Okay, time to learn how to use another social media outlet to boost your business. Heard of Pinterest? Well if you haven’t, you will soon, so here are some tips for using this virtual “pin” board and making your information “pinteresting:”

1. Decide if Pinterest and your brand are a match: “Is your brand visual?” poses Heather Sundell, marketing manager at The Search Agency, an integrated search and marketing agency. “Pinterest is about things that look good. So if you don’t have a visually appealing product you’ll have a challenging time and may find it hard to gain traction.”

2. Get invited: Pinterest is currently invite-only; either ask someone you know who is already on Pinterest to send you an invite or request an invite via the site, suggests cio.com writer Jennifer Lonoff Schiff.

3. Get pinned: Be sure to add a “Pin It” button to your product pages, so visitors and customers can pin your products onto Pinterest, says Schiff. In addition, add a Pinterest “follow” button to your website, alongside your buttons for Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Finally, “install a ‘Pin It’ button on your browser (or the browser on the computer of the person or people who will be in charge of Pinterest for your organization), in the bookmarks toolbar so you can easily ‘pin’ images,” Schiff says. Note: All buttons can be found on the Pinterest Goodies page and are easy to install.

4. Know what your customers are looking for and create boards accordingly: “Create boards that fit with the lifestyle that your customer wants — and pin lots of images that fit that lifestyle, not just your own products/images,” says Amanda Cook, director of VSF Wellness.

5. Categorize your boards: “If you categorize each page [or pin], more people will see your pins — and if more people become interested in what you are posting, you will get more followers,” says Sam Delijani, owner of the online jewelry and diamond store DeBebians, whose Pinterest site has become one of the store’s top referrers, exceeding Facebook.

6. Tell a story: Make sure “each board is themed and tells a story about the mood and personality of [your] products,” says Cathe Huynh-Sison, creative director at Feterie, a modern stationery store. She pins on both Feterie’s Pinterest account and via a personal Pinterest account, and reports a 30%-40% surge in traffic.

7. Create content just for Pinterest: “Why should I follow your business [on Pinterest] if I can see the same thing on Facebook?” argues Annalise Kaylor, director of social media with Intrapromote LLC , a search specialist agency.

8. Make sure that your images are “Pinteresting: “Well-lit, interesting compositions and vibrant imagery is sure to catch the eye,” says Phil Rampulla, founder of The Material Group, an interactive design and development studio.

9. Make sure to include your URL: “It helps with SEO and the information is there for those customers ready to buy,” says Jayne Drew, managing partner at Smashing Golf & Tennis, a ladies golf & apparel company that is successfully using Pinterest as part of its social media marketing plan (see http://pinterest.com/smashingonline/).

10. Be a good member of the Pinterest community: Be sure to follow, like and repin others. “Like other social networks, your Pinterest account will grow and thrive with continued engagement,” notes Kaylor.

11. Get your employees involved: “Make sure your staff has Pinterest accounts and engage with it,” says Zak Edwards, CEO of PrezzyBox, a UK-based online gift store that has begun using Pinterest as a marketing tool. And “make sure they pin/repin your images.”

12. Time your pins to appear when your customers are most likely to be online: This is typically lunchtime, near the end of the business day, and before bedtime, says Schiff.

13. Share data: “As a B2B marketing firm we share our data on Pinterest via several hyper-specific boards that people can visit for the numbers they need on a given topic, like 2012 Tumblr Data or 2012 Marketing Budgets,” says Katherine Leonard, digital content developer for lonelybrand, a digital marketing company.

14. Find out who’s pinning your images — and what your competitors and their customers are pinning: “All businesses should be using Pinterest for competitive intelligence, to see not only what their competitors are pinning but what users are pinning from their competitors’ sites,” argues Tricia Meyer, a marketing consultant specializing in affiliate marketing who runs MeyerTech, LLC. To find out who’s pinning who, simply type “http://pinterest.com/source/WEBSITEURL/” (inserting the URL of the website you want to investigate where it says “WEBSITEURL”) into your browser.

Source: CIO

Posted March 27th, 2012 under Intellectual Property Marketing

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