If you have followed our blog closely, you will have noticed an increased frequency of marketing and advertising tips for Facebook™, Twitter and LinkedIn. However, this does not mean that the other social media channels are to be ignored. The rule of the thumb for efficient promotion of your business and products is to select those channels which best fit your business, your products and your brand image. You should not spread out too thin and forget about certain social media channels because it is too exhausting to manage them all, nor should you restrict your social media marketing to only one or two channels.
Today we shall discuss doing your marketing on Pinterest. Pinterest is a preponderant visual social media channel. People create boards (just like the old-timey cork boards where you would put various data and information together) and share photos of their own or ones that they’ve found while browsing the internet. This specific way of working makes Pinterest a very valuable social media tool for marketers because it offers the chance for interesting content to become viral.
The way it works is that when someone pins a photo from a link on their board, the entire link is accessible by clicking on the pinned photo. This is very important to remember when selecting images to go with your content (blog posts or website pages). If a photo is really good, expressive and rich in meaning, it has high chances of getting pinned, thus creating a free distribution channel for your content.
How about marketing on Pinterest? We have prepared a few helpful tips to get you started!
1. Identify and Label Your Niche Properly
Pinterest is the social media channel where keywords are critical. When people look for interesting pins, they will type in a few short and comprehensive keywords. You could have the best boards, with exactly the kind of photos they are looking for, but if they are not properly labelled, the users will never discover them.
So, the first thing to do is perform in-depth Google AdWord research and find 4 or 5 great keywords to use as labels for your Pinterest channel and boards.
2. Determine What You Want to Achieve
Pinterest is not the place for lots of written content (even if you insert it, no one will bother reading it), so everything is done with images. The selection of images to post on Pinterest depends on your own final purpose. Do you want to build your brand image? Or showcase your products? Do you want to create a sales funnel? Or build engagement with users?
Your boards, labels and keywords must be completely coordinated with your end purpose and present a unitary, coherent image.
3. Help People Pin Your Content
This is an on-site action, but with profound and meaningful results for your distribution channels. As explained above, people use the Pinterest plugin on their phones or computer to pin interesting photos to their boards. The smart move is to be one step ahead of them and provide them with the Pin This button on all your photos, without counting on the existence or not of the plugin in the device they use to browse your website. The Pinterest button on photos is not obtrusive and is only visible when people tap or place the mouse cursor on the photo.
4. Monitor Your Competition
The number one purpose of pinned content is to go viral. This is how you obtain engagement, traffic and sales from Pinterest marketing activities. And before you master the art of creating and sharing viral content, learn from the competition. Follow your competitors and look at their most viral photos. What are they about? What keywords do they use? What kind of emotions do they inspire? Once you discover the formula, spice it up with your own original business proposition and start creating viral pins.
5. Create Catalogue-Like Photo Descriptions
Pinterest is a great promoter of shopping. Many people browse this social media channel looking for ideas of products they want to buy – from clothes to jewellery, and to furniture or roof tiles. This is why each product photo should be accompanied by a detailed description, just like the one you would prepare for your online store or printed catalogue. Include a few relevant keywords in the description, and you’ve improved your chances at gaining new customers from your Pinterest boards.