Pinterest is
my favourite go-to place when I’ve read my weight in books and newspapers and
to me it signifies some time for some feel-good inspiration. It’s easy to use,
it’s not full of negative comments or shameless brags, and it adds value to my
life in a creative, inspiring and positive way.
At a recent networking event with Red Magazine, Jo Malone told us
that she was debating the future of using Facebook for her new brand Jo Loves,
and potentially focusing significantly more time and effort on Pinterest
because of the value it has for luxury brands. This inspired us to question
whether Pinterest was in fact the only platform needed for luxury brands? You
can read the blog post in full here.
With that in
mind, we thought we’d give you some simple tips to help you use the Pinterest
to its full potential, and answer the common questions we get asked many times
from our trainees. If you are not familiar with Pinterest, head to our earlier
blog post here first which gives you a quick
introduction and some interesting stats.
Pinterest for Business
Businesses
can use Pinterest to inspire customers and increase brand awareness. The
innovative platform allows brands to strengthen the personality and ethos
behind the brand through inspirational pins alongside product or service pins.
Pinterest is best used to create the character behind the brand with, for
example, lifestyle pins that show users the inspiration behind products. These
types of pins greatly increase reach and in turn, changing consumers to
passionate brand advocates.
The Key Features…
Profile
As with
Facebook & Twitter, you will have a profile which includes a small place
for a bio piece and link to your website. Your profile also displays your
follower/following count, your likes and all of your Pinterest Boards
containing your pins and repins (see below!). From your profile you can search
for pins, and other boards you would like to follow. It’s a good idea to make
your profile picture your brand logo, and ensure you have a compelling bio with
searchable keywords.
Boards
Acting as an
online pin board, your boards are where you categorise your pins. Users can
follow all of your boards, or individual ones, so make sure you have a purpose
for each of your boards, and keep them simple, defined and regularly updated
with lots of creative, inspiring images. Don't forget to set your board cover
image to one of the most engaging, eye-catching pins within that board to
attract more users to view it. You can also move your boards around to have
them in the order of your choice so if you have a particular board which you'd
like to promote at any one time, move it to the top row of your Pinterest
profile.
Original Pins
Brands can
upload original pins that are unique to the business. Pinning products will be
the easiest way to start, however remember high quality photography is the key
here, the aim is to attract potential customers to repin your product pins or
in fact buy on the spot so make sure your imagery shows off the features of
your products – a significant 69% of Pinterest users have found at least one
item that they’ve bought or wanted to buy. If you can, include a price banner
as 36% of all pins with prices get more likes. Don’t forget you can pin videos
too!
Repins
As we
discussed above, you can use your boards to reflect your brand through original
pins but you can also repin other users pins that relate to your brand and
boards. For example, if your business is an online surf shop, along with
product pins, your lifestyle boards could include the best surfing spots around
the world, life on the beach, the surfing bucket list and so on. By using
boards in this way on Pinterest, the lifestyle represented will start to become
synonymous with the brand, keeping consumers interested. However, remember to
stay true to your brand and stay in your lane, make sure any repins represent
your brand ethos.
Rich Pins
Rich pins
are valuable for brands with consumer products, as they present your product
pins with automatically updated details including pricing, availability and
importantly where to buy at that exact moment. To start the process, you’ll
need to ensure your business website is 'rich pin ready' with meta tags – it’s
a good idea to have a chat with your web developer as they will need to help
you here if you are not familiar with the term. Find out more information on
rich pins here.
Creating a Successful Pinterest Presence...
Engage, Engage, Engage!
As with
every social media platform it’s so important to make sure you regularly engage
with users and not just expect consumers to find you. The more you put into it,
the more you will get out. Pinterest
gives you the opportunity to like and comment on other pins, so use these
native features to build relationships.
Launch Innovative Competitions
Competitions
are great to increase reach, engagement and your follower numbers. Like any
social competition, make sure it adheres to Pinterest guidelines and includes
clear entry mechanics, and before you run a lazy Pin to Win competition,
embrace the opportunity with creativity – Pinterest likes this! Read the
guidelines in full here.
Know Your Audience
As with any marketing activity, it’s so important to research and
understand your audience. Keep in mind that one of the goals here is to attract
your audience to repin and share your products with their friends, so clear
knowledge of what your audience also likes (apart from your products) will
enhance engagement. Remember to stay on trend too, try to keep within your
business niche but pin what people are talking about, and factor in national
awareness days (download our helpful calendar here), holidays and seasonal
celebrations too. Take a look at our recent Pinterest blog post here to discover more about the
demographics of 'pinners'.
Increase Traffic to your Pinterest Boards
Don't forget
you can increase traffic from outside Pinterest too using your other online
networks to reach more people. Here are a few key things to do:
- Optimise your website with the 'pin it' button – this allows users to directly pin from your website onto their Pinterest boards
- Direct existing customers from other social platforms to your Pinterest boards
- Include Pinterest on your marketing activity as you would with Facebook or Twitter – but remember when promoting it, make sure you give a reason for Pinners to follow you!
To find out
how we are using Pinterest, head over and be inspired by our boards here.
If you are
in need of some help & advice why not register for our latest online e-course with Skillshare, How to Create An Effective Facebook Strategy for just
$23 (£14) here.
To find out
more about us head to www.bykatieandjane.com
or sign up to our monthly newsletter here for regular social media tips, advice
and news of our latest App release!
Katie x
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