Pinterest is the latest social media site that is visually driven, allowing users to pin topics of interests to self-created virtual boards. Think of it as a virtual organization tool for great discoveries online. Users “pin” a picture of the product or service that links to the page they found to their board or a friend's board. You have the ability to comment, like or repin a friend's pin to your own board. Users can add a “pin it” button to their browser bar, so that any web page can be pinned or you have the option of uploading a photo from your computer.
Pinterest is a social visual overlay of user interests, that interacts with other social platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.
Now, why pray tell should you give Pinterest a try when it's not geared for commercial use? Pins can help drive traffic to your website, increase your SEO and enforce brand awareness. If you a business to consumer company that sells products, you have a natural fit into Pinterest. Write a helpful, educational blog post on how you can use your product to solve a common problem and include a compelling picture. Pin it to a board, categorized properly–for example if your product is handmade soap, you may write an article on touting the benefits of using natural ingredients in beauty products and place a prominent photo of one of your soaps. Then you could create a Pinterest beauty board on ‘Natural Beauty Products' that have other brands/products that are in your market, but not direct competitors, and pin your product on the board. A good practice is to use the 80/20 rule of 80% other people's products and a 20% mix of your own. That way, you're not seen as a self-promoter.
For those small businesses who are service oriented or business-to-business models, think about creating an infographic on a hot topic related to your industry. That way you are visually representing key data points in a way that is easy to understand and easy to share–data that otherwise may be viewed as dull, dry material, such as statistics. Compelling infographics do require a graphic designer's touch, so consider tapping a friend or hiring help. It can be money well invested as a great infographic can keep generating SEO for years to come. Other pin ideas maybe from photo covers of your company's eBooks cover, customer photo shots, photos of your team members with links to bios, event pictures, etc.
Add Pinterest's “Pin It” button to your website on relative content such as blog postings or even shop pages. Etsy has adopted this practice and it helped propel Pinterest use to an all time high over the past few months.
Engage with others to build a following. Partner up to collaborate on boards that are of interest to you and your followers.
Get creative through building boards for a specific target such as gift guides, educational content, interesting tidbits and helpful tips. Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when pinning for business is you are conveying a lifestyle to your followers. This lifestyle has to be one that your target market supports and your product or service is essential.
