Pinterest

Pinterest is a photo-sharing website that launched in March 2010. By December 2011 it had become one of the top 10 largest social networking sites. Users can view images from a variety of categories and “pin” them to different boards on their own page. When browsing the web, you can pin anything you want to one of your Pinterest boards. In this sense, pins are like bookmarks in that you will always be able to link back to the original site. One can create up to 350 boards on his or her page and like/pin up to 100,000 times each. 

There are myriad ways to organize your own boards on Pinterest. They can be a place to put gift ideas, plan projects, save recipes, quotes or books or just for fun. I created my own account in order to learn more about Pinterest for this post. The possibilities are endless! I wish I would have done this when planning my wedding last year. This site is much more convenient than the traditional wedding planning sites. It would have been so much easier and simpler to have a board for each different part of the wedding (caterers, flowers, dj’s etc.) Users can also browse around the website for other interesting boards to follow. Once you select boards that are interesting to you, they show up in your news feed. You can connect with friends through Facebook to see their boards and things they have pinned. 

One easy way to save things to your Pinterest account is to install a Pin It button in your browser. It will appear at the top of your browser and you simply click it when on the page you would like to save. If you have your own website, you can put a Pin It button on your homepage. This will make it easier for those interested in your site or business to follow you. It is a great way to connect with potential customers and share your business with possibly millions of people (Pinterest has approximately 70 million users, about 80% of which are women.) Basically anything from the web can be pinned up on Pinterest and users can get very creative in putting boards together. With so many of their likes and interests organized in one place, businesses have access to a very full idea of a potential consumer’s profile. In this way, Pinterest can be a very important tool for narrowing down a target audience. There is an incredible amount of data available that can be very useful for marketers. According to Forbes, Pinterest is an important avenue for small businesses to engage with their online audience. One suggestion is to create a guest pinner board. Customers and fellow Pinterest users will feel more personally involved and the business will have automatic access to feedback about services or products. This type of customer interaction is very important according to Dave Kerpen in his book Likeable Social Media. The hyper-visual environment of Pinterest has put a new spin on the use of social media marketing, and businesses can benefit from exploring ways to use this site.