Last week we provided you with a brief overview of Pinterest: how it came about, its spectacular rise in the social media scene, how to use it, the people who are using it and finally and more importantly – that you can use it to promote your business. Today we are going to venture further and provide you with tips and advice on how to use Pinterest to complement your existing internet marketing strategies.
The concept of Pinterest is pretty much straight forward and uncomplicated
- You create virtual pin boards (using only images found on the web) for practically everything: from must-read blogs, dream vacations, fashion trends, ethnic food and pink makeup down to weapons of mass destruction, junkyard items and power tools.
- You can go through other members’ pin boards for ideas and inspirations
- You can search the site using specific keywords for more ideas and inspiration
- Each image that gets pinned and re-pinned is always linked back to the image source
From an internet marketer’s perspective, this means that any image you pin from your site provides great possibilities of leading a targeted audience to your website or the product page.
Other reasons why Pinterest is good for business
- Videos can also be pinned – This allows you to share more information with your followers
- Associate price tags with your pins – If you do, your pins will be searchable in the Gifts menu for users who are looking to purchase something. Pinterest makes buying stuff easier.
- It’s connected to other social networks – You have the option to share your Pinterest activities on your Facebook wall as well as the Facebook ticker. Your pins and repins will be visible to your Facebook contacts and may be promoted on Twitter and Flickr, as well.
- Add the “Pin It” button to your blog – This will encourage your niche market to join the Pinterest community as well as make it easy for Pinterest users to share images or videos found in your blog.
No wonder many businesses today consider Pinterest as a powerful support for SEO.
Tips on how you can leverage Pinterest to promote your product, service or brand
Your Profile – Make your profile SEO friendly because this is indexed by search engines. Providing complete and accurate information on your profile allows users to easily search for you. There are brand and location search filters on Pinterest and your profile description with the right keywords will encourage relevant traffic. So make sure you put in appropriate and accurate information about yourself, including your website and even links to your Facebook and Twitter.
Your Pin Boards – It’s advisable to use keywords as titles. Remember, your pinboards should be easy to understand. Users should know what each of your boards is all about at a glance. Avoid providing your boards with vague, insignificant or complicated titles such as “What’s Hot” or “Love It” or “Living La Vida Loca” that don’t really say much about their content. And see to it that you always classify your boards into the right category while providing accurate hashtags so they always show up in search results.
Your Pins – Maximise the character limit of the pin descriptions. It’s 500 characters, so make the most out of it. Create catchy descriptions, provide price tags if applicable and include keywords that are relevant to your pin, product and pinboard. This will help you achieve the top spot in Pinterest search results.
Your Images – Always display images of good quality. Regardless of where your image source is – your page, other websites or some user’s pinboard – make sure they look good and not blurry or indistinct. More importantly, make sure to always apply basic image optimisation practices.
Your Pinterest Community – Be an active Pinterest user. Pinterest works just like any other social network: you need to be an active user to make your presence felt and to easily increase your followers. Don’t follow EVERYBODY, though. Look for your target audience. Also, it’s not enough that you pin videos and images, you are also highly encouraged to repin relevant items from other users’ pinboards, comment on pins and interact sincerely with your followers and other Pinterest users who share the same interests. This will help establish or increase your credibility and that of your brand.
Keep in mind to never fill your pinboards with anything but your own videos and images. Pinterest frowns upon over-promoting and in the end; your only contribution to the community might as well be spam. Think outside the box and be creative so you can always provide fresh and useful information to the right people.