Stick a Pin in it!

Here at The Plum Consultancy, we are big fans of the well known saying, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, and our love for visuals has naturally made us fans of the visually driven App Pinterest. Pinterest enables users to search through images (‘Pins’) and collect them by Re-pinning them onto boards, or by Pinning them directly from Pinterest-abled websites when browsing the internet. Whether Pinned directly or Re-pinned, every image on Pinterest links back to the source of the image, driving traffic back to the original website from which it was sourced. Pinterest can also help build SEO and it allows videos.

Pinterest has recently had some very positive growth figures growing by 21.3 million users from 48.7 million in February 2013 to an impressive 70 million in July this year.

For people who are familiar with Pinterest, it isn’t uncommon to consider it as a platform only useable for B2C’s (Business to Consumers); but with a bit of creativity in place there is good potential for B2B’s (Business to Business) to utilise this social media platform. In our opinion one of the most effective B2B uses of Pinterest is via infographics. Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge; the use of infographics on Pinterest is another opportunity to present data and knowledge to customers in a creative and easy to digest visual format. Pinterest can also be used to showcase previous work to potential clients by creating a board with examples of work allowing not only a chance to showcase, but also providing direct links to your clients’ websites driving up their traffic in the process.

Furthermore this year Pinterest has ‘wisened up’ to the opportunities it can present to users. On the 20 May, Pinterest introduced its ‘More Useful Pins’ showing its understanding of how its users, i.e. ‘Pinners’ want more when they find something they love on Pinterest.

The More Useful Pins – dubbed Rich Pins are:

Product pins for things like clothes and furniture with pricing, availability, and where to buy (updated every day!)

Recipe pins from your favourite bloggers and websites that include cook time, ingredients, and servings

Movie pins with content ratings, cast members, and more

These new types of informative Rich Pins display an icon below the picture within the main feed alerting the Pinner that there is more information available. Details such as pricing, availability and where to buy are also automatically updated, helping to turn Pinners into purchasers. Rich Pins also make brands more visible with brand logos appearing on the pin. Further to this on 1st August Pinterest announced that it will now send pinners notifications when a product they have pinned drops in price.

As Pinterest is picture-based the quality of your images is key; use only high quality photos and bold and creative images. Also if you want to use Pinterest for commercial purposes you must create a business account and agree to the business terms and conditions http://business.pinterest.com/tos/

As Pinterest further develops its platform to embrace business accounts more fully, so it will be possible to create content rich entries for products and services representing a wide range of businesses. For further information on Pinterest and how to use it for your business get in touch with us via info@theplumconsultancy.com

Sources:
http://business.pinterest.com/rich-pins/
www.thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2013/07/10/semiocast-pinterest-now-has-70...
www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/21/net-us-funding-pinterest-idUSBRE91K01...