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Users on Pinterest usually have to seek interesting content for themselves, but a new feature quietly rolled out Saturday drives them to even more personalized content.
Pinterest has become a hot social pinboard that drives more traffic than most major social networks — meaning there is more content on the site than ever. That’s why many users are sure to appreciate Pinterest’s new weekly email newsletter, making it easier to find even more great pins and helping them keep tabs on how their own pins are doing.
Mimicking the website’s pinboard style, each pin or board in the email is linked to the website, but users are unable to re-pin or like a post directly from the newsletter. The newsletter lists a few popular boards, pins from friends that might be of interest and a useful feature for brands especially: your most popular pins of the week.
Pinterest also includes its own favorite post in the newsletter, which this week was a lip-dub marriage proposal that went viral on YouTube.
Though Pinterest is stepping up its curation game, startups are seizing the opportunity to make Pinterest a more enjoyable experience for users. Earlier this month, a site launched that notifies users via email when their pinned items go on sale. The recent startup Pinerly offers basic analytics about pin performance and scheduling pins.
There’s also WP Pinner, which is a plug-in that lets WordPress users share, track and schedule material on Pinterest.
Share your thoughts in the comments.
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I admit I’m a little behind with this post. Everybody and their cousin Sally has already written a post on Pinterest by now. Its’s the media darling of the day. Or at least it was. Then we actually read the terms of use and some people are already deleting their accounts in protest. See, it turns out that not only does the TOU state “Cold Brew Labs and its licensors exclusively own all right, title and interest in and to the Site, Application, Services and Site Content, including all associated intellectual property rights”, (that means the pins you post too!) but Pinterest is apparently adding affiliate links to some of the posts to earn money when you click on the links. On top of that their sign-up process is really designed to “automatically” build your following by notifying your entire list of connections that you’ve joined and suggesting they follow you. Smart eh? That’s why you are suddenly getting tons of emails from Pinterest.
Hmm. In this day and age, transparency is hugely important and this wasn’t cool. The digerati who are up in arms about the TOS. But when all is said and done though, does the user base care? The market is collectors and mostly women, who like to curate collections of images around things they like. I’m willing to be they could care less if Pinterest makes money from affiliate links on their collections as long as they are free to curate more. As for the emails, either filter them into a mailbox or change your email settings on Pinterest.
How is business using Pinterest?
Now see, that’s the interesting thing. Because it’s all the rage businesses rushed to figure out how to leverage Pinterest’s incredible popularity to get people talking about their business and there are some very creative uses by brands large and small alike, as well as nonprofits.
Which businesses do well on Pinterest?
Clearly interior design, food and infographics are doing really well here, but it’s really all over the map. Here’s a board of Fashion Brands on Pinterest and another for the America Heart Association. Here’s one just for the boys, er, men, called Board of Man. Even the National Guard has gotten into the act. Just do a search for what you do and you’re likely to find some boards built around it.
Start with a core group of pins and then drip them in over time
Remember that as more users follow your boards you have an opportunity to remind them of your existence every time you post a new pin. If you post a dozen pins at once they get a dozen emails at once. Once a day is probably a more tolerable noise level for most. Just like with Twitter it’s better to spread out your shares rather than inundating us with them all at once.
Create boards that are different
We do not need another board all about cupcakes. We don’t really. Do something to make your board stand out from the crowd. Here’s a fun way to do it by slicing up images for a single board, similar to what people have done with Google+ photos.Post items that are shareable. (DUH)
Think of ways to pin on a schedule
It trains your users to expect a great pin from you every day and they begin to look forward to it. Can you have a theme for every day of the week, or even weekly that keeps people interested?
Name your boards with SEO in mind
While we have very little demographic data about our boards it’s clearly showing up in search engines too. Create your board title with SEO in mind. “My board” doesn’t mean a thing. “Hot Cars” is clear and much more likely to both gain interest from users and seo form the search engines. What will people search for to find you? Select a category for your board that is appropriate to your purpose in pinning. Fill out the description with keywords in a complete sentence.
Follow other pinners
Follow the people who are most popular in your areas of interest. Most likely they’ll follow you back. It’s super easy for people to click that “follow JFouts’s back” and they are following all of your boards. This is important. Let’s say you are in the wine industry and you’ve created boards for sustainable wine making, your wines, Sonoma valley travel and wine accessories. When someone follows all your boards they get a bigger picture of who you are and when you post your new labels or the latest vintage, they see that too.
Collaborate
When you find an influencer you are impressed with invite them to collaborate on a board. To do that you just create a board, then go to edit and choose “Me + Contributors” under who can pin. This will allow you to invite influencers in your area of interest, people who have a complementary viewpoint, etc.
Be social
Pinboard is boring if nobody comes to your party. Re-pin great finds from other boards. It’s good for them and it’s good for you. It’s likely they will reciprocate and may even invite you to collaborate. Go see who the people are who like or re-pin your posts. Follow them, re-pin something of theirs. Reciprocation is the core of social interaction. Ph, and of course don’t forget to share your pins on social networks, add the Pinit button to your blog and maybe even add a widget with your recent pins to let people see what is important to you.
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Marketing used to be simple.
You placed an advertisement in a magazine, the yellow pages or the local newspaper and people picked up the phone and called you or dropped into your place of business.
Now you have dozens of marketing channels you can use and the media is not just print, television and telemarketing.
The age of multimedia and multiple social networks is providing many choices and options.
Now, having freedom of choice is good but sifting through the options today for the average business owner is a marketing minefield.
Should it be email marketing, a Facebook campaign or a paid online campaign using Google Adwords.
Is investing in optimizing my website for search engines the right thing to do?
The digital economy is challenging for all business owners to continue to be noticed and remembered by prospects and customers.
It’s a Crowded Web
The web is a very crowded place and with 550 million plus websites on the planet today you need to be innovative and do things a little differently to obtain that valuable attention.
Pinterest is a fast emerging visually oriented social network that provides a platform that can bring out the creative marketer.
Online stores are discovering that it is even driving more sales than Facebook, which I covered in a recent blog article about Boticca a boutique eCommerce company.
Retail, Fashion and other B2C (Business to Consumer) business are often touted as the environments for creative marketing spirits to soar.
Creativity though is not limited to the fashionistas, designers and B2C marketers .
So how does a B2B business get creative on Pinterest?
Here are some ideas that almost any business, including B2B and B2C can apply.
10 Creative Ideas to Market on Pinterest
Here are some simple but easily applied ideas to get your creative neurons pumping .
1. Video
Your maybe a company that has machinery or products that uses videos to market your products and services. It could even be a “How To” educational video.
Typically companies are now starting to upload all their videos to YouTube as a matter of course as well as having them on their website.
These videos in the past could only be pinned directly from YouTube to Pinterest.
Pinterest has just announced that it now provides the facility to pin a Vimeo video.
2. Create a “Behind the Scenes” Board
Hubspot personalize their company by revealing behind the scenes activities at Hubspot.
Employees can and will generally share on their boards, photos of themselves and friends (most people like getting noticed in this attention economy).
This tactic further spreads the sharing of the Hubspot brand online.
Nothing like a bit of employee sourced marketing leverage!
3. Implement an “Events” Pinboard
If you run an event for your business whether it is annual, regular or a “one off” then create a board to highlight attendees and speakers and so therefore crowd source your marketing.
The attendees I guarantee you will will repin and share their photos (as long as you let them know with a follow up email after the event or a “Tweet” linking to the site)
This in turn promotes your events and adds to the virality of your content and brand.
4. Highlight Other Businesses on Pinterest
Behance is a network that promotes its members creative talents. It uses Pinterest to showcase their work.
This approach assists Behance and it also markets it members.
5. eBooks
Many savvy marketers have discovered the power of an ebook whether you are selling to the B2C or B2B market categories.
Don’t forget to upload images of the front page of your eBook (or book) to Pinterest.
Pins could also be linked to the Amazon store by pinning from the Amazon Kindle page.
If you are promoting and allowing downloads to your eBook from your website or blog you could pin the image from that web page.
Here is an example of marketing eBooks on Pinterest from “Writing with Style”
6. Share Visuals from your Blog Posts
The images you use in your blog articles should be pinned to Pinterest. Compelling and engaging images will make people curious about the post content on Pinterest and makes it easy to click through to your article.
It is all about spreading the links.
7. Infographics
Infographics are “hot” and almost any industry or business segment has infographics that have been created.
In certain industries, especially technical and data rich categories of business Infographics are very popular.
Its about taking images that are relevant and using them to your advantage.
8. Create a Staff Board
Take photos of staff members and share their bio’s. Firstly it will highlight the skills and expertise of your team and also further humanize the business.
9. Products and Services Boards
Any businesses or organisations that have products and services have images that they use to represent them. It could even include charts, graphs or icons.
Think about images that represent those products and publish them to Pinterest. A printing company could provide examples of each of its categories it provides as services and use images to link to landing pages for placing orders, inquiries or calls to action.
A web design company could put up its portfolio of web designs and logos.
10. Slideshare Presentations Boards
Many B2B and professional services companies in the information industries have Powerpoint presentations that should be:
- Uploaded to Slideshare
- Included in a Blog article and embedded
- Promoted on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
- Pinned to Pinterest
I do this as a a matter of habit and it places mycontent and links onto social networks where millions of people are searching daily using keywords.
To give you an idea of how powerful this is, my Slideshare presentations have been viewed nearly 120,000 times by making it easy for people to discover and share on the networks they use.
Give your business the best chance of being “discovered” on the web.
How About You?
How are you using Pinterest? Is it working for you?
Are you a B2C company or a B2B company.
Do you think Pinterest is a waste of time for a business that markets to other businesses
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From presidential contenders to school board hopefuls, political candidates are experimenting with a wide variety of social platforms to get their message heard. Some are turning to Pinterest, the explosively popular image-based pinboard site — even President Obama and Ann Romney, wife of Mitt Romney, have accounts on the image-based social network.
What’s the key to political perfection on Pinterest? Zach Cole and Garrett Law of social media agency Attention Span Media, which has worked with several political campaigns, have shared with Mashable five of their can’t-miss tips for Pinteresting pols:
It’s All About Images
“Pinterest is very visual,” said Cole. “It’s less about words and more about images, and it’s meant to be quick, easy and digestable”
Translation: Don’t put overly-long captions on your photos or send out too many infographics. Instead, send out plenty of photos of the politician hard at work or interacting with the public. Pinterest users are there for eye candy, not tomes of text.
“If people wanted to read position papers and debates,” added Law, “there are other platforms for that. Pinterest is best thought of as a visual resume.”
Make it Shareable
“Put stuff there that’s shareable,” said Cole. “Voters and potential voters will appreciate engaging content that relates to them and their community. Ideally, share something they’d be interested in repinning on their own page.”
What might sharable content look like for a politician?
“Mitt Romney on the Republican side is very much about family values, so he might pin a photo of himself and his family,” said Law. “He’d want to piece together a nice image that he’s using to communicate to voters and supporters. You should know what ideals your audience upholds and use visuals to communicate those ideals.
Law also gave an example from a campaign his firm has been working with.
“One strategy we’re using in the Scott Peters for Congress campaign in San Diego is building a pinboard of people that have endorsed Peters,” said Law. “It’s about putting a face to a name. People react better to interactions with other people visually than just via text. It’s a great way to create that more personal connection.”
Interact, Don’t Just Broadcast
“Pinterest intended to be a social platform,” suggested Cole. “It’s not all about politicians being ‘me, me me,’ it’s about the people — which is what all politics should be about, really.”
How should a politician engage on Pinterest?
“Give people material they can repin and encourage them to comment on photos from the campaign,” said Cole. “Also, develop a preemptive or proactive plan to understand which posts you want people to engage with freely and which you might want to moderate, instead of flaring up a conversation you’d rather not have active on your Pinterest page.”
It’s Not Just for Women
Pinterest has gained a reputation for having an audience made mostly of women, so should politicians post content that appeals mostly to females? No way, said Cole and Law.
“There’s this misconception that there’s only women [on Pinterest],” said Cole. “But there’s a wide range of age demographics on the site.”
Law agreed.
“Even outside sphere of politics, interest has collected a reputation of being female-centric,” he said. “But we really have seen a wider range of people from male to female, young to old that are participating.”
The lesson for politicians, then, is to post content aimed at different demographics and see what gets the attention of the audience. Experimentation is key.
Don’t Pin and Ditch
This is a rule across social media: If you’re going to start using a particular platform, you’ve got to commit. Otherwise, your followers are going to be left feeling abandoned, wondering what happened: not a good sensation to be felt by potential voters.
“Be active. It’s about being visible,” said Cole. “If you’re not active, your visibility on the home page drops dramatically, your fans will be less engaged, and you’ll see fewer interactions. People can access conversations at any given time — people do check often and see what’s new, and I think especially this year there’s a huge timeliness to things in online politics. You only get so many chances to get in front of voters, so you want to make sure you have every chance you can to control the last thing they see before voting and to have a share of that voice.”
How’ve you seen your local politicians using Pinterest or other forms of social media in unique ways? Tell us in the comments below.
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Pinterest may not allow advertisers on its platform yet, but that’s not stopping some third-party publishers from hosting campaigns on the rapidly growing social network.
On Friday, Women’s Health will launch its first advertiser campaign on Pinterest. The magazine will invite readers to create “Sparkling Summer” Pinterest boards incorporating images from the advertiser, Forevermark Diamonds, for a chance to receive a trip to a Women’s Health party in the Hamptons later this summer.
We’ve seen a number of these kinds of contests on Pinterest in the past, but never on behalf of another advertiser.
Social media has proven difficult territory for many advertisers. Followers and fans often react negatively to the kind of blatant sponsored messages that appear in other media, such as print and radio. As such, magazines’ social media accounts have remained largely in the hands of editorial departments, which use those accounts to build their audiences and drive traffic to their websites.
To integrate advertising into social media managed by magazines thus requires a degree of creativity. Women’s Health is hoping that the prize is enough to compensate for the appearance of what is clearly sponsored content in the newsfeeds of their Pinterest followers. The key, says Women’s Health publisher Laura Frerer-Schmidt, is to “offer prizing that really brings the Women’s Health experience to life for our audience.”
Women’s Health has already sold another social media campaign around its July/August issue to Procter & Gamble. For two weeks, the magazine will encourage its more than 1 million Twitter followers to engage with “a series of Twitter parties… [that] will unlock special content and prizing for our audience” related to the Olympics, says Schmidt.
In a similar vein, Elle has launched an advertiser-sponsored trend guide on its Facebook page.
How open are you to third-party advertisements from the brands you follow? Are they acceptable so long as there’s a tangible benefit, such as a contest prize, involved?
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