Over the last few months, Pinterest has really taken the world of social networking by storm. It’s a website that allows you to create a profile that contains pin boards, each providing categorized images which can be shared with others, or kept privately. While many users simply love the site and use it as a way to find things, Pinterest has taken the business world by storm and has quickly become a new way of marketing your website and increasing sales.
Although there is no denying the strong following Pinterest has received, it is worth noting that this platform isn’t for everyone. However, if you have a product, it should be easy for you to make the most of this social platform. Adding images of your products provides visitors to the site a way to click on the image and be directly taken to the page where they are able to purchase the product. If you provide services rather than products it can be more difficult to reap any benefits from using the site, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.
Ignoring the Following of Pinterest is a Mistake
In January 2012, Pinterest was responsible for driving more traffic to websites than Google +, Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. With more than a million daily visitors spending an average of 15 minutes per day on the site, you need to be thinking of ways to use this brand new marketing tool, even if you don’t have products to showcase.
Making the Most of Pinterest
- When you sign up, fill out your online profile, add images, and your links to Facebook, Twitter and your website.
- Create pin boards and give them original names that will make them appeal to other users on the site.
- Add images which are related to your industry and place them on appropriate boards. Pin throughout the day and night, rather than all in one go, especially if you plan on sharing each of the pins on your other social networking sites.
- Start following other users of the site and try to tag them in the description area of any images you pin that are relevant.
- Comment on other peoples’ pins and try to engage with as many people as possible. Like images and re-pin any that you like. Just make sure you leave the link in the Pin and that the link does lead to the right website.
- Pin your blog post images, especially if you are selling a service and not products. Keep a board just for your blogs, but don’t forget to post other images, rather than spamming your own site constantly.
- Optimize your website and all blog posts for Pinterest. Add images to all posts and encourage other users to re-pin the image, by making sure it is attractive, creative, thought-provoking or funny. Add a watermark to your image, or add your logo somewhere, in order to help increase knowledge of your brand.
Are you using Pinterest yet?
Blog Post Written by Spencer Powell
Spencer is the Inbound Marketing Director at TMR Direct. Spencer specializes in helping clients create and execute effective inbound marketing campaigns.