Pinterest IS for Every Business, Even Yours!

The purpose of Pinterest, as they state, is to ‘connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting.’ A person’s Pinterest account is a concept of their life-style. A business’s account should also display the content of its’ lifestyle. Pinterest encourages businesses to promote their brand creatively to truly bond with the user base. You cannot use Pinterest solely for a self-promotion tool.

This craze about Pinterest has sparked a lot of interest in its use for a marketing tool. I mean, from December 2011 to January 2012 the unique visitors increased by 155%, companies should be looking into how this can help them. Businesses have been enabling users to ‘pin’ their content (this is similar to sharing on Facebook or re-Tweeting on Twitter), and this is a great start, but the brands that have been the most successful are creating a Pinterest account and getting in on the pinning themselves.

Don’t know what your business could possibly pin? Start out with your company. Create a board for the head executives/owners with their picture and a mini bio. If you have a smaller company you can do this for the employees as well. Already have blogs? Use images from your blogs and create a board for them. Make sure they link back to your blog to increase that traffic and readers! Infographics are all the rage right now. Find ones that are relevant to your industry or even just silly ones that you know your fans will enjoy. Customers’ using your products is a great way to create a positive sentiment around your brand. Yala, a clothing company out of Oregon, has a board for customers to ‘pin’ what they would like to see next from Yala and also a board of photos of customers wearing Yala.

 The main concept is to highlight your best visual content! Dutchess County Tourism does a remarkable job by displaying pictures of local food, weddings, events, etc. Showcase your business personality, humanize your company and people will respond. The key is finding out how your products or services fit into the lifestyle of your target audience. Once you make this connection, you will see a ROI.