It can take a while to get into the momentum of a new social network, and if you’ve been used to networks like Twitter and Facebook where the text aspect is important, trying to switch gears to a mostly visual network like Pinterest can be an adjustment. There are some good reasons to stick with Pinterest, though, and here are six that will help convince you to spend more time developing your presence there.
1. Pictures are popular. If you’re at all familiar with Instagram or Facebook, you know how popular photos are. The future of online marketing is mobile, and the key to smart mobile marketing is liberal use of images. And while we’re on the subject of mobile…
2. Pinterest has a great mobile app. The Pinterest app is intuitive, easy to use, and features images that are impressively large. This means that without having to develop your own app, you can easily share content with your audience while they’re on the go, which is important.
3. There’s a built-in shopping aspect. If you have products to sell, Pinterest is the perfect place to showcase them and let shoppers see for themselves how great your products are. You can even display prices catalog-style to help customers make decisions without ever having to leave your pinboards.
4. You can promote your blog. Make the effort to include good-quality photos with your blog posts, and then create a pinboard for those photos so you can share your blog posts that way. Pinterest also just added an analytics feature so you can see what’s working and what’s not.
5. It’s easy to link yourself to complementary businesses. Repinning photos from others who are in a complementary niche to yours can help you network, and mutual image sharing helps everyone promote themselves in an appropriate context.
6. You can set up off-topic boards. If you never know where to put those photos of your office holiday party or other images that aren’t strictly about your product or service, you can set up a board called “Around the Office” to show off all that fun stuff, and, bonus, it will make you seem friendly and personable.
Do you have an established presence on Pinterest? How does your approach to Pinterest differ from other social networks?
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Peg McDermott is an award-winning marketing communications expert, Internet marketing specialist, and public speaker. Find her on Google Plus, Twitter, and LinkedIn
