As an avid "Pinner" myself, I wanted to look into
what companies are doing to create a brand through the popular social media
site call Pinterest. Known for being visually appealing, I wanted to look
deeper into some tips that top companies are using to sell their products and
merchandise.
Get to know their customers: Everyday an average of 70 million people use their Pinterest accounts and companies need to take the opportunity to get to know their followers and follow what is being re-pinned. This is important part of targeting and allows companies to sort out the top pinned merchandise and put it in a platform more visible to followers.
Create boards that reflect the business: Create organized and uniquely named boards that represent what the company is and what they are trying to sell. Board names should attempt to include the company name so that when repined, individuals know where the pin came. This will connect the dots between image, consumer, and company.
Follow other businesses: Important to not only stay ahead of what the competitor is doing but do so to see what other businesses have to offer.
Engage with followers: If someone posts a comment, comment back. It is good customer service and creates a positive relationship between the company and consumer. Businesses should also look into interacting with their followers by repining user-generated content.
Don’t forget about other platforms: This is just what Gary Vaynerchuk was explaining a couple of weeks ago on Marie TV. Pinterest is a visual platform, but isn’t held at a greater standard than Facebook or Twitter. All platforms serve a unique and different perspective and using all of them is a part of targeting and reaching out to current and future customers.
I like Pinterest too. A 2012 Mashable infographic says that 82% of people on Pinterest are women and 61% have at least some college education. This would make sense why Real Simple (a home lifestyle website and magazine) is the most followed corporate brand on the site (34,517 followers in 2012). Brands should know that Pinterest is mostly female and market their product to appeal to mothers, sisters and daughters instead of taking a broad approach.
ReplyDeleteSource: http://mashable.com/2012/03/09/social-media-demographics/
Pinterest is my favorite because it is social media catered to what I want to look for and hear about. I'm always on Pinterest posting DIY projects for my free time (wait, what free time!?), Quotes, and unique products.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you mentioned Gary Vaynerchuk's advice about making sure each social media platform is treated differently. I think some businesses tend to 'take the easy road' and link all of their accounts together. Although it is the most time effective strategy, it is the not the ideal strategy. People use different outlets for different reasons and may follow a company on Pinterest that they don't follow on Facebook. Or, if they follow them on Facebook, they may be looking for a discount or promo-code that they wouldn't find on Pinterest. As Richard mentioned above, knowing the demographic on each site is important to develop specific marketing tactics.
Great post! -Andrea
I have never really been on Pintrest, but I have heard people talk about it all the time. I think you bring up a good point about knowing your customers. I do the Twitter and Facebook accounts for USD volleyball, and over the last couple of months I have figured about when our followers interact with us the most. When I post something during the day, it is less likely to get liked, shared, or retweeted, because most people are at work. If I do it after the five o'clock hour, we usually get much more interaction, because people aren't at work. I know when I look at my twitter feed after I hadn't for half of a day, I skim through it looking for the interesting things. When I refresh it constantly at night when I am on the couch, I am more likely to read all of the tweets. So like you said, knowing your customers will allow you to better use social media. You also bring up engaging with other businesses. I have done a lot of following on Twitter of different groups around USD and Vermillion. Interacting with those groups will help promote what we are doing at USD volleyball.
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