Pinterest for Business & Brands

Pinterest is a social network, but it’s much different than most — Pinterest allows you to express your brand’s personality in a visual way. People want to know brands on an intimate level and get a sense of their style and values, and Pinterest is the perfect platform!

Pinterest gives you the incredible opportunity to show another side of your brand and provide particularly relevant content through curation. In this article we will give you the insight you need to start evaluating the potential of Pinterest for your business & brand and how you can effectively raise awareness for your brand, drive traffic from Pinterest to your website, and connect with current and potential customers.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest pintrest.com is a rapidly growing social networking website that allows users to post and share images and videos on “pinboards” (a collection of “pins,” usually with a common theme). Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web.

With Pinterest you can browse pinboards created by other people and brands, allowing you to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

Pinterest is like an online scrapbook, set up a Pinterest bookmarklet and you can start pinning images you find on the web to the bulletin boards on your page. People can choose to follow you (similar to Twitter) and can comment on and like  your pins (like Facebook).

Who’s Using Pinterest?

Pinterest users are shopping at Sephora, Victoria’s Secret and Nordstrom. Their favorite magazine is Good Housekeeping, 1-in-5 have purchased an item they’ve pinned, and about 40% of them have drank wine in the past month.

The majority of the users on Pinterest are female. In fact, the breakdown is actually quite staggering. Almost 70 percent are female. Pinterest is the 17th most popular site in Canada.

How to Create a Pinterest Brand Strategy

1. Develop a Target Audience Profile

Developing a Pinterest profile should start with brand strategy. Before you create your boards and pins you should determine who the individuals are that you’re brand wants to reach. Don’t underestimate the importance of this exercise because the more you know about your target customer, the more successful you’ll be in connecting with them via Pinterest.

2. Brand your Pinterest Account

Create a Branded Profile

Complete your Pinterest profile including your brand logo and description of your business using keywords when possible. You’ll also want to add your location and website URL.

Brand your Pinboards

When naming your Pinterest boards, get creative! Represent your brand’s personality and think more personalized titles than “My Board 1” or “Things we like”…

Use your Brand’s Tone-of-Voice

When pinning an image, be sure to take full advantage of providing your own original description of the pin and speak in your brand’s distinct tone-of-voice.

3. Pin Relevant Brand Content

You’ll need to decide what content will be relevant for your brand’s target audience. Think about your buyer personas when you’re deciding whether or not to pin something. Ask yourself, “Would my ideal client find this useful, educational, entertaining, or inspiring?” If the answer is yes, pin away! If not, keep looking for something that fits one of these categories.

You should also look for content that’s already being shared on Pinterest and that is relevant to your brand and business. Pinterest isn’t just about pinning your own images onto your boards. Like other social platforms, you need to share other people’s content too, so think about the value of re-pinning that relevant content for your audience. This provides value through curation.

How to Become a Pinterest Leader

When you think of Pinterest as a tool for becoming a source of information and ideas, rather than a place to hawk your wares, you will be far more successful on Pinterest.

Focus on the idea that Pinterest can:

• Help you learn the intimate needs and wants of your ideal customers
• Help you create your ideal customer profile
• Allow customers to get to know your brand and develop trust

Using Pinterest & Cross-Promoting

• Add the Pinterest ‘follow’ button to your website – Much the same as Facebook and Twitter.
• Pinterest etiquette clearly states that it’s not a platform for self-promotion.
• Use of Hashtags – much like on Twitter, you can use the # next to a keyword in the description of the pin to give it more prominence
• Encourage users to comment – Ask for an opinion in your pin description and invoke a great response.

Whole Foods, a Pinterest Case Study

Whole Foods uses Pinterest to create a scrapbook for healthy living by pinning all sorts of things that customers would enjoy. Whole Foods is a Pinterest leader in that they’ve positioned their brand at the forefront of health and vitality.

Their Pinterest Boards provide recipe inspiration, tips for growing organic fruit and vegetables and mixes in general interest topics for fans to engage around. Whole Foods pinners “followers” are extremely active, with 49 boards and almost 1,300 pins they have almost 75,000 followers.

Check out Straydog branding on Pinterest