The launch of Pinterest as the latest social media craze has revolutionised the way in which individuals and organisations, with common interests, interact rom a plethora of platforms. Incorporating Pinterest as a focal point of your social media strategy can certainly deliver results equally as well as the likes of Facebook and Twitter; it’s simply a case of utilising its features optimally.
To sum up Pinterest briefly; it is a simple, easily applicable resource that allows users to ‘pin’ images of their interest to their personal board. There are a whole host of avenues businesses can go down to make the most of their corporate board.
Is Pinterest right for your business?
Although this may sound obvious, but your first port of call as a social media or marketing manager would be to ensure that your business is a good fit for Pinterest. For example, if you are a fashion retailer Pinterest can become a powerful resource to enable you to pin teasers of next season’s trends. However, if you’re a light industrial service provider or wholesaler it may not be quite the ideal demographic for you.
Connect with the High Street
As Pinterest is exceptionally simple, businesses can quickly connect their online followers to their physical location(s). Many High Street stores are already running Pinterest-specific promotions, encouraging brand advocates to log on and see what’s going on online.
Better still, Pinterest empowers businesses to go beyond promoting their core products and services, it allows you to provide hints, tips and suggestions to your customers that portrays your firm as one that is customer-orientated and rewards loyalty.
Tap into the minds of your customers
Pinterest also requires a different approach to interact with customers than Facebook, for instance. With a Facebook page it may suffice to simply post an image of a new product line and a direct link, but on Pinterest social media marketers are required to go further. Instead marketers should consider what their customers can do with your products and provide them with inspiration that not only adds value to their daily lives but increases the chance of online conversions.
A good example of this in action would be for a business to arrange a competition where customers post pictures of themselves wearing or using their product(s). The best images pinned to the company’s Pinterest board would then win a prize – simple interaction that creates a lasting legacy.
Untapped marketing insight
Many social media marketers now look towards Pinterest as an effective tool to gain an insight into the interests of their target demographic. With the ability to view a user’s ‘repins’ and ‘likes’, it is easier than ever to find common interests before taking your conversation to other social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook where customer relations can be developed further.
Pinterest is not only an incredibly effective social tool for the right businesses, it is also bundles of fun too. Engage with your customers, share your own interests and become the active face of your business rather than a passive one.