Pinterest is an often overlooked social media channel. Since it was launched in 2010, Pinterest exists to allow users to virtually ‘pin’ items that inspire or excite them.
For a non-Pinterest user, you’d probably assume that Pinterest solely exists to excite creative/crafty DIYers. Spend a couple of hours on the site, and you’ll soon discover the online noticeboard has a lot more to offer, and it’s used for a wide array of searches.
In a recent article on Mashable, they narrowed down the most popular Pinterest searches of 2015 by country.
The UK’s most searched keywords included some British classics such as pork pie, Toad in the Hole, Lancashire Hotpot and James Bond. Other searches included ‘Alexa Chung haircut’ and ‘Broken glass nails’. All of these searches show the differences between what people want and expect from a channel like Pinterest.
Pinterest for brands…
For a brand to venture into using Pinterest, it is important to consider if it is the right channel to add to their social presence, and not just adding another string to their social bow. Before an account is set up, begin searches for brand mentions within Pinterest. This way, we can see who and why people are mentioning the brand and how we can interact with this audience.
Re-pin, Re-pin, Re-pin! Re-sharing content pinned by other users strengthens customer relationships with your brand, products and services. Re-pinning content from your audience shows that you value their engagement.
Pinterest provides long-term web traffic. In an article on Peg Fitzpatrick, the half-life of a pin on Pinterest is 151,200 minutes. In comparison to Facebook’s of 90 minutes and Twitter’s of 24 minutes. If Pinterest is used to feature products, 50 per cent of orders happen after 2.5 months of pinning.
Pinterest can be a really useful versatile tool if used in the right way. How do you use Pinterest?