In the world of social network, if you are not getting noticed, you really need to tighten your seat belt and get ready to take off for an apt marketing flight. You might take social media platform as a casual fleet, where enjoying the journey of networking is of prime importance. Well, think again!
People are more concentrated on the social media mediums and thus, businesses are targeting these platforms with utmost priority. So, if you are a business entity and want to spread your customer reach, you might want to give social networking a second thought.
With lot of players coming in the market, one social networking site which has impressed me most in terms of business conversion or ROI (return on investment) is Pinterest. What is Pinterest all about? Who uses it? Why do the brands need this platform? How to use Pinterest? I will answer all these questions, keeping in mind the different type of people that come to the platform with varied preferences.
What is Pinterest?
Basically, it’s a platform where you can manage and share the images that get you inspired. As soon as you share the picture, the image is then referred as ‘Pins’. Pinterest has a themed board, where you can share these images. These ‘Boards’ can be for anything as per your preference, be it gadgets, golf or geology. Sky is the limit!
With 100 million users every month, it is becoming one of the most visited social media sites. Stats says that two third of the content saved on Pinterest is actually generated from business. This clearly tells you that Pinterest is not just a site to share content and build relation; it is a stage, where brands showcase their products/service, in order to have a vast consumer reach and to increase brand visibility.
You might be thinking that Pinterest is nothing but ‘another brick in the wall’; it is clearly not. If you want your business to grow and reach heights, keep up with me, while I talk about this sturdy and exquisite marketing platform.
For what purpose can you use Pinterest?
It is completely all right if you are pinning cool images all day on Pinterest. However, if we are talking about the purpose for which Pinterest can be used, there are many. Young to-be-brides, who want their weddings to be perfect, do not have to stick to thick wedding planners brochures. Instead, they can have a Pinterest account and can choose from bridal dress to jewelry to decoration. You can also create one board for each of your office cabins and then pin the decorating ideas for the same. Artists can handle the images that inspire them. Additionally, these boards can be managed by more than one person; hence marketing team members can collaborate & work on same boards.
Firms with apparels and fashion accessories as their brands need to get on to Pinterest at once! Why? Well, as per stats 85% of the users on this platform are female. So, if you are a marketing manager of a firm, whose product/service is targeted to women, you know exactly where to tap them!
How to use Pinterest?
First, sign up for an account. If you are looking to conduct business, make sure to create a business account. The advantage to having this type of account is the number of analytical attributes, which can help your business to thrive.
For a business account, you need to jot down following details:
- Email Address
- Password
- Name of Business
- Type of Business (drop down list)
- Your website link (optional)
While logging in to your account, you will be directed the home feed. This home feed exhibits you all the recent pins from other accounts on Pinterest that you follow. Also, the company has ensured its users seamless browsing, so endless scrolling option is there. You can keep on looking till something hit your eyes and strike your heart!
For each visit on every page, at the top, you can see a search bar. Looking at extreme left, you can find the company logo (home page) with analytics and ads icon. A drop down menu (showing available links of all the categories you can browse) can be seen on right side.
A ‘+’ button and a chat bubble button can be seen next to the search drop down menu.
Mentioned below are the functions of buttons displayed:
- + Button: This button enables you to add new pins or to make a new ad.
- Chat Menu: This drop-down menu opens up with three options; News, You and Messages
- News: Exhibits site updates and trending pins
- You: Gives you notifications when other account users try to interact with your pins
- Message: Shows you message from other users
Clicking on the profile option will open up a drop-down menu with different alternatives such as going to your profile, seeing your boards, pins and accessing your bills, ad support & settings.
You must be thinking about ‘Pins’ and ‘Boards’ now since so much have been said about them!
‘Pins’ are nothing but content that has been shared by you. Boards are somewhat like visual bookmarks that enable you to manage the content shared by you.
Creating a board: Once you decide to create your own board, just go the profile option and you can see the red button stating ‘create board’. Clicking on it will open an information box.
You should put all the information as per your business requirements. I can expect my readers to easily understand the above-shown information box. You can see a ‘collaborators’ option at the bottom of
You can see a ‘collaborators’ option at the bottom of box. This gives you access to invite other people to share the management of board so that more than one person can control the board’s activity and can also contribute to the same.
As soon as you are done filling the information, click on create and your board is ready. You can now start sharing pins!!
Adding Pins:
There are multiple ways to add pins listed below:
- To add content to your own board, just go your board and click on add pins. This will give you a drop down menu asking the source of image (web or computer). In case you need to upload an image from web, just enter the link in the space given. Choose the image from the source link and click on ‘pin it’. Add the description for your pin, choose a board and pin is added to your board. This kind of pin is linked back to the websites it came from. If you choose to upload an image from computer, Pinterest will ask you to upload it. Rest of the process is same.
- You can also pin from your mobile app (by going to the profile button and clicking on ‘+’ button). Rest process will be same. Only one option of ‘upload from computer’ will be replaced from ‘upload from phone’.
- Also, you can ‘repin’ the content of other users. It is an apt way for you to be more active on Pinterest in case you don’t have your own content to share.
Rich Pins:
These kinds of pins enable you to use Pinterest in a much more efficient & effective manner. Listed below are the 6 kinds of rich pins available till now:
- Place Pins
- Article Pins
- Recipe Pins
- Product Pins
- Movie Pins
- App Pins
You should always keep the mentioned below steps while using ‘rich pins’:
- Adding adequate metadata to your website
- Validating the pins and applying them to get them on Pinterest.
Engaging with customers on Pinterest:
There are number of ways through which your consumers on Pinterest:
- Likes
- Comments
- Sending Pins
- Tagging
- Sending Messages
Since, Pinterest is an image-based website, so people tend to rate brands here depending upon the kind of visual reputation one possesses.
Apart from this, you can always expertise your SEO skills by using # on Pinterest. Typing relevant keywords in search bar and using trending hash-tags can surely raise the level of visibility for your brand.
You can always customize your own Pinterest profile by filling various options given below:
Naming your pin boards with clever keywords can surely bring you and your brand on top. Always remember to write keywords that are easily searchable and are catchy enough. Entering the description of each board can also provide clarity to customers about what your board is and how it aligns with your brand.
To check the trending topics on Pinterest, you can click on the search bar and select ‘popular’ from the drop down menu.
For advertising purpose, Pinterest has recently launched promoted pins (only available in U.S.).
Pinterest Analytics is given by name ‘analytics’ on the top of page. Clicking on it will give you a drop down menu with 3 options: Overview, Profile, and Audience.
- Overview: Directs you to the dashboard exhibiting several boxes giving stats for your profile
- Profile: Gives your profile’s performance and allied stats
- Audience: Provides you with the data on people who are targeted by you
Hopefully, this post answers everything you want to know about Pinterest. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
