Oh no, not another social network!
That's the underlying cry we often hear from busy NH professionals already struggling to keep up with the demands of marketing their businesses and services in this fast-paced, hyper-connected, digital world.
With nearly 700,000 NH residents on Facebook, LinkedIn crossing 200 million users worldwide, and Twitter, Google+ and video marketing vying for your attention at every turn, the prospect of investing time and resources toward learning and growing yet another social site can dampen the spirits of the most success-minded go-getter.
However, Pinterest definitely deserves your time and attention. But first, just in case you're not on it yet
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a virtual scrapbook or pinboard where you can save and share images, articles, and videos you collect from around the Web, repin from other users, or upload content from your computer. You can customize your boards, invite others to pin on your boards, and follow other people, brands, and businesses.
Pinterest is an image-based medium, especially ripe for social discovery. Pinterest users collect and organize virtually anything and everything, including: home dcor ideas, inspiration, favorite products, recipes, fashion, DIY projects, motivational quotes, gadgets, celebrity photos, architecture, travel destinations, pop nostalgia, and tips and resources for life and business. The nets are wide and the niches are deep.
Why Your Business Should be on Pinterest
Your customers are on Pinterest, and the opportunities to engage are extraordinary. Here's why:
- Pinterest was THE darling of the social realm for 2012. It ended the year as the third largest social network, trailing only Facebook and Twitter. The site now boasts more than 30 million unique visitors every month.
- Pinterest drives more website referral traffic than YouTube, Google+, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Twitter combined.
- Pinterest is actively indexed by Google, often earning the coveted Page One real estate for savvy brands and businesses using keywords intelligently.
- The average Pinterest visit is about 16 minutes (longer than the average visit to Facebook and Twitter combined).
- Pinterest recently launched pages, terms, and resources for businesses, making it easy to promote products and services.
- The average sale resulting from a Pinterest user following an image back to its source and buying the item is $180-compared with $80 for Facebook users and $70 for Twitter users.
Pinterest is revolutionizing how we view and consume information online.
It's All About Discovery
Pinterest turned traditional web design and usability on its head by embracing the infinite scroll feature. A 2012 Mashable eye-tracking study revealed Pinterest is changing web viewing habits from left-to-right to top-down-the-center, improving users' ability to scan information quickly. (It's also how we view content on smartphones and tablets.)
Pinterest emphasizes the organization of content based on interest and discovery over algorithm-based search results, as on Facebook and Google. It also leverages the fact that the average person reads 200 to 300 words per minute versus taking only 1/20th of a second to process an image. This provides fertile ground for igniting and nurturing emotional connections with your audience, as many images can be viewed in a short time.
Optimize Your Pinterest Presence
Search subjects that interest you and see what comes up. Once you get your bearings, though, it pays to play smarter and more strategically. Here are six tips to keep in mind.
1. Review your profile. You get just 200 characters of text for the About section. Get your most important keywords in there, connect your other online properties, and verify your website at Pinterest.com/settings for an extra bit of social trust.
2. Categorize and describe your boards. Categories help searchers find your boards more easily, and your 500-character description is also search engine fodder inside Pinterest and outside on Google.
3. First impressions count. Eye-tracking studies show the top two rows of boards (usually your top 10 boards) are the most viewed on a given Pinterest profile. The boards on those rows should all have at least five pins. Choose those boards wisely, as these create your first impression.
4. Add content to your pins. You get a description field to play with for each image or video you pin. Use it wisely. (Most people don't.) In addition to the keyword value, it's a great place to express your voice, brand, and messaging, link back to your website, and/or showcase products and services for sale. (You can even put price tags on your pins by adding a dollar sign in the description, so the price appears clearly on the left corner of your pin.)
5. Repinning is rampant. Repinning, or sharing other people's content on your own boards, makes up 80 percent of Pinterest activity. So you don't have to create scores of new images to keep up, and great content gets shared far and wide. Find, post, and share pins your target market will appreciate.
6. Get hip to hashtags. As on Twitter, Google+, and Instagram, you can curate, categorize, and search content by putting the # sign ahead of a word, phrase, or acronym. This creates clickable links that help people discover more content centered around an idea, event, conversation, or subject.
Pinterest complements the intuitiveness and possibility of the human mind. So, when it comes to growing your brand or business, think like a human. What do you stand for? Who do you want to attract? How can you inspire, engage, and delight your customers, prospects, and target audience in a visual way? What makes you see your work, life, and possibilities more creatively?
Collect these wonders onto Pinterest boards because sharing the things that delight you instinctively is often the best business strategy around.
Lani and Allen Voivod are Allies in Possibility at Epiphanies Inc., and co-founders of the A-Ha! Social Business Summit. For more information, visit Facebook.com/AhaYourself, and check out pinterest.com/EpiphaniesInc/.
Current Issue - May 2024