Pinterest Marketing for Small Businesses

[Stephen Peacock]

If a social network could drive more qualified traffic than Facebook would you be interested? Pinterest is and I think every small business should take notice.

Founded in early 2010 the Pinterest (often misspelled “Pintrest”) social media network has amassed over 7 million users while still in “Beta – Invite Only” mode. If you are not familiar with the site, the name provides a great clue to its purpose. A combination of Pin and Interest – the website is a drop dead easy way to create visual collections of things you love, are passionate about, and/or proud of. It’s like internet scrap booking and very visual.

Like other social networks you can follow and friend other people to see what things they are passionate about. Once you secure an invite – and you probably already know someone who is a member, you’ll sign in with either your Facebook or Twitter credentials and start pinning and sharing your interests.

As you follow others and explore the Pinterest network you’ll find items worth commenting on or “repinning” on one of your boards. In doing so – great pins can go viral and with several website links attached to each pin – there are breadcrumbs that lead back to the original website for the image. So, with a little savvy and a creative pinning scheme you can, over time, create a good number of links back to your products and services.

Pinterest Links are Do Follow

One of the more powerful aspects of Pinterest is that the links are “Do Follow” which means they provide what search engine optimization professionals call “link juice” or what you may more simply consider a vote of confidence that one website can give to another. Here’s in an excerpt from the Search Engine Journal with the lowdown of the do follow links from Pinterest:

Read the full post on my blog and find awesome resources to create your small business Pinterest Marketing strategy.

[Pat Howlett]

Good info as always Stephen

[Gaynor Fries, 919 Director]

I've lost a few hours of my life on Pinterest lately. I believe I read a while ago it's predominantly women who are on there - wonder if that's still true of the demographic?

[Stephen Peacock]

It is still true Gaynor. But, the male demographic is growing. Found this information here if you want to dig deeper http://sociable360.blogspot.com/2012/02/pinterest-demographic-data-...

[Gaynor Fries, 919 Director]

Stephen, thanks for providing this extra info. Appreciate it!

[Phoenix - Operations Assistant]

How would a company who doesn't have products share on Pinterest? Loan documents aren't exactly sexy.

[Christine Alexander]

Great info Stephen!

[Christine Alexander]

I am with Phoenix. How would a company with a service that is not sexy use Pinterest in a way to get SEO backlinks?

[Sharon Galluzzo]

Thanks, Stephen! Can't decide if I want to get in deeper with FB, though...

[Stephen Peacock]

Yes, Pinterest is a no brainer for companies that sell products and/or are engaged in a field that is visual by nature - photography, web design, graphic artists, fashion, interior design, and even architects make perfect sense. Companies that provide services that aren't visual by nature will have to be more creative. Here are a few thoughts:

• Announce a contents on your blog and request your Pinterest friends to post an image that captures the feeling they get when working with your business - ask them to link it to your website.  Create the board, engage with folks to encourage them to participate and comment on those who post.  Select and celebrate the winner - announce it on your blog.
• Create coupons for your services - post them to a board and link them to the relevant post or page on your site
• Share the cool images you incorporate in your business blog

[Phoenix - Operations Assistant]

Few more ideas:

• Posting pictures of area events
  Local business blog pictures
  MLS Listings (for Realtors & Mortgage folks)
  Pictures taken by locals of the area your business is located in

Thank you, Stephen. This is fantastic. It popped into the stratosphere so quickly, very little information can be found that is useable for many service industries.