When it comes to marketing, Pinterest really has it all. While many people write it off as a virtual corkboard only used by teenage girls, the statistics prove it’s a social media heavyweight. Did you know one-third of all the existing Pinterest accounts belong to men? And unlike on other platforms, promoted pins actually perform just as well as, and often better than, organic pins. And pins with prices attached aren’t a turn off at all. In fact, they get 36 percent more likes than pins without prices. It really is a marketing paradise. So here’s how you get started: Strategize: like with any other social media platform—or any marketing strategy—you don’t want to go in shooting blindly. You need to design a comprehensive strategy, set tangible goals and figure out your target demographic. Side note: reading this blog post does not count as designing a comprehensive strategy, sorry. If you have other social media platforms, you have already done this before and can adapt it to fit your Pinterest account. When creating a strategy, take into account the product or service you are selling, the people you want to sell to and how you want them to come to you (do you want them to end up in your brick and mortar store, or do you only need them to go so far as your website). Sign up: you can sign specifically as a business and get special business tools only available to business accounts. You can also check out their “success stories” tab and look at the accounts of businesses that have been really successful on Pinterest. See what they’re doing and adapt it to fit your strategy—with social media, the best way to learn is often by example. Find people to follow: competitors, customers, suppliers, industry leaders…all these are great accounts to follow. And they apply no matter what industry you’re in—you definitely have competitors, customers, suppliers and industry leaders no matter your field. Also, make sure to follow some fun, funny stuff. Everybody likes a good cat meme now and then. So make sure to follow funny boards—even if they don’t relate to your business—and repin their pins from time-to-time. Trust us, your customers will love it. Create your first boards: you can make them about anything you want. Your boards can be funny or inspirational. They can feature your products, creative ways to use your products or tutorials. You can create boards about things that you are passionate about or about other things your business is involved with. Do you and your employees take time to volunteer at the humane society? Make a puppy board. Remember, this is a marketing tool, but it is also an opportunity to let customers interact with you and get to know you and your company. Use your Pinterest not only as a sales tool but as a way to humanize your brand. Start pinning and repining: there are lots of ways to make Pinterest easier on yourself. You can purchase promoted pins (similar to promoted Facebook posts or tweets) that will show up in pinners feeds even if they don’t follow you. They use a tailored algorithm to make sure your promoted pins show up in the feeds of customers who would be interested in your product. You can also install the pin it browser tool, which lets you pin things directly from a webpage, without having to save links and images and find them later. Also, make sure to install a “pin-it” tab on your website to let all your customers know you are now on Pinterest and enable them to pin material from your site to their boards. Make sure to repin—interacting with your customers and followers makes them more likely to continue to interact with you and use your business in the future. Start selling: as a side note—if you are a retail business, you can also sell products on Pinterest. Yes, you can redirect customers to your website from your Pinterest profile, but you run the risk of losing a buyer when you do that. If you let people buy your products in app, you will see increased sales. Check your analytics: since you signed up as a business, Pinterest will give you customized analytics reports about your account. Take advantage of this. These analytics reports make it much easier to track your account, new followers, repins and more and see if you’re hitting your goals set out in the first step. In the meantime, you can always call the experts at Skynet Solutions for all of your social media and marketing needs. We have an expert team that can build you a social media strategy that will work on any platform or combination of platforms that you choose. Whether you’re targeting specific customers or just want to get the word out about your new business, we can handle it. We also have a talented development team who can build you anything from a basic website to custom software. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. To get in touch with us, you can fill out the online contact form on our website. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.
