As of July 2013, Pinterest had 70 million total users. Studies have also found that Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, 
YouTube and LinkedIn combined and one in five people purchase an item because of Pinterest. With statistics like this, it’s easy to see why your business should be marketing themselves on this fast growing social network.
How can your business be successful on Pinterest? The first thing to remember is to pin a mix of things, not just promotional items or your products. In fact, pins about your brand, products and services should only take up about 20 percent of your boards. This 20 percent can also include giveaways and contests to increase fan engagement. The rest of your content should show a more personal side of your business and these pins can be either motivational and inspiring or instructional and educational to your target market. Also remember that the most successful pins combine great images while solving a problem or offering something desirable to your customers.
Pinterest is a great way to increase your brand’s authority in your field. Remember that you don’t have to create all the content you pin on Pinterest, so sharing pins from other trusted sources in your industry can help your credibility and really make you look like an expert. Pinning relevant and helpful resources will help you build trust with your audience and your account will become a go to place for reliable information about your field.
Every one of your pins should be optimized with keywords and hashtags. This will help people searching for specific content on Pinterest find you. There is no limit to how many hashtags you can add to your pins, but too many hashtags can often look like spam. The best practice is to choose a few hashtags that are the most relevant to the pin and don’t overdo it. Adding a call to action to your pin descriptions is another way to optimize your pins and is the easiest way to drive traffic back to your website. It has been found that pins with call to actions items see an 80 percent increase in engagement over those that do not have them. Some example call to action phrases you can use on pins include “to learn more,” “sign up online” and “tell us what you think.”
You should also add a specific URL to the pin description that will take customers to the page on your website that relates to the pin. Your website homepage and other social media links should also be added to your Pinterest profile.
One feature of Pinterest that’s great for expanding your reach is group boards that allow multiple users to pin to the same board. Businesses can use group boards to collaborate with popular pinners who already have a large following. This will allow you to expose your brand to a much larger audience than just your followers. If you do decide to add contributors to your group boards, make sure the collaboration makes sense and the people you are collaborating with attract the same kind of people you are trying to target.
Another Pinterest strategy to consider is crowdsourcing, where you ask fans of your brand to pin pictures of themselves with their favorite product of yours and tag you in the pin description. You can then repin these photos onto a specific board. This will show current customers that you are listening to them and can help potential customers see that current users really like using your product.
One last thing to remember to do is to connect with fans on your other social media accounts by sharing your pins on Facebook and Twitter. You can also embed pins in blog posts. Adding a Pinterest follow button on your website is another easy way for your brand to let your customers know you’re on Pinterest and gain more followers. You can also install a Pin It button on your website and give every page and blog post a featured image that can be pinned automatically.
As with any marketing strategy, it’s important to be able to measure your results. Pinterest offers a free web analytics tool that will help you figure out what kind of pins drive the most traffic to your website. This information can be helpful in shaping your future Pinterest strategy.
Now that you know all the benefits of marketing your business on Pinterest, it’s time to start pinning! If you would like help starting a Pinterest account or creating a Pinterest strategy, Faster Solutions would be happy to assist you.
