So you think you're Pinteresting?

Pinterest is one of the latest in social media marketing. I personally had never thought of how businesses could use it to reach their target markets until we were shown examples in class. I now see how it can be a great resource to reach potential consumers and see what else they are interested in. For example a company could find my pinterest and learn what I am interested in and if I am their target consumer then target me more effectively. A company who posts a lot about traveling could see that I post a lot about where I want to go and also see that I am interested in coffee shops, thus if there was a pin about coffee shops around the US or the world I would likely repost it and be interested in that company.

I decided to look up how companies can more effectively use Pinterest. I found an article from Go Digital Marketing about How to Use Pinterest to Effectively Market Your Small Business explaining how businesses can better use the site. The article mentions how originally when the promoted pins first started they were only for large businesses and now Pinterest has slowly started DIY promoted pins for any sized business. This form of promoted pins makes it so the company only pays on a cost-per-click basis. The site also gives advice to businesses on how to start out marketing through Pinterest. These tips are:

1. Know your audience
2. Think like a content marketer, not an advertiser
3. Look to Pinners for inspiration
4. Make sure your boards are well-categorized
5. Determine posting frequency

I really liked how they discussed how to be more of a content marketer and not just an advertiser.
"The majority of active Pinterest users click on Pins that go to blog posts, articles and even photos." This quote shows how important it is for companies who use Pinterest to advertise to create more content focused Pins so that consumers will be more likely to repin and click on the link. It is also noted how most of what is popular is visual such as food, fashion, beauty, crafts, decor, and etc. I think when trying to target consumers companies want to advertise just as they would anywhere else, but they forget that Pinterest does not work in that same way. This brings me to another point that I wanted to talk more about, making sure boards are well-categorized. In the article it mentions how Pinterest sorts posts by topic or category and not chronologically. I never had really considered that a company would not know that but I guess if they are just beginning they may not. A big thing in creating boards is to make sure and keep focused to one topic in posting. For example if a company sells make up than a couple different ways they could organize the posts would be by product line or by what the product is used for. If it is by product line then the pins would be focused more on all the different ways to wear the line. The board should work towards a goal of consumers wanting that look and going out and buying the product. On the other hand if the focus is on what the product is used for then the company could combine product lines for many different looks (like maybe a daytime eye look vs a nighttime look).

Here is the link: http://www.godigitalmarketing.com/pinterest-effectively-market-small-business/