For the uninitiated, Pinterest can be a confusing concept. An online pinboard? For what purpose? What am I even supposed to pin to this pinboard? Whether you’re a seasoned Pinterest user or a social media novice, Pinterest Marketing represents a powerful tool your business can harness.
What is Pinterest?
Simply put, Pinterest is an online space used primarily for collecting visual pieces of multimedia, mostly images. What sets this apart from Facebook or Instagram is the incredible longevity of Pinterest posts. Pinterest pins are 100x more spreadable than a tweet and the average half-life of a Pinterest pin is 16,000x longer than a Facebook post. Twitter and Facebook are both platforms where users are expecting a high rate of turnover. They want tons of new information, new posts, and new content delivered to them every time they log on. On Pinterest, users pin things they intend to share again and again or re-visit later. Clearly, this has important marketing applications.
Aside from the surprising longevity of Pinterest posts, there are at least six other important reasons to consider using Pinterest in your social media marketing campaigns. Let’s take a look.
Pinterest Converts
A lot of social media applications can deter the casual browser from completing a purchase by putting a lot of steps between the potential consumer and the actual sale. Pinterest does the opposite. Pinterest greatly minimizes the number of steps a customer must take from the point of discovery to the sale conversion itself. As a result, Pinterest visitors are far more likely to convert into sales or leads.
Pinterest Drives Traffic
Pinterest can be a great way to just increase overall traffic to your site. Through Pinterest posts, you can greatly increase the amount of links back to your website, which will drive traffic. Don’t forget to keep creating great content though, as no social media marketing campaign can be successful if you aren’t creating content which is valuable to your customers!
Pins = Links
This neat feature means that every pin can be a potential inbound link to your website. Imagine how easy it would be to simply post high-quality images of your services on Pinterest, each containing a link back to its source – your website.
User Engagement
People who use Pinterest typically engage with content and with each other at a higher rate than other social media. It’s extremely common to find small groups or communities of like-minded people on Pinterest who spend a great deal of time finding and sharing things with each other. This means that each of your posts on Pinterest are more likely to get seen, interacted with, and even go viral!
Social Media Integration
It’s really easy to integrate Pinterest with any pre-existing social media. What this means is that you can set Pinterest up to share your pins on your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, taking advantage of followings you’ve already established in other communities.
Follow Trends
Pinterest does a great job of tracking what is trending at any given moment. This can give you unique insight into the market climate and what’s going on in your customers’ minds. When people follow you, you can follow them back to learn about what they enjoy or what inspires them, providing you with invaluable insight into the people to whom you are trying to appeal.
How To Get Started With Pinterest Marketing
Getting started on Pinterest is super easy. You can either go to the website or download the app on your phone. Once there, you simply need to enter your email address and a password and you’re off to the races!
When you’re using Pinterest for business and marketing purposes, your goals are going to be a little bit different from those of a casual user. Some basic guidelines to follow include:
Create Quality Images
Images which gain traction on Pinterest need to follow certain rules. Aim for images which are bright, crisp, and high quality. You want to aim for an image resolution of 736×1102. Good images include things like infographics and should fit into popular or trending categories in order to gain maximum exposure.
Get Seen
The best time to pin is from 2PM-4PM EST and 8PM-1AM EST. Use your SEO knowledge and add keywords in pin titles, descriptions, and image file names. Include links to your other social media platforms and spread your pins throughout the rest of your marketing campaign, including links on your site and including your pins in newsletters.
Engage Followers
Like other social media platforms, never forget that Pinterest is first and foremost SOCIAL. This means you need to stay active, posting up to 30 times a day, but not less than 10 times. Comment on your followers’ pins and respond to their comments on yours. Follow similar brands, especially popular ones, and invite them to interact with you.
Promote Your Brand
Don’t be afraid to use Rich Pins, which allow you to include extra information on your pins. Include direct links to your site, post a variety of content (seasonal, trending, relevant, etc.), and promote your most popular boards at the top. You should also consider creating a board dedicated especially to your blog posts.
Pinterest Analytics
Pinterest offers analytics which can help you understand which of your pins are gaining traction and being seen the most. You can use this information to further hone your strategy and maximize the time you spend on this social media platform.
Using these strategies and making sure to continually adapt to the changing climate of social media will ensure that your time spent on Pinterest is time well worth it. If you do Pinterest right, you can start to see improved site traffic, sales, and leads in no time at all. Happy Pinning!
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