Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social networking sites on the internet today. Actually Pinterest has grown tremendously over the past few months getting to more than 10 million users in a faster time than both Facebook and YouTube did when they hit that mark. All businesses can use this fast growing platform to promote their brands, products and services. Have you added Pinterest to your Social Marketing Strategy yet? Before finding out how to use Pinterest for business, it’s crucial that you know what the site is all about.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is essentially an image based social networking site where users create or make virtual bulletin boards which one can use to pin(share) stories on a variety topics such as; cooking, books to read, places to visit, etc. This social networking site works on the concept or idea that a “picture is worth a thousand words”. The site uses boards which are basically a collage of images and short descriptions. Pinterest users can or are ideally supposed to follow other users’ boards, dependent on their own personal interest. With the use of images to tell a story, the social networking site has brought a new twist to social networking which so far has largely been dependent on written content.
Numerous businesses have jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon and have begun using Pinterest to promote their brands. In the UK, Pinterest has only really started to take off in Q1 of this year. If you start now, you are still not too late to get into the game. If you are looking ways on how to use Pinterest for business promotion then here several steps to consider:
How to use Pinterest for business
Step 1: Pin your product or services information
The first and obvious use of Pinterest is basically to promote your business’s products and services. You simply spread information about your brand by pinning your own products which you ideally share with other users so long as you select the appropriate categories. The site is particularly effective for promoting business if you target a certain or specific customer base.
Step 2: Engage your customer
If you know your customer demographic, you can use Pinterest in a much more strategic way by creating boards that are of interest to your customers and pinning images that might appeal to them. Although the website concept is built around images, it’s still a useful social network which businesses can use to build a community around it. For instance, users can re-pin business items thereby increasing the visibility of such as business. In such a scenario it’s important to personally thank all who pin your brand by then possibly forge good relationships. You can also promote your business further by following more Pinterest users and requesting them to follow you back. Through comments, the site has the potential of being a very important platform for customer feedback control.
Step 3: Easily links with other social networking sites
Pinterest can be used together with other social networking giants like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or even the corporate blog to give a brand or business total social media exposure. Businesses with profiles in such sites can redirect customers or users to Pinterest vice versa. The site gives customers a new and exciting way of interacting with their favourite brands. There are now many tools that allow easy integration on your different platforms like Pin It plugins for WordPress to make it easy for others to pin your images to their boards from your blog.
Step 4: Hold contest and giveaways
This is another great platform that you can use to promote your business on Pinterest is to use contest or giveaways. Holding a contest on Pinterest is a sure-fire way of spreading the word about your brand. You can ideally come up with inventive contest ideas like re-pinning, participating on boards or creating totally new boards.
Step 5: use the gift section to promote your business further
Pinterest allows you to add a price tag on each item that you pin. The site also allows you to include your website links to each image. Such items are highlighted in the gift section of the site. Do not forget to use the gift section as it’s an awesome feature for one to promote his or her business products or services and as a result garner more customers.
Step 6: Use Pinterest for SEO
Pinterest is a very SEO friendly site that enables one to pin given products or services together with their website links. By allowing people to include their website links during the pinning process, the site offers a great way for businesses to garner high-quality backlinks and as a result improve the ranking of their websites in search results. Another tip for increasing your brand visibility in search results is to include concise descriptions of products or services along with highly targeted keywords.
Step 7: Exclusivity
As a rookie or new social networking site, businesses should invite users to interact with them on Pinterest by offering unique and exclusive content as it’s the only way one can arouse interest among the public.
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