Feb 20th 2015

What Every Business Owner Needs to Know About Pinterest

 
The following post includes portions written by my lovely wife, who was gracious enough to allow me to bother her with marketing questions about how she uses and interacts with Pinterest. The consumer I speak of below is her, I cannot thank her enough, and you can follow her Pinterest board here. Also, I highlighted excerpts from her in red I felt warranted extra attention from you.

Pinterest is literally taking the world by storm faster than your smart-phone can auto-correct. It has already received tons of attention from Internet Marketers, but what about you? What about the business owner that could benefit more from Pinterest than Twitter or (dare I say it) Facebook? Does a business like that even exist? In my limited interactions with the website, I not only see tremendous Internet Marketing takeaways, but better value for some companies that “get” the crucial aspect of interaction and engagement associated with Social Media success.

In this post, I wanted to ask an expert, a Pinterest Maven if you will, to help us learn how businesses can take advantage of this “next big thing”. And it got me thinking: How else to better understand consumer interaction with Pinterest than to ask an avid Pinterest user. Folks, I give you a true Pinterest view: An avid Pinterest user as she navigates, connects, and interacts in her personal Pinterest experience...

Where are your consumers dwelling on-line? Follow the creative-DIY-picture-perfect bread crumbs to Pinterest

Hi, my name is Heather Mears and I love Pinterest. I love the fact that I can go to Pinterest because it inspires me, it motivates me, and nourishes my creativity. Allow me to give you a high level view of what Pinterest is. In Pinterest, pictures are posted as pins; pins are kept on boards; and boards are managed by people. Pinterest is easy to use, full of pictures, and the search function makes it easy to navigate throughout the site. The Pinterest member, either a person like me, or a business like Chobani below, administers the boards and manages the pin selections.

Now, here is how I can interact and engage with a company on Pinterest

Pins are pictures and the pictures can be links: links to blog posts, links to recipes, links to more photos, even links back to your own business website. As a consumer, and avid Pinterest user, the following are but a couple of elements that I’m looking for with my Pinterest experience...
 

Products with a simple search description

Using the Chobani example once again, I’ll help illustrate my point.  Chobani is a brand name product, but most likely not as household as say Kleenex or Band Aid.  A Pinterest search for Chobani returns (at the time of this publication) almost 200 pins, two boards, but only one person, the official Chobani Pinterest page.  The individual search for pins return pictures of conversion charts, recipes and flavors. The individual search for boards returns the same.  But the individual search for people returns the official Chobani page. That page has 17 boards, 488 pins, and a true follower in me.  Why? Because it’s a one-stop shop for how Chobani can be included in my every day life: fitness, recipes, recipe additions, nutrition, creativity, menu pairings and inspiration, just to name a few.

Pins or Boards that inspire creativity

Let’s say that I am in the main Pinterest Board, where all the newest pins from the people I follow get posted, and a part of Pinterest that I frequent often in search of my next craft or recipe. In the menu bar, there’s a header for Gifts, with a menu of prices (see image below). Not only can you post pins with the price of the item on it, but the link will go directly to the originating website for purchase.  This is a perfect example of how consumers on Pinterest are looking for ideas on, let’s just say their dream kitchen, and need to know where to get the products/contractor/options to make that dream a reality. This is where you as a business can step in and engage consumers like me. Your pins and boards that you manage in your business profile could then include those products and pertinent information needed to make my dream kitchen real.

An Example of Gift Pricing on Pinterest

Obviously, kitchens are only the beginning. Pinterest consumers are searching for inspiration with items as small as scarves to as large as homes with wrap-around porches. But I think that you get the point: Consumers just like me are turning to Pinterest to engage and interact with brands and companies that provide services that I and my community are in to. Personally, I know that I have added a new favorite social website to my life. The only question for you and your business is whether you choose to engage with me on Pinterest or not.

Marketing Takeaway

A Pinterest page is another online outlet to reach your consumers.  You have a website, a Facebook page and probably a Twitter account.  Hopefully, you're working on a blog and perhaps a Youtube account.  Go ahead and add Pinterest to that "to-do" list. This is another social website that your potential customers are “shopping” for inspiration before they actually purchase. Look no further than some of the highlighted text from the consumer’s portion: it’s all about engagement, interaction, and sharing with her community. With big, vibrant, beautiful color pictures too!

These social signals are at the very core of marketing your products and services online, because it fosters trust, decreases anxiety, and positions your business as an authority in your market. Oh, and I haven’t even touched the Search Engine Optimization component to all of this, what with all of the potential links pointing back to your product pages. It might be a little too early to say something so wide-sweeping, but maybe, just maybe, Pinterest is the bridge that connects the gap between Social Media and Search Engine Optimization?

What are some other takeaways, pro or con, you see from marketing your brand in Pinterest?

Feel free to post a comment below!