Pinterest for Marketing

Pinterest is best used by businesses that are driven by images. Pinterest allows businesses to create pinboards of their own for display of their products. But since Pinterest is a social media site that relies on sharing of photos, businesses can’t just post pictures and hope for traffic. The most successful businesses have created compelling photo campaigns to attract followers to their pinboards.

A the moment, the clothing industry has really adapted the site to its use and makes up the biggest percentage of businesses on Pinterest, but Pinterest may also be an outlet for tourism marketing. Since Pinterest encourages its users to create boards around a certain theme, clothing companies have used it to display collections. For example, a jean company can do the Denizens of Denim themed board that would feature a number of photos of their denim collection. That board can then be linked to the businesses website so that Pinterest users can easily go to the website to purchase something if they see something they like.

Tourism can also make use of the site, though hasn’t yet. Travel photos are extremely common on Pinterest. A savvy tourism business can help build on those collections and build collections of their own in order to generate interest in their destination. Pinboards can then be linked to travel websites to help clients plan trips to locations they’ve fallen in love with due to a successful photo campaign.

Any business that can reach out to their clients via images can use make use of Pinterest as a marketing tool. A business may want to consider hiring a young photographer and giving them the assignment to find or shape compelling images that involve the product or service. A compelling image campaign could generate interest in a company even if it wasn’t directly geared towards getting a consumer to buy a specific project. Businesses could also set up a photographic contest, asking users to submit and pin their own images with their product or service being the common theme. The best pictures would be chosen for the company’s board, creating a compelling photo campaign and generating a buzz about the company, while also giving new photographers a chance to show their work.

Lastly, Pinterest can become a free display space for visual artists. Visual artists like photographers and painters can design and display their own collections, hopefully generating interest and sales of their art.

The key to social media marketing is to share. Social media is just what its name suggests, a way for people to share media they appreciate. A business hoping to use social media as a marketing tool must generate media that is worthy to be shared.