Pinterest is the visual social media channel that allows people to pin up images of their favourite things on a virtual pinboard. It is a great way to market businesses that rely heavily on visual appeal - such as online retailers - but to succeed and win over a new audience you have to add something of value and not just blatantly peddle your own wares.
You need to think about what your audience will find appealing and of value and then target this audience using the board segmentation functionality. This is a great way of communicating with each target group as they will all have different needs and interests.
Another tip is to create quality content. Like so many other areas of online marketing it is this quality, original content that will get you to the top, particularly as most people repin so you can gain good brownie points from pinning original content. Adding new pins is what makes people value you.
Use Google Analytics to track the traffic that is coming via Pinterest as this will give you vital information on the audience you are attracting. Pinterest can help you to drive traffic to your main website but it is important to assess the impact of pinning and understand how this can affect your potential client base.
As with all social media marketing it is important to get a mix of information sharing and soft selling if you want to successfully engage with your audience.
Posted by Frances Berry
