Pinterest has quickly become one of the go-to social media sites for consumers, marketers, and businesses. The simple site concept and aesthetically pleasing interface is any marketers dream. The site is essentially just a virtual bulletin board where users can set up profiles, “pin” images to the page in various categories, gain followers, and follow others. As this new social network rapidly gains popularity throughout the web, businesses are rushing to find its marketing potential. Big name brands like Whole Foods and Etsy have gained thousands of followers and utilized Pinterest in a way that helps their business strategy. While it may depend somewhat on the product or service you provide, there are several ways that Pinterest’s unique role in social media can help your marketing campaign.
Brand, Brand, Brand
Pinterest offers a great way to spread your product or company’s brand. Your business Pinterest account should have different “boards” that illuminate the different lifestyles and interests your specific customers reflect. Create boards that communicate your brand clearly and that help incorporate your brand into your customer base’s everyday lifestyle. Branding is partially about becoming instantly recognizable to your audience and partially about communicate that your brand is not just an image, but a lifestyle. Pinterest, when done right, helps to demonstrate how your business, product, or service is a lifestyle for its consumers. Specific boards can help communicate different uses and applications of your product or service. A basic rule in brand marketing is that you should get your brand out there as much and as often as possible—use Pinterest to perpetuate your image.
Contests and Competitions
Pinterest also offers a great way to run competitions and contests for products. Companies can run “Pin It to Win It” competitions to get more buzz going on their products or services. Competitions are a great way to market your product and get enthusiastic customers spreading word about your business rather than you. Ask “pinners” to create a board of images from your company website or Pinterest page and then email that URL to your company representative to win items in your board. This broadens the reach of your company throughout Pinterest and is a wonderful way to gain some exciting and happy press from pleased winners. Engagement from your consumers is key for marketers. Use Pinterest to engage and interact with your consumers in a unique way.
Do Market Research
Behind the marketing scenes, Pinterest can be extremely useful for things other than marketing your product to customers directly as well. Pinterest makes research your market audience easy in many ways. Explore what images, items, and products from your business are being pinned up by Pinterest users. This can give you an idea of what areas of your business are most successful and who is actually buying or using your services. Knowing your audience is essential to successful marketing. Pinterest has a beautiful and simple way of aligning users with a brand that they feel represents them. This is key for marketers across the web. Marketers can search through Pinterest to get an idea of what people their branding speaks to.
Author Bio:
This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at online college about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics. You can reach her at nadia.jones5 @ gmail.com.
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