Pinterest is an exciting new social networking site that has been rapidly gaining in popularity lately. While many of its new users are using the site just for fun – as a way to discover new recipes, fashion ideas, interior decorating tips, and more – it also has great potential for businesses. Since Pinterest is free to use, a successful and well-managed Pinterest strategy could be a fantastic use of time and effort, and will cost you basically nothing!
The first thing you need to do is determine whether Pinterest makes sense for your site. Many businesses think of Pinterest as a space for free ads, but if you’re not careful with how you use the site, it could end up backfiring and causing you public relations nightmares. Think ahead about your use of the site – what kind of photos do you want to share? Will these be of interest to most Pinterest users? Are these images something that you can build your brand around? Right now, Pinterst is considered to be much more popular among women, but, as it is still a new website, the makeup of its users and their interests could evolve over time.
Once you’ve determined if it’s right for your business, you need to lay out a strategy. First of all, it’s important to actively participate in the Pinterest community. To build a following, you need to do more than just share images. Post regularly, but also repin interesting images shared by those you follow, and make comments on other users’s pins, and most of all, don’t forget to respond to and engage with anyone interacting with your Pinterest boards.
With that overall strategy in mind, it’s now time to determine which Pinterest users you should follow and invest energy in interacting with. Determine what other brands similar to yours are using Pinterest, and seek out personal users who demonstrate an affinity for your brand or the type of product you sell. Pay attention to what they’re pinning, interact with them, engage with them online. These are the users whose posts you’re going to want to re-pin, and hopefully they’ll feel the same about you and re-pin your posts for all of their followers.
Another key thing to remember is that you are there to promote a presence, not products. It might seem natural for a company to only share pins of their own products, but this is severely limiting your potential. Many customers are less likely to interact with a pinboard that seems to be only sharing your products – they might as well be on your website! Instead, share other pins that appeal to your customer base – they will see a well-curated and diverse pinboard that’s worth looking at! Of course, if you are building a brand, everything you share should be related to that somehow – even if it’s just as “inspiration”.
Gaining followers and actively engaging on Pinterest will lead your followers back to your website, and, in turn, to purchasing your product! To get started, you can follow Mauco Internet Consultants’ Pinterest boards and we will follow yours back!
Byline:
This is a guest post by Mary Johnson who is a freelance writer and editor specializing in technology and business, currently working for Nigerian free classifieds website TradeStable.com.ng.