your site “Pin Friendly”.
Since Pinterest is all about being visual, you need to
make sure you pin really good pictures and make sure you have these same types
of images on your website, blogs, etc. If your photos are not eye catching,
Pinterest marketing strategies will not work for your business. That means no
book, information you find, or any other tips will help you, this book
included. You should treat Pinterest like you would your own scrapbook or photo
album. I don’t think you would put some bland photo in a scrapbook with other appealing
pictures.
When you pick photos to share on Pinterest, you should
focus on choosing photos that cause emotion. If a picture makes people laugh or
cry, they will be more prone to share them with others. Also, if a picture is
really cute, people will share it.
A marketer who put
great pictures on Pinterest will be able to attract the kind of attention they
desire and will be able to drive a big chunk of Pinterest traffic to their
website by increasing the visibility of their brand. Clothing, shoe, and
jewelry retailers will be able to use Pinterest to their advantage because
people love these items. But that doesn’t mean other business can’t succeed
with using the site. Every business can experience the blessings this site has
to offer. Some businesses will have to be more creative than a clothing
business would. For example, a home improvement retailer use their products to
remodel a room, patio, decks, and more, pictures can be taken once the remodel
is done. There are people who are interested in pictures using products from a
home improvement store. It is best to use before and after shots to show people
how just a few items from a home improvement store can be used to transform a
room in to a place where a person will always want their house guest to be. So
there is always a way for people to be creative using pictures.
People
Will Always Love To Share Pictures
Most companies in existence today have products and
services to sell. For many years, pictures were used in ad campaigns. Just
picture some of the big companies who used billboards, commercials, and sales
papers; they all have the use of pictures in common. So why not use Pinterest
in the same way business use these other platforms to get the word out about
their brand. People are visual creatures and just as those national ads with
pictures caught their eyes during the yester-years, before the internet and TV
existed, pictures will continue to capture their eyes now and in the years to
come.
Investing money into obtaining good quality photos will
help your business in the long run. Why? The reason is because people will
always love to share pictures. As I said earlier, pictures that cause emotion
and ones that are comical and cute will be the best ones to share on Pinterest.
4
Reasons You Should Use Pinterest For Your Business
1. You Can Find What’s Trending
You can start by finding out what people love to share
with others. You can find out the current hot trends which can help you to
market your products and services. A person might discover one of your cookware
products while searching for a specific recipe on Pinterest. It could have been
found by pins your company posted, which would more than likely would not have
been found if you haven’t used Pinterest which brings me to my next
reason…………..
2. Pinterest Turns Searchers Into Buyers
Pinterest will change the way people make purchases.
Most of the time, we get on the internet and search for things to buy when we
want to make a purchase. But when we search for a recipe, we usually are not in
buying mode or we don’t expect to buy anything. Pinterest on the other hand helps
us to realize we want or need something before we know it. Pinterest can also
provide proof that a product is the best by the re-pins. All a person has to do
is see how often a product was re-pinned and see the nice glossy image and be a
few clicks from making a purchase. Pinterest turns people into buyers faster
than any other social networking site.
3. Build Your Brand
By using Pinterest, you can easily build your brand. Best
advice is to stay active, keep pinning, and keep following. You can even hold a
contest on Pinterest.
4. Pinterest Drives Traffic
Traffic is the blood for all websites. If you don’t
have it, your business will die. Pinterest will increase links back to your
sites.
Marketing
Strategies To Use On Pinterest
What is the best way to market your business on
Pinterest? It is important you don’t turn your Pinterest account into an ad
account. Keep in mind the site is geared towards pictures. Pinterest is a
community and in a community you don’t go door to door selling or begging
people to buy your products. This applies to any social media site, people
don’t like to be sold or marketed to. You need to focus on providing something
valuable and meaningful; something that will inspire people and get their
attention. Here are a few steps you need to use for your marketing efforts:
-Online
Catalog
This is a great way to market your business if you have
physical products or digital ones. You need to separate items by the boards so
it is easy for your visitors. For instance, if you own a baby store, you should
have a board for baby clothes and one for baby toys, or one for girl items and
one for boy items. And make sure the pictures are linking back to your website
to the product information page.
-Grow
Your Pins And Boards
You have to pin your boards on a regular basis and stay
active within the Pinterest community. Set yourself a schedule so you can keep
up. You need to also pay close attention to pins and re-pins that are popular.
This way you will know what is trending. People will come to your boards and
check you out.
-Be
Human
Social networking is about being yourself and not some
robot. People want to know you before they know about your business and the
products you offer, mainly and especially when you are using a social
networking site. Show something that causes emotion since this is what gets
shared the most. Be unique and creative. Show a funny side of your brand. This
will get people to re-pin and share your content. And most of all… be honest.
-Pin
About Your Event
If your business hosts webinars, seminars, or any other
kind of events, you should create boards that have information about your
event. You can pin interesting content that will draw attention. You could talk
about presenters and speakers who will be attending. Post pictures of past
events on your board. Come up with creative ways to grab the attention of many.
-Announce
A New Product Launch
If you have a new product that is about to launch,
create a board for it; you should start talking about your launch months in
advance and use creative ideas to draw in your audience. Post critical
information you want people to know and tell the people what they will get out
of using the product. Post pictures and customers testimonials after the
products are created and have launched.
You should also allow customers to leave feed back and you can create a
board for this. Let people include the good and bad feedback because you should
let people see the honest reviews other people left regarding your products.
And remember, no product is 100% perfect.
-Offer
Specials For Your Pinterest Followers
Everyone loves a deal, so when you promote your
product, create an offer that is strictly for your followers. You can create a
code for your followers to use this way you will know that the offer is
exclusive to them. This also works great for twitter and other social
networking platforms.
-Create
A Video Gallery
Pinterest have features available for anyone who wants
to create a tutorial or share parts of a webinar, conference, and videos. When
you create videos you should add annotations. When users find your videos to be
appealing, you score a better chance of having your video pinned. You can also
tell viewers of your video to pin the video to Pinterest.
-Encourage
Users To Leave Comments
Most of the popular pins are liked, commented on, and
re-pinned. You should encourage users to do all of the above. People will leave
comments and you can ask them to in a way that will make them want to do it.
For instance, if you took a trip to a popular spot in Paris, or you vacationed
in the Caribbean, you can ask them to guess the location you took the picture.
This will open the door to many opportunities on Pinterest and get people to
participate. And you should do it often too.
-Add
Watermarks To Your Pictures
At some point during the process of re-pinning people
may not know where the picture came from. So you should watermark your
pictures. You don’t want to lose the marketing impact you were going for, so
this is important. You can put your web address on your picture.
-Do A Focus Group
As you know, focus groups are used to gather opinions
from customers and others about a product or services. You can find out the
thoughts of these people and your targeted market. You can use Pinterest as a
focus group by creating a board for a new product and see what is on the mind
of your followers. You can find out from your followers if they like it and ask
them what kind of information they would like to see if it is an information
product. If the product is physical, ask them what features they want. This is
a great way to improve on your product that currently exist or your new one.
-Add
The Follow Me Button
An easy way to get Pinterest followers to discover your
brand on your Pinterest page is to put the follow me button on your website and
make sure your site is full of good quality content.
-Be
Helpful To Your Followers/Customers
If you have a business where you provide some sort of
service, you could pin some tutorials and helpful articles from how to sites
and blogs. You can pin some pictures that show people what you want to teach
and you can send them to a blog post or media story. Pictures tell a story. When
you focus on educating your followers or customer, this will make them want to
know what you have up your sleeve in the future.
-Don’t
Focus Just On Your Business
You should re-pin what others are doing. Make sure you
do your share. When you pin other people pins, people will notice you.
-Share
Your Screen Shots On Pinterest
If you want to show people proof something works, share
your screen shots. The website url2pin.it helps you to create a screen shot to
share on Pinterest. All you have to do is enter the URL and hit submit.
Wrapping Up
Wrapping Up
As you can see there are many ways you can market your brand using
Pinterest. The best thing you can do is be creative. The internet is forever
changing and you need to be changing with it. The
most important thing you can do is get on the Pinterest Bandwagon now.
