Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social networks around, and works differently than other social media platforms. With Pinterest, you create boards and “pin” videos or photos to them. If your business hasn’t made use of Pinterest yet, here are 5 reasons why you should.
1. You Can Gain More Traffic
Pinterest is a fantastic way to drive more traffic to your website. Not only can you post images that contain a link back to your site, but you can also post links in the titles and descriptions. All of these links means the potential for more traffic.
If your site is built on the Genesis Framework, this tutorial will teach you how you can add a Pinterest “Pin It” button at the top or bottom of every blog post.
For example, let’s say you want to link to your business blog. You can post actual pictures from your blog with a link back to the specific blog post those images come from, driving traffic to that page on your blog and others. It’s a quick and simple way to market your business website or blog.
If you’re looking for design inspiration, follow StudioPress on Pinterest.
2. You Can Gain Exposure
Not only can you drive traffic to your website or blog using Pinterest, but you can also build exposure for your brand. Pin images of items your company sells to Pinterest, and you could potentially introduce new customers to your brand. Many clothing companies have already done this using Pinterest – pinning images of their entire catalog while linking back to their site.
This method is a free way to advertise to millions of potential customers every day. Plus, users can re-pin anything you post, which means if they like a product you sell, they can re-pin it to their boards and circulate your brand even farther.
3. You Can Interact with Customers
Pinterest can be a great tool for interacting with customers, and if you want your business to be as successful as possible, you definitely want to engage your customers and foster their sense of brand loyalty. In order to do this, create a public board on Pinterest that will enable your customers to provide you with feedback on your products, service or overall opinion of the company.
Another way you can interact with customers on Pinterest is by holding a contest or offering discounts exclusively to your Pinterest followers. Not only will this help encourage your customers to keep coming back to your website, but it will also make your loyal customers feel even better about sticking with your brand – and your new customers are more likely to remain long-term customers if you actively engage with them and help reward them for their loyalty!
4. You Can Raise Awareness
Even non-profits can take advantage of Interest as a marketing tool. For example, animal shelters can post photos of dogs and cats looking for a home, as well as create a board showcasing photos of animals who were already adopted. Several shelters have already started doing this on Pinterest!
No matter what type of non-profit you run, you can use Pinterest to share photos of the people or things your business affects, as well as images of any current or upcoming projects your non-profit is working on. This is a great way to connect with your followers, and enables you to explain your cause in.
5. You Can Showcase your Company’s Personality
Pinterest focuses heavily on lifestyle, meaning it’s a good idea to showcase your company’s personality on a special board dedicated to that. Customers like getting a peek behind the scenes of a brand, knowing there are real people working to create the products or services your company produces.
Create a pinboard with images and/or videos of your employees at work, marketing your brand, attending company outings, etc. This will make your company seem more human and relatable, and potentially help gain even more followers and customers.
While Pinterest is still fairly new, it’s quickly becoming one of the fastest growing social media platforms around. Whether you need to build exposure, drive more traffic to your site, raise awareness about a specific cause or charity, or any number of things, take advantage of this free marketing tool to help your business be as successful as possible.
I *love* Pinterest. Such a great way to visual bookmark sites or even ideas. I’ve done a whole board with various images to create an overall look and feel of a particular design concept.
The only down side is if I click over, I’m lost for a good half hour. ;D
Still on the “Waiting List” for my “Invite”!!!
Hello, Tina.
Get in touch and I’ll send you an invite.
Kind regards, Mel.
Pinterest is brilliant for collaborative work. Create a board, let others you’re working with post to it and you have a mood board of sorts. It’s also brilliant for finding inspiration. I’ve written a blog post about it myself actually.
http://www.paulmurraydesign.com/graphic-design/pinterest-awesome-for-freelance-designers
If anyone wants an invite, they can leave me a comment and I’ll sort one out.
I keep hearing all these great things about Pineterst and all the reasons I should be on it but they won’t let me in. I seem to be on the waiting list of invites.
If anyone can throw an invite my way, please do. I’d love to give it a try.
Hello, Jim.
Get in touch and I’ll send you an invite.
Kind regards, Mel.
Pinterest is slowly becoming one of my top referrers, behind Facebook & StudioPress. It’s a FANTASTIC way to give potential readers & clients a glimpse of what they can find by working with you. Great article, Brian!
Waiting for my Pinterest Invite. Thanks Brian… Great info!
I love the “Sign Up for My Newsletter” block. Can you share how that is done?
Thanks!
It’s actually quite easy and in the eleven40 theme that we’ve released. Though it might be a good idea for a quick tutorial here on my site.
This is a fabulous post. I’ve heard and seen Pinterest’s rep soar like a rocket in the last couple of months, Sigh! the invitations don’t come by. Plus I love the design of this blog too. Minimal yet appealing. Keep up the good work.
I completely agree! I’m VERY excited to see how companies start using Pinterest, but a strategy needs to be given considerable thought. This strategy should absolutely be adaptable at a moments notice because Pinterest is such a new platform that ALL of its users are still trying to figure out how to use and organize. Luckily, by creating different boards, one is forced to think about how the boards will be used. I really love the idea of animal shelters using it, Brian! I’m curious to see what creative ideas will surface to get followers interacting with a businesses page (discounts, contests, featuring users, using public boards, etc.) However, due to the nature of different businesses, Pinterest isn’t going to be a valuable asset. I think blogs and small businesses with unique products (especially the etsy community) will benefit far more than big corporations.
Also, because the content is always changing and trends arise based on a user’s customized following, companies should be sure that they can regularly update and provide enough content for their boards according to what’s trending with their following and/or with their target audience(s). Nothing is worse than static, empty/bare bones boards or your network feed populating with a whole mess of pins that provide no value or interest to you. I’m not sure if Pinterest has any kind of algorithm that influences their search bar or how images get populated in the different categories, if it’s based on the pins’ virality, or if it is more of a real-time updating format.
I think this is the best “why your company should be on Pinterest” post I’ve read so far. Theses are solid, easy suggestions to get a company started. Glad I stumbled on your blog!
It’s funny because I’ve known a ton of people who have raved about Pinterest. At first, I was discouraged because I didn’t think there was a way for StudioPress to use Pinterest in a productive way. However, when I started thinking about it more – I realized that things like our Showcase and Color Palettes could be Pinned.
Here’s proof that theory is working.
Brian great post. Question. If your a brand do you participate by commenting in pinterest on other peoples pins? For example if you are a skin care company can you comment on a pin of a great looking steak like “looks tasty” with the hopes that some people will click on your profile brand name and check out your boards and maybe make it over to your website products to maybe make a sale and get a new customer? I guess the question is… Should a brand engage with similar audiences in Pinterest OR is it best to be done on a person to person basis? Thanks and I look forward to your reply. Laura
Hey Laura – yes, I definitely think making comments on someone’s pins (in the same way you would a blog post) can bring some traffic to your site. Mind you, that doesn’t mean copy and paste “nice pin” on everything you can get your hands on though.
Nice post! I was thinking about the same thing so I added Pinterest buttons to our site to experiment with it… Not sure if it’s going to be useful but we’ll see…
I’m a recent member of pinterest and i love it. i use it to showcase my design portfolio as well as pinning new posts to it. I’m following studiopress on it and you are following me. Yay!