Until last week, I thought everyone knows what Pinterest was, but I was wrong. So I will explain to you what Pinterest is and how you can use it as a marketing tool.
What is Pinterest?
As you could probably find out from a simple Google search, Pinterest is a virtual pinboard, but it’s not just this. Pinterest allows you to organize and share pictures and videos you find on the internet. What is so special about it? Everything looks like a big pinboard full of pins from users all over the place. If you like somebody’s pin, you can repin it on your own pinboard and you can also comment on it if you want.Still not convinced? Well let me try to explain it to you again. 
Pinterest is like a virtual magazine with all kinds of images and videos. Let’s say that you already are a Pinterest user. When you see something awesome on the Internet and you want to save it, you can “pin it” to one of your pin boards. Every single image or video links back to the original website from which you have pinned it. So when you see something interesting and you want to find out more, just double click on it and you will be redirected directly to the original website. There are two ways you can pin things to your board. First you can “Repin” something from someone else who already pinned on his boards, or you can install the “Pin it” button on your browser.
Another great feature of Pinterest is that the pins are categorized in a lot of domains such as Art, Car & Motorcycles, Food, Sports, and the list goes on. This is actually very useful because this way is more easy to follow and track down your interests. It’s like any other social network – you can leave a comment to a pin, you can like a pin and you can follow your favourite Pinterest users.
How you can use Pinterest as a marketing tool?
Like other social networks, Pinterest was not created for marketing purposes, but when it comes to marketing, people always manage to find a way to make the best of the social networks available.
Since the beginning, Pinterest had a huge impact on the virtual community. And I’m not just saying that to impress you. I’ve got numbers! The current statistics show that Pinterest has now 10 (ten) million users and the average time spent on Pinterest for every user is about 1(one) hour and 20 minutes each month. That is actually pretty great if we compare it toTwitter (40 minutes/month) or Google+ (10 minutes/month).
While Facebook and Twitter are still trying to find alternative methods for marketing, people on Pinterest move faster and they already have hundreds of ideas.
There are a lot of benefits if you chose to incorporate Pinterest into your marketing strategy. Here are a few of them: Link-building to your website, viral marketing, market research, create brand image, share company culture, connect with your customers.
Now that I have your attention, let’s get started. First you have to create an account. To do that you have to request an invitation from Pinterest (you will receive an email with your invitation) or you can ask someone you know it’s already a Pinterest user to send you an invitation.
After registration, set up your profile. Pinterest currently doesn’t have separate profiles for businesses. So fill up as many details as you can. Use a clear image of your logo and a short and precise description about your business.
Next step is to add the “Pin it” button to your browser. This will help you add things to your pin boards more easily. To do this you have to go to the goodies page on Pinterest and they will explain it to you. Another useful button to incorporate into your blog or website is the “Follow button”. It is the same as on Facebook (“Like Us”) or Twitter(“Follow Us”). To add this button you have to go again to the goodies page, scroll down to the “Follow Button” and you have to copy the HTML code and implement it in your website or blog.
Before you spread the word about your new pinterest account, you have to create your own pinboards. You can create one pinboard for each of your interests and populate them with a lot of pins. Promoting is simple. If you pin something that people would like, it won’t take too long for that pin to be posted again and again. And another important thing: make sure you have a lot of followers because they are very important for this kind of promoting.
If your business involves marketing products, you can can do a few things to organise your pins. For example make a pin board for each product category. Make a pin board with your offers and promotions. At first make as many promotions as you can, but not at very low prices.
Another awesome feature is that you can add price tags to your products. You can also add QR codes to your pins. In this way, it will be more comfortable for your clients to make a reservation, to buy something or enter a contest. The possibilities are trully endless.
Anytime you start something new,is good to know what you’re getting yourself involved in. I hope this article will future Pinterest users. See you next time.
