Building your brand with Pinterest

If you’re a Facebook and/or Twitter user then you’ve likely heard of Pinterest. Very recently, it’s been getting a lot of attention. Although it’s still in its infancy, my guess is that Pinterest is here to stay. It’s free, it’s fun and it can really help your business grow.

Pinterest is a visual social media site where users share interests through a series of online pinboards. Similar to bulletin boards, each pinboard can be themed and filled with images. While categories are set for you when you first register, you can change them to cover themes more to your liking. For example, there are pinboards for dream homes, recipes and travel.

There are 3 ways to pin items to your board:

1. You can upload images or videos directly from your phone or computer.
2. You can use the handy-dandy little “Pin it” bookmark provided by Pinterest. When you land on a given site and wish to pin it up, simply click the “Pin it” button on your bookmarks bar and choose the image you want to pin. Easy peasy.
3. You can repin other people’s pins. Check out other boards; if you see something you like simply click the repin button and choose which board you’d like to pin it onto.

Is Pinterest popular?

Let’s be honest, time is valuable and we often have precious little of it to spare. Yes, Pinterest will take time, but not a lot. And, yes, there are a lot of people using it. To date, there are an estimated 3.3 million Pinterest users – of them, 70% are women. The level of engagement on Pinterest is what is so surprising. People are using it – a lot. Pinterest has logged over 421 million pageviews – a shockingly high number when you consider how many users there are.

TIP: What you need to know about Pinterest is that it’s considered bad form to use it for shameless self-promotion. Pinterest is about creativity. It can be especially good for your business if you need to convey visual images – and most especially if your target market is female.

Here are a number of ways you can use Pinterest for your small business:

1. Use Pinterest to promote a lifestyle. Every brand, no matter how small, has a lifestyle it supports. Think back to when you were younger and you got to design your bedroom however you wanted to. This is your opportunity to create a space that perfectly shares your brand’s unique culture and lifestyle. Do you own a restaurant? Rather than posting images of your menu, use Pinterest to show images of where your food is sourced. Share images of dream kitchens, dishes and glassware that suit your business. Own a bike shop? Share images of great trails and favourite stops along the way.
2. Use it to crowdsource. Have you ever wondered what your customers think about your products? Want to know which ones are their favourites? Use Pinterest to crowdsource; ask fans to post images of them using your product. Say you owned a footwear company for runners, why not ask your clients to post images of where and how their shoes perform? You’d be surprised by how many people would love to share that information with you.
3. Use it to learn more about your clientele. Pinterest is a great way to learn more about your target market – and their friends. Check out your brand’s followers and take the opportunity to learn a bit more about them. What do they like? Who do they follow?
4. Use it for inspiration. Pinterest is a great tool that can be used to inspire your team. Post dreams, goals and inspirations to the board. If you own a graphic design company, post images of creative logos. If you own a web design company, post images to websites that inspire. If you’re a writer, posts links to copy that inspires.

There’s really no end to what you can do with Pinterest. Get creative and have some fun!