Pinterest social media marketing strategy: Pinterest allows you to see 100 photos/videos on the screen at one time and share them in an instant. It’s a social bookmarking site and electronic bulletin board all rolled into one that takes seconds to find and share things. Follow people (or specific boards) with similar tastes and they can follow you back. Instead of using written content as substance, it uses images and video. It allows users to “pin” images and video to a virtual bulletin board they create. They can be photos they took and uploaded, images found on other websites, videos they find online or videos they have created themselves. A user then shares that pin with their friends, who can then like or repin it to their boards.
The primary purpose of Pinterest is to share your interests with friends through images and video. With Pinterest, there is an ability to post images of your company’s products on your Pinterest board and link them back to your website. It works as a sort of virtual store catalog. If you simply display images of your products without contributing other content or sharing other users’ pins, you’ll likely find that people don’t pay much attention
PINTEREST STATISTICS
Pinterest.com has gained over 13 Million users in 2011, it is one of the fastest growing Web 2.0 sites on the net as the fastest site ever to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark. Pinterest currently is ranked 9th of 1349 in social media & has an Alexa rank of 16 in the US, 59 Worldwide! Users inbound from Pinterest spent $180 compared with $85 spent from users coming from Facebook. Users spent less time on the company’s Website, choosing instead to browse from the company’s pin board. It was reported that 83% of the U.S. users were women. For January 2012, comScore reported the site 11.7 million monthly unique visits broken down demographically to:
- 28.1% of users have a household income of over $100,000
- 50% of users come from the United States
- 50% of users have children
- 68% of users are female
- 97% of Facebook fans are female
- Every user is either a Twitter or a Facebook member or both
- Average time spent on Pinterest.com per user: 15.8 Minutes (3.7 Minutes + Facebook!)
- Pinterest is engaging members two to three times better than Twitter.
- Users in the US are more likely to live in midwest states
- Referring more traffic than Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined.
PINTEREST BASICS
How do people communicate on Pinterest? What kinds of things do people say and don’t they say? Continue to pay attention to these things over time and you’ll naturally adapt. Another key to getting found on Pinterest is to pin those images that support your product, help to cultivate relationships in Pinterest and beyond, and to increase your rank in Pinterest search. The more your pins and boards get Repinned by others, the higher they appear in search results.
WHO TO FOLLOW
Identify five people with whom you’d like to establish a business relationship both inside and outside of your industry. Click on Pinners in the search results to see their account and Follow All from their Pinterest page, which means you’ll see everything they pin on their boards. You can also only follow a single board they’ve created by clicking on Follow Board on the appropriate one. Repin images they offer that support your own products in some way. Your name appears in their activity feed and helps you to begin establishing a relationship.
PROFILE
Add keywords to your bio to get found by other pinners. You can find Facebook friends and Twitter Followers by linking to your social networks. The Top 3 people you repin appear on the top right. Find people who are connected to you on Facebook and Twitter to follow on Pinterest.
PINNING
By using creative pin titles that focus on lifestyle, not product, you can increase your engagement with pins. Use keywords in descriptions and tag others using @ symbol. You need to credit source for pins. Pin about people in action at work, your work in the community, your product in a unique setting, or even your service in a fictional adventure. Show your expertise by creating boards that highlight sources and trends that are unique to your industry. Start your descriptions with your URL to redirect pins to your site. When you’re creating or editing a Pin, have you ever noticed the Source field? If you input a web address in this field, whenever someone clicks on your Pin it will lead them to that address. Remember to include calls to action.
TIMING
Choose to be on Pinterest during the peak Pinterest hours between 2 and 4 PM and from 8 PM until 1 AM. During these hours pin in new content, curate content by Repinning, liking Pins, commenting and checking your own notifications.
BOARDS
Use playful, fun titles that include keywords in description. Pin images from clients or repin supporting images. Create Inspiration collages and How-to board showing the multi-step process. Create fun boards that allow your personality to shine through.
IMAGES
Always choose eye-catching, relevant images and use an effective title and description with keywords to make your content searchable. Add watermark for identity and style product photos. Use natural light in photos and pin photos relating to your products. Make infographic text LARGE and don’t forget to pin photos linking to the video. Start with a link to make sure that your link is always easily viewable in your description. Make your photos beautiful and topical. Demonstrate how your products help create or what problem they solve. Use engaging descriptions and creative language that will complement your photo and draw people further in. Use unique hashtags to allow your content to be found more easily both inside and outside of Pinterest. Include product details by stating the name of the product and highlight a few great features. Including the dollar amount in your caption will actually add it to the image.
CURATE
Creating boards of curated content is a great idea because it not only cuts down on how much content you actually have to create yourself, but it prevents your Pinterest boards from being all about you. Include images from other people and businesses. Make a board all about your customers. Add a Follow button to your website and a Pin It widget to your blog.
MARKET RESEARCH
Review other business boards and identify Pinterest marketing goals. Do keyword searches for pins, boards, and people, what boards get repinned. Pinterest as a way to tap into their customers’ lifestyles and create a sense of brand loyalty. The themed boards are based on their target audience’s interests, such as recipes using yogurt, nutrition, and being active. Create some boards that somehow relate to your industry and make visual lists. You can sign in to Pinterest and do keyword searches related to your business by browsing the results and take notes on the most successful content and Pinners that you find.
Visit http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com, replacing yourdomain.com with your actual URL, to see what people are Pinning from your site. You can also create a Pin asking for feedback. Find stunning photos and clever, keyword-rich boards & pins. How can you improve your boards? Are they lacking keywords? Are they bland? Are they too general? Study the captions of others on Pinterest by browsing the most popular content and content posted by those you follow. Chobiani continues to be a leader in Pinterest marketing. Use the Pinterest Search bar to look up keywords related to your industry as well as specific products or services your business offers. See what’s getting pinned from your website.
COPYRIGHT
State source when pinning and Display URL on images. Use copyright symbols and always credit photos.
COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
Create a themed group board. Group Scavenger hunt of boards. Ask for colleague repins. Throw a Pinterest Party. Come up with a project that will appeal to your audience and colleagues. What can you offer your audience that they will absolutely love and learn from? What will they enjoy sharing with their Pinterest friends? What inspiration can you provide they cannot get anywhere else? Can you build a contest around your project? And which of your colleagues, clients, or vendors will be best suited to join you on this? Develop a list of multiple collaborative projects you can create. Collaborate on blog tours, Facebook contests, Twitter infographics, and Slideshare of the months. Event marketing. Promote an upcoming event put on by all the participants. Joint contests. If one contest is good, why not a contest with multiple prizes or a big gift package? User-generated boards. A Lands End-style contest, hosted by multiple companies. Pinterest tours (similar to a blog tour but requires users to visit those blogs and pin something, or repin something already on Pinterest) Select collaborators and a project. Decide on who will be included in this collaboration and talk to them to see which project they’re excited about also. Whichever has the most consensus is the one you need to develop. Create a theme and develop a plan. Identify the theme, duration and what each of you will contribute to the project. If you’ll be creating a group board, decide who will create the master board, and invite the collaborators to contribute. If you’ll be asking your followers to create their own boards, decide on what you want them to pin from your sites, and plan out the guidelines. Determine deadlines. Pin It to Win It, and they asked people to visit their website, Pin images of clothing they liked, and be creative in curating boards of outfits from the Canvas brand.
CONTEST
What kind of content do you see and not see? Be specific about exactly what users have to do to enter. Give them numbered steps that spell out exactly what they need to do. Set duration for the contest with a specific begins and end date. One week is a good start. Require participants to share in some way: tagging you in their board description,http://socialfresh.com/pinterest-contests/. Repinning your group board, or sharing it on their social network, are just a few ways to do this. Define and explain how you will select the winners. Also, define what the prizes will be and who will provide them. Clients pin product photos. Pin photo, tag brand to win. Monthly board contest. Most repinned board wins. Pin image of contest rules. Integrate with other social media networks. Use client videos with a hashtag. Host board scavenger hunts to find the object we are looking for. Place Pins allow you to include a map, address and phone number, making it a great way to literally put your business on the map on Pinterest. Switch the Add a Map option to Yes and click Create Board and Pinterest should automatically create it and take you to it. Click Add a Place and type in the name of the place and it’s location so Pinterest can find it for you.
VIDEO
You can Pin a video by creating a new Pin and pasting the link in the URL field or by going to the video and using the Pin It button on that page.
ROI ON PINTEREST
Increase social reach by engaging fans through effective content by using content development tools such as Pinstamatic, Snapito, and Pinerly. Identify and engage with influencers using tools such as PinReach and PinPuff. Increase lead generation by integrating activity with Google Analytics to website traffic.