So, you joined the Pinterest party a while back, because you could't stand to miss out on the social network everyone and their sorority sister has been raving about since March 2010. But watching its steady growth and wanting to leverage the social media platform that’s driving more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube COMBINED, you decided to get your business in on the action too!
You’ve set up your business account, verified your website, grabbed the Pin-It button and added the follow me button to your website. You’re super-duper excited about enhancing and expanding your brand awareness. You’re eager to increase meaningful interactions and engagement with your target audience. You can’t wait to boost your SEO, your sales and your revenue. There’s just one minor detail… you’re not sure what you should be pinning. Joy to the rescue!
You’ve set up your business account, verified your website, grabbed the Pin-It button and added the follow me button to your website. You’re super-duper excited about enhancing and expanding your brand awareness. You’re eager to increase meaningful interactions and engagement with your target audience. You can’t wait to boost your SEO, your sales and your revenue. There’s just one minor detail… you’re not sure what you should be pinning. Joy to the rescue!
Party Planning
A fabulous party requires some planning, right? You have to set the day, time and place, decide who's on the guest list, send invitations, plan the menu, decorate and so on and so forth (Thankfully Pinterest can help with all of that, but let's get back on track with that party on your page). Similarly, it would be difficult to have a party-of-a--Pinterest-page without first putting a little bit of thought into the structure of your Pinterest boards.
In other words, it's important to organize your boards around similar topics, as seen in the image below. It might be helpful to consider another analogy: Your Pinterest page is kind of like a file cabinet, your Pinterest boards are like file folders and the content you pin is like files. Just as you wouldn’t stuff random, unrelated documents into folders designated to contain specific types of files (at least I sincerely hope you wouldn’t!), you don’t want to pin things to boards with no rhyme or reason. If you keep your boards concentrated on specific categories or types of content, it will help other Pinners easily navigate your page and select which boards they want to follow.
A fabulous party requires some planning, right? You have to set the day, time and place, decide who's on the guest list, send invitations, plan the menu, decorate and so on and so forth (Thankfully Pinterest can help with all of that, but let's get back on track with that party on your page). Similarly, it would be difficult to have a party-of-a--Pinterest-page without first putting a little bit of thought into the structure of your Pinterest boards.
In other words, it's important to organize your boards around similar topics, as seen in the image below. It might be helpful to consider another analogy: Your Pinterest page is kind of like a file cabinet, your Pinterest boards are like file folders and the content you pin is like files. Just as you wouldn’t stuff random, unrelated documents into folders designated to contain specific types of files (at least I sincerely hope you wouldn’t!), you don’t want to pin things to boards with no rhyme or reason. If you keep your boards concentrated on specific categories or types of content, it will help other Pinners easily navigate your page and select which boards they want to follow.
Now that we’ve addressed the importance of maintaining organized Pin-boards, Iet’s get to the FUN stuff, get your creative juices flowing and get this party started!
Pin-teresting Pins to get your party movin' & groovin'...
1. Share Helpful/Entertaining Content (for FREE)
Share your latest White Papers, SlideShare Presentations, ifographics, blog posts and entertaining or informational videos, tutorials and webinars with the Pinterest community to enhance online visibility and gain credibility within your industry.
Every time a Pinner re-pins your unique, quality content, your social reach expands. As more and more people start to recognize you for your particular area/s of expertise, you will continue to earn even more social proof within the community. When people like and trust you, they are much more inclined to purchase your products and services.
2. Share Your Products and Services
Market your latest products and services to attract new customers and positively impact your SEO. When Pinners see things they “like, need, want, or MUST have,” they re-pin. On the flip side, pins that are unengaging, unattractive or just flat-out boring do not get re-pinned.
Therefore, if you want to entice Pinners to pin and customers to buy, you need to be pinning engaging, interesting, attractive, appealing… high quality images of your products/services – visual persuasion, if you will.
It could also be helpful to incorporate some fun videos that explain WHY your products and services are so special. Amusing product reviews are great for creating more buzz, but don't neglect the power of a helpful, informative review that could help sway the opinion of a Pinner searching for a product or service exactly like yours – a Pinner who is almost at the point of purchase. They just need a little help with their decision. As soon as you can convince them that you can and will meet their needs, you can help them across that finish line.
On top of the fact that Pin-teresting pins get seen and re-pinned, every pin directs traffic back to the original source, so every pin linked to your website or blog serves as referral traffic, which can help boost your SEO.
3. Share Other Pinners’ Pin-tastic Content
Follow Pinners with similar content and other brands with products and services that are similar – or complementary – to yours and find clever ways to pin their content to your Pinboards.
Social brands are like-able brands. So increase engagement with other Pinners by liking and commenting on their content. The more active you are within the Pinterest community, the more other Pinners will get to know you and follow you, re-pin your pins and help you gain additional visibility.
4. Share Your Brand Story
Tell your brand story with visual content that portrays who you are and what your brand is all about.
Pins with a Plot:
- images that illustrate your vision, core values and principles you stand for (infographics are always popular)
- a visual timeline of the history of your company
- a video of one (or a handful) of your executives discussing the story behind your business or your goals for the future
5. Share a “Sneak Peek” into Your Brand
Give Pinners a whole new perspective on your business by offering them an Insider’s behind-the-scenes look at the AWESOMENESS that is your brand.
Pin-Spiration:
- photos of your employees with fun “day in the life of…” stories
- your sweet office environment
- the view from inside (like, the captivating downtown skyline or busting crowd outside your window or store front)
- a visit from someone special (a client, a partner, a prospect, your mom…)
- events you host or attend (and maybe include a memorable story or a few key take-aways connected to the image, video or SlideShare you pin)
- on-the-fly meetings (collaboration is always attractive!)
- images that represent your company culture
- anything that reveals the LIFE of your company
When you pin these kinds of unique, eye-catching images, videos and presentations, your party (aka your brand's Pinterest page) will be a real crowd-pleaser. And everybody knows killer parties get talked about! As you quickly become the talk of the town, you'll see your content spread like wild fire as the Pinners of the world unite to pin and re-pin all the Pin-teresting things your brand has to offer!
Photo Credit: Creatively Pinteresting: mkhmarketing via photopin cc
Photo Credit: Creatively Pinteresting: mkhmarketing via photopin cc
RSS Feed
