11 Mar Pinterest for Brand-Building
Pinterest is like setting up those magazine cut-out collages you used to do in high school. The dream house? The Ideal Man / Woman? Favourite celebrities?
But now it’s online and you can “cut out” (pin) content you see online anywhere. Pinterest is still invitation only, but you can request an invite and approval is usually granted within a few days.
Concept Boards
Pinterest connects you to other people who have the same interest (or interests).
It is excellent for driving traffic. Indeed it has grown faster than Facebook and Twitter. I won’t tell you the growth rate percentage because the statistic will be obsolete before this goes live. Needless to say, it’s popular.
Instead of scrapbook cutouts, Pinterest using “pinboards”. These are like virtual corkboards around a particular interest of your choice. You can choose whether to be the only pinner for that board, or you can open it up for others to contribute content as well.
The idea is: engagement with others who share your interest. In the case of business, engaging with your prospects and customers based on their interests. Hopefully they will be similar.
Pinboard Examples
I love creative acts of subversive, so I set up a Pinboard called Subversive.
I also love good simple ad creative, so I set up Great Print Ads.
You can set up as many pinboards as you like. It is free to use.
How To Setup a Pinterest Board
After you set up a Board, you start “pinning” things (images, videos, recipes).
If you go to the Goodies Menu, you’ll find code to create a Pin It button on your browser toolbar. Then you can “pin” something you see from any website you visit (unless they have placed restrictions on their content).
It is very easy and quite intuitive.
Pinterest can integrate with both Facebook and Twitter. Use the same email account you have used to set up either your Twitter or Facebook accounts.
Like Twitter, you Follow people and/ or boards and others Follow you or specific boards. If you follow a user, you see everything they post.
Brand Building with Pinterest
According to Pinterest Etiquette, this is not a promotional tool (well, not directly). You should avoid self-promotion. The idea is to share things from multiple sources.
However, you can cross-promote. Marry a product with other things that it could work with and you have pinboards.
Example: Olives
For example, if you make and sell olives, make a pinboards with produce that your olives taste divine with (like cheeses, wines, fruit).
I would also make a pinboard of the different types of olives that I grow and notes about their characteristics. I could even show images of the planting, growth stages and harvesting so that my customer feels more connected to the produce.
I might also have a pinboard open to everyone in which people eating my olives at their dinner parties and lunches can post their photos of enjoyment.
If people love olives, they probably also like having friends and family for dinner parties.
It is really an opportunity to engage with your target audience on things they love.This can really help position your brand as friendy, “one of us”, and create a real emotional connection.
The key question is: “How do your products or services fit the Lifestyle of your target audience?”
Or as a Marketer might say: “What is the psychography of your target?”
Example: Real Estate
If I were a niche real estate agent, for example, I would having pinboards about “Things I love doing in _____(insert the suburb).” This might include places to eat, coffee shops, the school, church, pizza bar, markets, local pool, whatever is good about the place.
I could make one called “Art Deco houses” or “Architectural Styles of The Place ” (insert that place again), “Remarkable Houses of The Place”.
I might make one called “Renovations” or “Gardens” with good examples of before and afters. And I would probably open this for others to pin their own efforts. This will help build brand community.
Anything that can show the personality and emotional dimensions of your brand are worth considering.
You can also create video galleries, so you could use properties you love, testimonials from people who love your brand, events you’ve been involved with or endorse.
If I were a Financial Planner, I might have holidays, lavish properties, favourite beaches, best travel spots for the grey nomad, whatever my pre-retirement target audience might be fantasising about.
So in short, don’t make it about you. Make it about Them.
Remember to use Hashtags.
Things To Know
There is no advertising. Pinterest makes its money by taking a cut of every product sold through a link to any retail site that has an affiliate program.
This has been controversial as Pinterest did not disclose this anywhere.
It has also been accused of breaching copyright, as images and footage can be “pinned” and used for someones products without you even knowing about it.
There is a line of code in the Goodies menu which will allow you to prevent Pinterest users pinning things from your site.
Last tip, have fun. It is fairly addictive so be careful.
Post your favourite links to inboards below. I will publish all the good ones.
For general Pinterest Info, this is great video. I love the production values.