By now, you’ve probably heard of the social phenomenon Pinterest (if not, you’re missing out). Pinterest is an online pinboard where the user can organize their interests, assets or products into multiple boards. The website has been favorited by women, as many of the most popular “pins” are recipes, wedding planning ideas and fashion inspiration.
But Pinterest doesn’t just have to be a springboard (pun intended) for pre-nuptial or culinary inspiration. Pinterest is the newest thing to hit the marketing world, and for good reason. Here are some ways to market with the tool:
If you are a business that sells products, you can create boards based on your different product category. For example, a jewelry store may create a board for necklaces, a board for rings, for bracelets and so on. Visit Savannah, the convention and visitor’s bureau for the city of Savannah, Ga markets its “products,” (aka the city’s offerings) through multiple boards (http://pinterest.com/visitsavannah/) on what to find throughout town.
If you are marketing products, Pinterest makes it easy to list prices. To add a price to a pin, type the “$” or “£” symbol followed by item’s price in the pin’s description. Your pins may be featured in Pinterest’s “Gifts” section when you add prices to them.
Have a tutorial or webinar you want to share? Create boards for the both of these so clients can go back and view them at any time. Also for clients, use Pinterest boards to turn boring written case studies into powerful visual stories. Make sure the integrate your Pinterest account with your Facebook’s wall or timeline so you can post content in both places at one time.
Is your company running a contest or promotion? Pin a product, image or saying and have your followers post comments to enter. Outline the entry rules and terms in the pin’s description box or link them on your site. Another option is a repining contest in which your followers repin a product or whatever you choose to enter the contest. Coupons also work well on Pinterest. Create images of your coupons and pin them to your board. For local businesses who are trying to drive traffic and build awareness around their product sets, this is a good option.
Not convinced your company needs to be on Pinterest? Check out some of these stats:
Between November and December, 2011, Pinterest’s unique visitor count increased from 4,855,000 to 7,516,000 , a 55 percent increase. In January it jumped to 11,716,000, crossing the 10 million mark faster than any standalone site in history.
Pinterest now generates more referrals to retail sites than Google Plus, Reddit and YouTube combined.
Source: http://www.webpronews.com/marketing-with-pinterest-2012-02
image source: socialnicole