We are living in a visual world. With our ability to capture every waking moment of our lives, we have a desire for images to mark memories. Our brains process visual cues faster than text, creating the need for a business to have images essential to attracting consumers.

With our society’s need to share their every move, we often live vicariously through the lives of others, get ideas for everyday living and want to make our lives more visually appealing. Enters Pinterest.

Pinterest is about creating a world your consumer wants to live in through curated pin boards. The ultimate goal for a pinner is to find content that speaks to them, answers a question, inspires them, solves a problem or fills a void. The trick to making Pinterest work for your business, regardless of what business you are in, is defining the relevance of your Pinterest strategy and how to make this virtual bulletin board platform work for you.

Be Unique

Your boards should speak to your audience. Whether it’s the audience you already have acquired, or the ones you want to target, your boards should speak to your ideal client.

Go beyond your business or product you are trying to market. A pinner can go to your website if all they want to see is information on your product, service or business. Pinterest is more about creating and speaking to the lifestyle your audience is living.

If you are a local business, you could have a board dedicated to activities in your town. If you sell kitchenware, perhaps you have a board dedicated to the “ultimate foodie tour”, showcasing the destinations with cuisine you would love to try. These might seem frivolous, but creating content that is interesting and strikes a chord with your pinner will make them curious to figure out who you are as a brand. Integrating your brand, service or product into these unique boards is the most successful way to utilize Pinterest.

Be Buyable

With the newest addition to Pinterest being the blue “Buy It” button, it is even easier for pinners to purchase within the platform. Pinterest has been dubbed the all-in-one catalog, but allowing the brands to close the loop on the sale by having it happen within the Pinterest platform is a game changer.

Pinners are able to search for specific items, narrow the margin based on price and make the purchase without too much effort. Once you have found the item you wish to purchase and clicked the blue “Buy It” button, you are given a detailed screen with product selection options (sizes, colors, variations etc.).

Currently Pinterest is working with Shopify and Demandware, as well as retailers like Nordstrom and Macy’s for this buyable feature. If you wish to get on the list for Buyable Pins, go here!

This tool is sure to change the face of online shopping!

Be Social

This might be an obvious to-do when using any social media platform, but it is still so important. Most people get distracted by all the gorgeous, high resolution images on Pinterest and pin them to their corresponding board and move on. However, engagement can go beyond simply re-pinning an image.

There are many ways to build relationships and get noticed by potential customers and other brands. By commenting, liking or re-pinning an image, you show that someone else’s content was interesting to you. You could bring awareness to your brand, by showing other like-minded pinners you exist. You can also track engagement by researching pins from your website. Figuring out who finds your content pin-worthy is essential to growth. These could be your top influencers, the people you should follow or engage with if you are not already. To track your businesses’ website pin traffic, copy this URL in your browser and put replace the last part with your actual website. www.pinterest.com/source/yourwebsite.com

Most importantly, you should be having fun! Pinterest is an exciting, visual and fun social media platform. People use Pinterest to create a lifestyle for themselves.  If you can find the balance in showcasing the lifestyle, beliefs, and interests behind your brand, as well as the products and services you provide then you have hit the jackpot!

By: Blueprint