A picture is worth a thousand words. At least this is what the growth rate of the world’s third biggest Social Media platform after Facebook and Twitter suggests: Pinterest.com is on the up. Virtual pin boards invite you to browse, find new ideas, ‘like’ and share – and provide stimulus for a lot:
Shopify alone registered over four times as many e-commerce orders in a matter of half a year (Sep ‘11 – April ‘12) than the previous half year. Not only did the number increase significantly, but also did the shopping basket value experience a substantial boost to an average of 80 dollars – twice as much as its Facebook equivalent. One question remains: how can a shop partner like you benefit from this promising source of income? Does Pin and Win apply to you at all? And if so, how can you exploit Pinterest’s full potential?
First of all, Pinterest offers a highly intuitive user interface. The mantra ‘Keep it simple and clear’ apparently works out more than well for this network. You’d be well advised to abide by this guideline as well.
This is how you get going with Pinterest:
1. Ask a registered Pinterest user to send you an invitation, or request an invitation yourself.
2. On receipt of the invitation, create your account. Pay attention to choosing a suitable name and a description containing relevant SEO keywords.
NB – you should switch ‘off’ the setting ‘Hide your Pinterest Profile from Search Engines’, obviously!
3. Create boards with searchable names and choose a fitting category (e.g. Gifts/Women’s/Men’s Apparel, Kids, Wedding/Events/Art…). Use the ‘Edit’ button on your personal Pinterest page to create your own cover image, and promote the board by adding a descriptive text in order to improve your chances with Google.
4. Publish images and/or video clips on your board. An app for your smartphone is also available to upload photos in a flash. But please respect copyrights and personal rights! Add short and succinct comments or descriptions, but avoid keyword stuffing. Assign your images with the target URL of your shop.
5. Wait for viral effects – your ‘Pins’ can be read by all Pinterest users and be ‘liked’ by Facebook users.
As with all other social networks, it is important to note that straightforward marketing campaigns will not go down well with the community as people find those annoying and boring. First of all, Pinterest is all about NOT creating boards intended to promote product photography. If other users get the impression that you only want to run a campaign, they are likely to ignore you. Be creative, tell stories. Participate actively in the community and exchange ideas with other users – this will create much more traffic.
In our part 2 of our Pinterest series you will find out everything you need to know about creating boards, for example inspiring info on the Back-to-School-Board. Have fun dropping pins!
