Taking the Pinterest Plunge: What Brands Should Consider Before Starting

Although Facebook remains a space to connect with friends, Pinterest is a place for self discovery. As stated by Pinterest, the platform is where you can “… organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web.” We are seeing more and more brands use the social platform to bring brand awareness to a new audience and generate additional sales channels.

The very nature of Pinterest’s picture-heavy interface allows users to collect a massive amount of content with the quick click of a Repin. Many brands have become successful at leveraging their digital marketing to appeal to this audience.

Two of my all-time favorite brands using Pinterest are Better Homes and Garden and Apartment Therapy. Because I’m a recent Chicago resident and in the process of getting an apartment in the city, the brands’ pins appeals to me, which feature excellent DIY ideas for the home,  because moving is a really big deal for me right now! And I’m not alone—a large majority of Pinterest users loves DIY content, lifestyle tips and design ideas.  So it makes sense why the 10 most-followed brands to follow identified by Mashable (including my two faves) have garnered a large following.

But before you jump into another social media network, you should consider your audience and your audience’s interests.

Is Pinterest right for you?

In order to take advantage of all that Pinterest offers it is important to be strategic. First, ask yourself: are your target audiences on Pinterest? According to Modea’s latest infographic, typical Pinterest users:

• are female (68%)
• are active on the site for 16 minutes per visit
• have children (50%)
• are between the ages of 25 to 34 years old (27%)

So where do you begin?

Now that you’ve decided that your business has a relevant audience on Pinterest, how do you get started? Here’s a list of best practices that every brand should consider before becoming involved on Pinterest.

These tips from Econsultancy, which discusses each tip in more detail, are great, but I want to point out the three most important best practices.

• Don’t just blow your own trumpet. I see this happen way too frequently. Pinterest is a sharing platform. People don’t want to see advertisements and frequent self-promotion. They want to see the best of the best. Pinterest is similar to most other social media platforms: share and be shared! Interact with your audiences and use Pinterest to really connect with your fans. Create a community board or have a contest and let others share what they love! This also goes along with the best practice tip of “let others contribute.” (But that’s for another blog post!)
• Use eye-catching images. Pinterest is unlike any other platform because it is completely visual. Too much text, and you will quickly lose the interest of your audience. Use large images that are visually interesting. Infographics and visual step-by-step guides are very successful.
• Add the Pinterest share tab to your website. Let your fans share what they love with the people they love! The more accessible you are, the more people will see what you have to offer. If you have a Facebook page, add a Pinterest tab. Make it easy for your fanbase to see what you have pinned.

Armed and dangerous

Now armed with your Pinterest toolbox, you are ready to get started! Remember, Pinterest is an invite-only network, so you may have to send a request to join. This can take from a few days to a couple weeks to get accepted. If you know someone who has an account, ask them to send you an invite. All they have to do is navigate to the right-hand corner (where their name and picture is located), click invite friends and then send you an invite to your email. This will only take a matter of minutes and then you can get on your way!

Once you’re invited, fill out your profile information, follow similar accounts and start pinning! Once you add your content, your followers (and some new fans) will start loving your content.

What does the future hold for Pinterest?

Time can only tell. But in my opinion, we’ve only seen the numbers increase in daily usage since the network’s launch. Will people turn to Pinterest as an alternative to search engines? Perhaps. And think about why: If you search for “hairstyles” via Google, your search will yield a number of results, from links to images, that might not be very accurate, and a lot of the results aren’t even photos. Better results can be found on Pinterest where the most popular images and information have already been curated by fellow users with common interests.

Who knows what will happen in the future, but as brand usage on the platform increases, it’s more necessary for businesses to consider taking the Pinterest plunge.