Pinterest is fairly interesting as far as social networks go. Pinterest deviates the most from the traditional norms of timelines and terrible viral videos and instead provides a platform for creativity, discovery, and consumerism. Pinterest can be an incredibly powerful tool to leverage for your brand, but most do not put that time into learning the nuances of the platform. I am going to show you easy ways to leverage your brand, whatever it may be, on the platform.
What is Pinterest
Pinterest is a cross between a social networking site and a web search engine, but purely for visual content. The basic functionality of the site is like a giant virtual bulletin board; you can save collections of pins to separate boards, share boards with friends, or search and discover other users boards and relevant pins. Pinterest can also be thought of as a bookmarking tool, where users can save bookmarks to boards to group collections of relevant contents and ideas together.
What makes Pinterest so great is that the incredibly large user base, over 70 million total users in the US alone, actually has a chance of seeing your content. There are a ton of stats that are defined here, but some highlights are as follows:
- Pinterest pins are 100 times more spreadable than a tweet
- The half-life of a pin is 16,000 times longer than a Facebook post
- There has been an increase of 27% in accounts for Fortune 500 companies in the last year
- 600 million average visual searches conducted on the platform each month
- 52% of users say it helps them find items they want to buy
Pinterest can be incredibly powerful for you brand, if used properly. Keep on reading to see how you can fit your brand onto Pinterest boards today.
Getting Started on Pinterest
There are a few things to consider when starting out on Pinterest, including how to format content, how to engage Pinterest users and build relationships, and how to effectively promote your brand on Pinterest.
Formatting your Content for Pinterest
Content on Pinterest is a picture-based, much like Instagram. These “Pins” are extendable beyond the functions of just a standard photo though. Users gather pins onto boards, which can contain multiple pins containing various types of content.
Photos that compile Pins are given an unlimited amount of length to work with, but have a fixed with of 736 pixels. The unlimited amount of length lends itself nicely to content such as infographics. Pinterest coined the term Instructographic, which is a popular form of content on the platform very similar to infographics. Instructographics contain step by step instructions, both graphical and text based, that teach viewers how to accomplish a task.
As the only content being displayed are images, you will want to ensure that they are high resolution images and that they display your message clearly and prominently. This includes displaying a strong and prominent call to action onto your pin as well as making your content searchable.
Pins should also be optimized for search engines. Optimizing your pins using standard search engine optimization methods benefits both on Pinterest and for general search engines like Google. Standard SEO best practices apply for pins, such as optimizing for keywords.
Once you have your content in place, you will need to manage how you engage and build relationships on the platform.
Engaging Users and Building Relationships on Pinterest
Pinterest engagement and relationship building is very similar to other social platforms. Users will discover your content, pin in to boards, comments on the pins, and interact with boards you have created, much like your standard like, comment, share system on other platforms. There are a few things to keep in mind that differ from other platforms though.
Pinterest affords for one of the highest frequencies of posting compared to other social platforms. It is suggested that brands post between 5 and 30 posts, with posts consisting of a combination of new, unique content and repins of other users content. Pinterest’s algorithm also works against dumping excessive amounts of pins in a short period of time so ensure you are spreading your posts throughout the day.
Due to the nature of the platform, reposting works especially well on Pinterest. When reposting on Pinterest, ensure the content is tweaked and different on every repost. Things like specifying for the season or current events, like a political election or holiday, works especially well.
Boards are also useful in building relationships with your audience. Build boards combining both personal and external sources for pins that contain relevant information to your niche or target market. Likewise, engage with your audience on their boards that are similar in scope to yours. You can even create boards where you personally invite users to participate in the creation and alteration of the content.
After you establish a basis on the platform and begin growing your audience and firing out content, there are a few ways to get started more effectively promoting your brand on the platform.
Effectively Promoting your Brand on Pinterest
There are a few additional things brands can do on Pinterest to set them apart from others in the same niche and make their brand shine. Some of these things include integrating Rich Pins, proper board management, and exploring different areas of content on the platform.
Rich Pins, to be put simply, are interactive, dynamic pins, that can set your pins apart from competitors and should be utilized by all brands. Rich Pins allow for dynamic information, such as pricing availability, and links to directly purchase an item, to be embedded into the pin itself. Rich Pins do not just have to be for products purchasable online, Pinterest has five different sets of Rich Pins, for movies, recipes, articles, products, and places. Each type of Rich Pin comes with a different set of useful features to help boost engagement and direct traffic to your website.
Rich Pins have an application process, which you can get started with here.. While there is a bit more technical prowess needed, they are still fairly simple to set up. After your application is approved, you will then need to create the pin, add the proper meta data, and then get final approval from Pinterest before posting.
Proper board management is another area where you can win big on Pinterest. This area does not take much effort, but can go a long way when reaching your audience. Proper board management would include things like keeping your most popular boards at the top of your page, rotating your content and keeping it fresh by keeping it current with season and events. Much like pins being tweaked specifically in this way, so too should your boards be tweaked to be relevant.
Happy Pinning
Overall, Pinterest is an incredibly deep, untapped market for building and marketing your brand on social media. While Pinterest may have a bit steeper of a learning curve as it deviates from the typical social networking experience you know, there is no question that it is an incredibly powerful tool to spread your brand when utilized properly and effectively. Happy Pinning!