Why Brands Shouldn’t Be Ignoring Pinterest
When it comes to social media, the top players are Facebook, Twitter & Instagram, and many brands fare well using a combination of just those three. There are many other platforms that, depending on your brand and the interactions you hope to have with your customers, are also worth making a part of your marketing plans. Pinterest is one such platform, sometimes overlooked by brands for it’s perceived niche appeal. Recently releasing user total information for the first time in its 5-year history, the content discovery and sharing website reports around 100 million active monthly users. While this is no match for Facebook’s 1.5 billion users, it’s a strong number worth taking into consideration. Pinterest users are usually receptive to marketing efforts as their use of the site is based on an interest in specific sections, the largest and most searched being fashion & beauty, food, fitness and interior design. Users search for images, ideas, recipes, ideas that inspire or speak o their interest, “pinning” them a digital board to revisit and share later.
The are currently 750 million boards on the website, and with a large chunk of them having been created in the last 18 months it’s obvious there is a strong uptick in users. This is a critical moment for brands to capitalize on the impact the website has for brands and retailers who rely on visuals to tell their story. According to a 2014 study, Pinterest is a powerful force in terms of driving traffic to retail sites; and the June 2015 implementation of buyable pins allowed brands to sell products direction from the website or within the mobile app. Discovery is an integral part of the buying cycle, and being able to not only find items and services, but also view links and longer articles to extra information like instructions, tutorials, testimonials and examples to give them the power of choice when it comes to the brands they consume.
Curating content for different platforms will always have slight differences depending on the main use of the site. Images are king on Pinterest, so using them to convey a message will be integral to your success while still giving you the ability to link to outside sources like longer articles or videos. Users come to Pinterest to learn and discover, so as much as images are important, they serve a different function that they do on Instagram or even Tumblr. Combinations of captions and wording along with images, like a food brand posting a recipe, works extremely well as users will save and re-share these tips for later use – even on other platforms.
Brands using Pinterest should understand that selling a lifestyle and showing how their products or services fit into said lifestyle, is the key to success. Think beyond product descriptions and find ways to plug your brand into larger ideas, providing inspiration as much as information.
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