The age of the Internet has brought with it several new promotional and advertising tools that a business can use to market itself. The lack of newspaper readership and the invention of digital video recording (DVR) have made traditional advertising methods nearly obsolete. This makes internet advertising all the more important, but simply creating a website or social media site isn’t enough to drum up business or increase sales. Pinterest is a great new social media website, and business owners who know how to use it for its promotional capabilities have a step up on their direct competition. Engaging in a few simple activities on Pinterest can bring in droves of new customers to any type of business.
1. Interact with Customers and Fans
More and more companies are realizing that interacting with their fans is the best way to ensure that their customers stay loyal. It is important for a business owner to follow fans who have followed them and then stay current with their updates. Commenting on and using the repin feature on Pinterest will ensure that fans know that they are important. This will make them more liable to repin posts from the company’s page and thus spread the word to their own friends.
2. Post Pictures of and Link Products
Any business should post pictures of the products and services that they offer, but this oftentimes isn’t enough to draw in business. It is important to link these pictures to the company’s website or the product page for the item being advertised. This will guarantee that interested fans have an easy and reliable way to purchase goods once they become interested in them.
3. Don’t be Strictly Promotional
A company who uses their Pinterest for nothing other than blatant advertising can sometimes annoy their fans and potential customers. It is important to vary the content that is posted on the page, and this holds true for every social media website. Posting news articles and tidbits of information will show fans that a page is more interested in keeping them informed than making the sale. These posts should be from reliable sources; this will in turn set the business up as a trusted ‘industry leader’. Once a company is viewed as a trusted source, it can bet that new customers will flock in and current fans will stay loyal.
4. Don’t Abandon Pinterest
Pinterest is relatively new in the world of social media websites. This means that there are fewer people on the site who probably check their page less often than on other sites like Facebook and Twitter. It is imperative that a business owner remember this and act accordingly. Whoever handles social media marketing at a company should provide links to the business’s Pinterest page and also link pictures from Pinterest to their updates on the other sites. This will ensure that the larger fan base that exists on major social media sites will easily be able to find the company’s Pinterest page.
5. Follow the Big Guns
A company’s Pinterest page should also follow the big hitters in the social media world. This can include sports figures, actresses, singers and any other person who is interesting to a significant number of people. It is best to follow those who are somehow related to the company’s specific industry, but a business owner should definitely not limit themselves to just those figures. Many of these famous people will follow those who follow them, which means that they will see posts from the company from time to time. If only one of these famous figures likes something that they see and repins it to their page, the influx of new traffic to a site will be staggering.
Properly using the social media world is imperative to ensuring a company’s success in this day and age. It is important to get in on the ground floor of these sites, and being that Pinterest is relatively new, a business owner should be able to learn how to beneficially use the site as its number of daily users multiplies everyday. Using Pinterest to its full ability will benefit a company in ways that they probably can’t even imagine.
