Pinterest has come a long way since it began as what many thought of as just a virtual dream board hub. With 70 million users, brands know that Pinterest can be a perfect place to reach a specific target audience. While being another valuable instrument in your social media toolbox, Pinterest is very different from Twitter or Facebook, and shouldn’t be used the same way. People tweet and broadcast status updates to the world and their friends with every message, but on Pinterest, it’s all about the individual user. Each pin a user selects is based on personal enjoyment or use, rather than the entertainment or potential connection with others.
So how can a brand use Pinterest to connect with its audience members? It all begins with the right thought process.
Think first
To succeed as a brand on Pinterest — or any social media platform — you must ask “why” before taking any action, or you’re already failing. “Why” is the most important word in the English language for anyone who wants to be successful on social. Anyone can access the Internet and pin just about anything, but reaching an audience requires a little more strategy.
Before making a new board, consider these three questions:
- What kind of content would this board provide?
- How does this board help or answer an audience question?
- What sort of value does this board add?
Before making or pinning a new pin, consider:
- Why does our audience want this information?
- How will they use this pin?
- What do we want them to do after viewing this?
A great way to summarize all these questions is by answering, “We will (do/provide this) (for these people) so that they can (do this).”
Make pins easy to find
Don’t make your audience members hunt for the information you’re offering. If your pin leads to a clickbait-y website that someone would have to search through to then find the link to another website to find the recipe or whatever made them click initially, forget it. Audience members will lose interest before they reach the destination. Before you repin, click the link, check it out, and make sure it leads to the right place. If you do have to dig through several links, find the one you’re looking for, and pin that instead.
Use the description box
Pinterest added the description box for a reason, so use it! Make sure your description is helpful and includes all the information your audience needs to locate and understand each pin. Pinners are looking for value in every pin, so show off your expertise in the description to help them recognize its worth. The more detailed your pins are, the better.
Oh, and don’t use hashtags. Hashtags don’t work the same way on Pinterest as they do on Twitter and Instagram, and they won’t actually help your audience members find your pin more easily. The right keywords will work like hashtags on other platforms. Think of five words a person might search for when looking for your pin. Include those words in the pin description to make it more searchable.
Use the right images
Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Pinterest is all about connecting people to things. Here are a few stats to keep in mind when pinning:
- Images without faces receive 23 percent more repins.
- Images with more dominant colors are more likely to be repinned than images with a single dominant color.
- Vertical images get 60 percent more repins than very tall images or squares.
- Right-crop images get more engagement.
And one more word of advice on images: Don’t use borders on them — they’ll look like advertisements.
Let your boards evolve
Evolving boards are constantly growing. These boards perform well because constantly adding new pins constantly pushes those pins into more feeds, which leads to more people viewing that board and other pins. So keep adding! Add a couple of new pins day, and watch the engagement grow.
Your personal boards can be your chaotic place of ideas, but for your brand, Pinterest is a place to educate, provide value, and show your audience members that you understand them. So go forth and pin! Let us know what tips you found most useful, or share any other Pinterest hacks we didn’t include.
***
Hurrdat is a Lincoln, Neb. digital marketing agency specializing in social media and content marketing. The company was founded in 2010 and merged with B² Interactive of Omaha, Neb. in 2014 bringing even more digital marketing specialties to both firms’ clients. Together they provide a full range of social media, SEO, and website development services to both national brands and local clients. The companies employ more than 75 people in Nebraska and have won multiple awards for their business efforts, company culture, and clients’ campaigns.
The post Improving Your Brand’s Pinterest Page appeared first on Hurrdat.