Social media changes on a regular basis and it can be difficult for small
business owners to keep up. You've got a
Facebook page? Check. Your twitter feed is regularly updated? Check. Well here's something else to keep you busy -
Pinterest.
The issue with technology changing so swiftly is that you do not always understand what horse to back. You may have wasted your dollars getting your
MySpace site custom-designed, only to find all your potential customers have moved onto Facebook. So when you read about a fresh social media experience, you're right to pause and ask yourself, ought I be worrying with this? So, should you be bothering to use Pinterest?
Pinterest (rhymes with interest) is an online virtual pinboard. Items which you stick on your pinboard or freezer at home, you are able to stick on Pinterest. I'm not really speaking about a piece of paper stating 'Buy Milk' - more beautiful/interesting/inspiring stuff. If you were getting married and came across a great idea for bouquets you might stick that on the site, or if perhaps you're a fashionista, you may use Pinterest to show a
high-heeled shoe you love.
Whenever people 'pin' these pictures on Pinterest, other individuals will be able to comment. So when you stick up the wedding flower design you believe will make your eyes look fabulous, your bridesmaids can give their suggestions, as well as suggest alternatives.
Ideally, consumers link through their pin to the source, so high heeled shoe ought to link to the company's webpage, or the style blog page you found it on, though not everyone does this.
Profiles on Pinterest may be public or private, and individuals can follow other people's boards. All this is visually good, is intuitive to navigate round, and is filled with cool youngsters publishing stuff other fashionable individuals have made. But do you need it?
The first thing you'll notice when you visit Pinterest.com is it is visually stunning. The web page has photos of beautiful food, clothes, architecture and everything else that's pleasing to the eye. It's really a very visual
social network website, which ought to offer you an idea of what sort of business might benefit from a presence on Pinterest.
Aesthetically eye-catching merchandise will work well on Pinterest. If you're in an artistic niche, it's worth investigating promoting your merchandise via the site. Unquestionably anyone who offers a service for the wedding industry needs to look into it - brides looking to plan their special day appear to be big consumers of the service in its early stages. The primary users of Pinterest at the minute are women aged 25-44.
If you supply via
eBay or
Etsy then you definitely ought to be investigating what Pinterest could do for you. Indeed Etsy recently added a 'Pin It' button to their item listings, allowing members to effortlessly share their items in the social network.
If however you happen to be an accountant, solicitor or other skilled professional who is offering a specialised service, you probably won't identify much of interest for you professionally. Focus instead on working on your
LinkedIn profile.
Should you feel Pinterest may be of interest to you, then the next issue is how may you use it to
PR your business? Pinterest is a social network site, thus rather than directly marketing your products, the emphasis should be on encouraging visitors to share your items. Direct promoting of your products won't go down well and will not boost your brand.
Should you be providing craft items or clothing, it will be straight-forward. Inspire your customers to pin your items via your email list or Facebook account, and think about including follow and 'Pin It' buttons to your results next to your other social networking buttons. You can do this by following the instructions on the Pinterest website.
Some other industries will have to be a little more original about promoting their products. Should you operate a cafe or catering service you might share some recipes on Pinterest. Ensure that you've got a good, enticing photograph of the dish, post the recipe on your own website and add a Pin It button. Hopefully customers will pin the shot on the site and others may click through to your website.
Don't forget - the key to being successful on Pinterest, and making it to the high traffic homepage, is to always have appealing photos. Make sure that your visuals are first-rate and you will thrive.
A possible problem for you is that you are unable to easily join Pinterest at the time of producing this article - it isn't open to the public. The fastest method of getting onto it is to ask a friend who is on the website for an invitation. If not you should ask for an invitation from Pinterest and simply wait patiently by the pc.
To conclude, creative people have to have a look at Pinterest. Get an invite today and have a play around to see whether it will work for your enterprise. It's definitely going to grow in popularity within the coming months, so by getting on the website nice and early you might with a little luck manage to steal a march on your competition and grow a presence on the website.
Robbie Knox writes about public relations at How To PR, a blog that offers free PR advice to small businesses interested in boosting their brand using the media. Visit the site for more articles like this, and learn how to PR your business.
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