The newest mainstream social network, Pinterest, has been around for a bit of time now. In social media years, it is a teenager. Though the social network has been gaining a lot of traction among females in their late teens through their young thirties, it has more recently started to see a diversification in the demographics of its membership. With the user base of Pinterest growing, people are trying to figure out how to use Pinterest for business and marketing.
Panera Uses Pinterest in Marketing Strategy
If you subscribe to Panera’s email list, you probably received an email featuring their recent use of Pinterest for marketing. Panera’s campaign, that ended Friday focused on getting people to create a board on Pinterest called “Make Today Better.” Contest participants were encouraged to pin at least 10 items to the board including the image you see to the left.
Unfortunately for participants, this contest was complicated. Panera then required all board-enteries to be posted to their Facebook Page. From there, winners were chosen to receive $50 Panera gift cards.
Watching this campaign from day one to its completion was interesting. It seemed that a lot of users didn’t name their boards the correct name or forgot to put their board on Facebook or just missed the concept altogether. The conclusion? Using Pinterest for marketing can be quite complex.
3 Tips for Using Pinterest for Marketing
So what can you do to use Pinterest for marketing? Here are a couple ideas:
- Create Something Repinable: Create content, whether it is an infographic or a stunning photo, with a tagline, watermark or slogan to promote your company that is repinable. You can basically have individuals Pin your ad for free.
- Create Product Boards: Market your business by creating products on your brand’s Pinterest profile. These boards could include artsy, well photographed shots of your products in action. Be sure to watermark or somehow indicate your business on the images so if it is repinned, individuals know where the art came from.
- Engage: Like any social media marketing strategy, it is important to engage your audience. As I often say, “Social media is about interaction, not reaction!” You want people to interact and engage with your brand, not just Like your Page or Follow your Tweets. You want people to engage by liking, commenting or repinning your pins!
Since Pinterest is fairly new, I would love to hear of some campaigns or strategies you have used or have seen that have worked well!