Pinterest: The Driving Force in Business
Social media has become a key component in every business and it’s growing at a rapid rate. Pinterest is just one of many social platforms that has emerged and has seen their following increase to huge amounts with a recorded 70 million users worldwide. Pinterest completed their development in late 2009 and launched their BETA version in early 2010. Nine months after launch they welcomed 10,000 users to the tool and from then have grown into a competitive force in the market. The appeal of Pinterest surfaced in March 2011 with the launch of its IPhone app which brought in a more than expected number of downloads.
Also, the user demographic is a dominant department in the Pinterest world with 80% of users being women. This statistic is not a surprising one as the nature and format of the platform falls to the liking of the female gender. The platform enables users to create their own boards and categorise their favorite topics and in the process allows users to connect with other users by ‘pinning’. With the public adopting Pinterest as a platform to satisfy their social needs, businesses are capitalising on the tool and have utilised it effectively.
If you are interested on social business and you own a small business, chances are you’re already on Facebook and possibly Twitter—but don’t make the mistake of ignoring other popular social media networks. One that may really be able to take your business planning to the next level is Pinterest. It may be famous for wedding planning and recipe sharing, but this website is used by far more than simply brides-to-be and aspiring gourmet chefs, and it’s a powerful tool for reaching your target audiences in new and unique ways. Here are a few ways Pinterest can take your small business social media marketing to the next level.
Photos Sell
You can share photos on Facebook, but it’s primarily a text-based medium. Pinterest, on the other hand, allows for a greater variety of visual content. Images catch our eyes, so attractive and compelling photographs will likely translate to more sales You can also directly designate a pin as a product, add a price to it, and provide click-through links to your online store to simplify the purchasing process.
Fresh Ideas Are a Pinboard Away
If you’re running out of ideas for new products to add to your lineup or different and exciting ways to use the ones you have, all you have to do is check on your followers and see what they’re interested in! They like your business, so they probably like content and products similar to what you offer too. See what your followers are re-pinning, and chances are you’ll get brand new ideas for how best to reach them.
Content is Easy to Organize
On Twitter, your business has one newsfeed where it posts everything. Same with Facebook—you can create photo albums, but every new post shows up on the same page. If your followers or fans want to access information about a specific topic relating to your business, they have to wade through lots of content they may not really want to see. Pinterest makes information incredibly simple to organize by allowing users to create and maintain different pinboards, each relating to a different topic or a more specific sub-category of a topic. If you own a clothing business, you can make one board for women’s formal and one board for men’s casual, as well as boards for everything in between, so customers have the option to find exactly what they want.
You Can Add Personality
People like to know who they’re dealing with—the faces behind the scenes. Pinterest makes it easy to show them! Create a pinboard devoted to photos of employees and their families, along with brief quotes or Q and As about the things they value and their thoughts about the company. Customers are far more likely to be engaged when they feel connected to the people running your business. It makes it less like a mere buy-and-sell transaction and more like a friendly community business.
With user numbers in the millions and rapid growth showing no signs of slowing, Pinterest is not just the “next big thing” in social media—it’s already a big thing! Companies such as The Pink Group are already demonstrating how well it can compliment a marketing campaign, check out their Social Media Cheat Sheet and you’ll see that they’ve received hundreds of shares from account holders, which has opened up their company to leads that they would’ve otherwise never been able to reach. The sooner your business can get involved, the better.
Based in Hertfordshire, I’m a keen blogger in the area of business and digital marketing.
Out of work I like spending time with my family and friends.
I’m a big believer of this quote, “Believe you can and you’re halfway there” (Theodore Roosevelt).
