How Pinterest Can Help Your Small Business

Pinterest being a relatively new social media platform, many small businesses are unaware of how they can make good use of it. One main reason people seem reluctant to try this social network is because it is quite different from some of the other major social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. In order to understand how you can make use of this tool, you must first understand how other small companies are using Pinterest in their business.

Pinterest can help you build your online presence. Develop a marketing plan that is well-thought out to make Pinterest work for you. You can make use of the following ideas to use Pinterest effectively in your business.


Conduct Market research

When you are well versed with how to use Pinterest you can even benefit by understanding the market trends and knowing the preferences of users on Pinterest. After you pin something, you can check if people actually like your pin and repining it. Also, make note whether you are getting any new followers for your pin. When you do, observe their profiles to know the kind of people interested in your product so that you can add more tailored content keeping them in mind.


Promote what you sell

For those businesses selling products, Pinterest can be a very good way to showcase products to users through pictures. Share images of your best products but a better approach would be to include pictures of customers using your products. You can also add pictures giving customers step-by-step instructions on how to use your product. You can assign a pin as a product by adding the price of the product in the product description. The price must be accompanied by the dollar sign or whichever currency you plan to use. By doing so, the product will also be added to the gifts section on Pinterest.


Share videos

You can share videos on Pinterest by embedding them into Pinterest itself. Small businesses can greatly benefit from sharing videos and so this feature should definitely be used to promote your business.


Feature blog posts

Pinterest is increasingly being used by bloggers in order to give emphasis to their blog posts and also to create visual representations of their content. To make this happen, you must add graphics like photos to your blog post so that when your post is pinned Pinterest will be able to pull the right image.


Share space with others

Pinterest is more effective when used as a group activity. You can involve your employees, customers and other Pinterest users. You can assign boards to your employees or loyal customers where they can share their ideas and have discussions. This can help you learn what your customers feel and help you learn from each other too.

You can also create boards that highlight useful information from sources other than yours. You can include images from your customers and clients that your target audience might find appealing. Also, include interesting images on your company website so that Pinterest users might be encouraged to pin those pictures on their boards.


About The Author: Jessica is a content strategy specialist with Godot Media. She has years of experience helping businesses with their content marketing strategy. Her other interests besides content marketing are finance, lifestyle and even, fashion.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Jessica and myself know by leaving us your valued comments in the comments section below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
3 Interesting Ways Brands Can Use Pinterest Board Covers
Bloggers And Pinterest

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3 Interesting Ways Brands Can Use Pinterest Board Covers

Pinterest has taken the social media marketing world by storm, and recent changes to the platform have made it friendlier for B2B and B2C brands, giving them much needed visual exposure. Pinterest board covers are a definite way of building a buzz about what you do and can also be useful for building customer engagement.

Recently, the social media platform gave users the ability to edit Pinterest board covers. Before this feature was rolled out, the latest "pin" became the default cover image of the Pinterest board.

With this feature, users can change and edit their cover image to something that resonates with their brand or at least, defines the essence of what they're doing.

Here are three interesting ways brands can use Pinterest board covers:


Highlight a new product

Because Pinterest provides a highly visual backdrop, it can be used to promote tangible products easily. However, the challenge is for B2B players who are primarily selling services and whose target audience may not be using Pinterest.

A new product or service may need a lot of marketing quota to be promoted adequately. By introducing this product/service as your board cover image, along with a piece of call to action text could increase the likelihood of users clicking through to the original source to know more about the product or service.

When doing so, you must make sure that the text you choose must be carefully selected. A call to action phrase is a piece of text that entices users to click on your product to know more about it.

Examples include: 10 productivity boosting tips with ABC product.


Encourage new visitors to view your board

Users may find your Pinterest profile through your website and other social media profiles. For a Pinterest newbie, your profile must speak out to them and tell them about what you do. As mentioned earlier, Pinterest is a visual platform which can promise you greater returns compared to a text overload on your website.

A cover image that describes what is inside each board can prove immensely helpful to visitors who don't know what you're trying to sell. Creative, cleverly written board titles are sure-fire winners.

Examples include, "10 free ebooks designed to increase your social media knowledge", or "5 podcasts to make you an online marketing guru".


Build customer engagement

The primary reason brands use social media marketing is to increase customer engagement. You can achieve this by adding witty cover images that define the essence of your brand. A board for customer testimonials with your best testimonial as the cover image will make it easier for clients to hire you.

A cover image that provides a sneak peek into a new service can be used to develop a pre-launch buzz about the product. Or, you could use a Pinterest special coupon code for Pinterest users to increase engagement.

Be creative about using board covers and pins. Some brands that are absolutely rocking Pinterest include Hubspot (B2B), Whole Foods (B2C), and Martha Stewart (B2C). While these may be big players, you can certainly take inspiration from them and develop your own strategy.


About The Author: Khushboo Aulakh writes on behalf of Genie Ventures, who specialise in creating social led consumer shopping sites such as Broadband Genie and Café La Moda.

Do you like this article by Khushboo Aulakh? Please let Khushboo and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.

Related articles:
Bloggers And Pinterest


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Bloggers And Pinterest

Pinterest has rapidly exploded in popularity over the course of several months, and it now sends more referral traffic than Twitter according to Shareaholic. As a blogger, something's wrong if this doesn't cause your ears to perk up. Marketing your blog on Pinterest can be a great idea, but keep the following in mind.


1. Are You a Fit?

Pinterest's primary audience consists of homemakers. The site is called a virtual pin board, but it may be just as appropriate to think of it as social scrapbooking. If your blog appeals to audiences that care about home and garden, recipes, fashion, DIY projects, inspirational quotes, self-help, home decor, and so on, it's practically insane not to take advantage of Pinterest.

If, on the other hand, it appeals to a different market, you may want to invest your time elsewhere. Give the site a visit, browse the topics, and see if you can find a community revolving around subjects that matter to your blog, dive in. If not, keep an eye on the site to see where things are headed, but move on for now.


2. Invest In Great Photos

Pinterest is a visual site, period. It is for sharing images and occasionally videos. If your blog doesn't host attractive or shareable images, Pinterest isn't going to do you any good as a marketing tool.

You either need to have professional, beautiful photos, or you need to have images of things that people just can't resist sharing with others. Browse your topic on Pinterest and see what kinds of images are being shared there. Try to replicate the results.


3. Audience Research

Even if you can't afford or produce stellar images, Pinterest can still become a powerful research tool. Find out who the top influencers are in fields related to yours, and take a look at what's up on their boards. You might not be able to replicate the results, but you can certainly learn a lot about what interests your audience.

Most people use Pinterest as a source of inspiration. As a blogger, you need inspiration even more than most people, so there's certainly no harm in getting involved even if it's only for this reason. Remember, social networks are for discovery just as much as they are for marketing.


4. Backlinks

Currently, you can still get "dofollow" links from Pinterest by including a link back to your site in the pin description. Originally, the photos themselves linked to the site with "dofollow" links, but these have since been no-followed. There's no guarantee that the links will continue to pass search engine benefit, but this is certainly an incentive to get involved.

Bear in mind, Google is watching social sites very carefully and very well may count these links anyway, or at least measure the referral traffic. Even if there are no search engine benefits, you can't ignore what amounts to over 1% of all internet referral traffic.


5. Networking

Once again, you don't need to be a visual site to benefit from Pinterest. The site is also a great place to network. You can use it simply to pin great photos that you find on the web. If the pin goes viral, you can send tons of traffic to somebody's site, then get in touch with them and let them know it was you who shared their content. Most of them will be more than willing to repay the favor in one way or another. Get creative, but don't just come right out and ask for a link in exchange for the pin.

Similarly, you can develop relationships with influential people on interest by repinning them and leaving comments. These relationships can be leveraged in many ways down the road.

As with any social network, Pinterest is just as much about listening and being helpful as it is about promotion. You don't need to be a visual site to benefit, but you do need to understand the visual nature of Pinterest and leverage it properly. Get on board early before this becomes par for the course.


About The Author: Jeff Gross is an internet marketing consultant and a part-time blogger. You can connect with Jeff on Twitter @jeffkgross.

Do you like this article by Jeff Gross? Please let Jeff and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.


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