The interest with Pinterest

Pinterest is a social networking site that, through its evolution, has acquired an additional set of names: ‘Instagram for old people’, an ‘electronic pinboard’, and, if you’re my mother, ‘Pin-interest’. If you think this site is just for people who are great at baking cakes or being organised — think again.

The site was first launched as a closed beta in 2010, beginning as an invitation-only site. Since then Pinterest has grown rapidly, documenting hitting 100 million users in September last year. Fortune magazine noted how a lot of these new users weren’t simply using personal accounts:

“Perhaps more importantly for the five-year-old company, is that two thirds of content pinned on Pinterest is from the website of a business.” (Fortune: http://for.tn/1LALDH9)

Pinning for business

When you first launch your business and are setting up the standard Facebook and Twitter accounts, the last thing on your mind is probably a site like Pinterest. This is because it isn’t a social network that your business should start with – it’s a network that once your business grows, you can start to introduce. For some companies Pinterest may not be suitable at all – for instance, technical-based B2B businesses might be better off focussing their energy on sites such as Linkedin, where they can share relevant content with digital associates. However, if you run a creative company that uses a lot of high-resolution imagery, Pinterest could be a great way for you to attract new customers from all over the world. Once you have made an account, you can easily change it into a business account. Then you will have access to Pinterest analytics, as well as the option to create ‘Rich pins’, which give you more information about what you are pinning.

Our visual world: understanding Pinterest

What is it used for?

Pinterest is most commonly used for sharing beautiful images and interesting articles. It’s extremely popular with travel, beauty, art and nature trends. Pinterest is not a place for low-quality, quick pictures. If you’re posting on Pinterest, your material needs to look professional if you’re ever going to gain much of an online following. It’s a good idea to collect a bank of high-quality images, which you can use when you don’t have time to take any for yourself. However, being the beauty that Pinterest is, even if you don’t have any of your own content to share, you can still build up an amazing following and profile using the pinning system.

The art of pinning

Pinning is great because it is effortlessly easy and also, rather fun. When you see an article or image that you like, you can pin it so that it appears on your profile. First off you need to have a few boards that you want to pin to. For instance, if you’re a travel agent, you might have some boards entitled, ‘The best food from around the globe’, ‘Exploring Europe’ or ‘Places you HAVE to visit this summer’. Once you have established a few boards which you want to pin content to, you can search the site for whatever kinds of material you are looking for. Once you’ve found a gem, simply click ‘Pin it’, choose your board, and then it will appear under that board on your site. Easy right?

Take high-quality images that will inspire your audience

What will Pinterest do for my business?

Pinterest was made to inspire people, and using it for business doesn’t change that key principle. If you post engaging and visually-appealing content, you will naturally gain an online following of people who enjoy your subject matter and your posts. Once you understand your target market, Pinterest is a great way to showcase your brand and blogs to a whole new audience. Be careful not to just focus on your own page – like, comment and interact with other pinners and posts to create more of a connected social network. User engagement is very high on Pinterest, meaning you can understand what your audience likes while building up new communities. The amount of in-bound links available also makes it easier for your followers to shift from observers to customers.

So what are you waiting for? Get pinning!

If you are struggling to find time to manage your business social media channels, or simply want some help coming up with a content marketing plan, give us a call on: 0145 4222 959, or email us at: hello@notgreedy.media to find out how we can help you.