With the quickly increasing popularity of Pinterest, it is hard not to take advantage of this from a business perspective. The problem is finding the right perspective. Pinterest is now considered to be one of the top five referring traffic sources for apparel retailers. So now the question left is, what are they doing that I’m not?
Reserve Your Space
It’s the same as any other social media platform, you have to secure a Pinterest user name that people will identify you with. It’s okay to secure your name without having a full blown strategy ready. It will only take a few moments to register, and you can use material on your Facebook or Twitter page on Pinterest to help get started. It’s better to do it sooner rather than later that way no one else will take your name.
Leverage Your Brand Values
Take into account how your page will look with colors, style and brand values. Since Pinterest is based on how things look visually, you should too. If you have hired someone to take professional pictures of your products this is a good place to leverage that investment. Try not to limit yourself to straight product shots, but also use your entire catalog of photography.
Themes, Not Product Promotion
Pinterest organizes pins based on categories of interests such as: weddings, quotes, home decor, gifts, food and etc. Use this to your advantage when creating your pins and boards. Utilize mood boards that are relevant to your brand that can convey a consistent image. Keep in mind how pins will load onto the board, so be sure to scatter your products and include external content that compliments your product themes.
Use Hashtags
Pinterest makes it easy to share content on Twitter and Facebook, so take advantage of it! If you use hashtags it will increase the changes of you company being found in a search. Since the sharing tools are built into Pinterest, the hashtags used in the description will automatically be picked up when you go to Tweet your photo.
Add the “Pin-it” Button
Use this button on your e-commerce sites next to your Facebook Like button. It is just another step that you can take to make it easier for your customers to add images of your products to their boards.
Engage with the Community
Just like on your other social platforms, you should listen and engage with your customers. Like and repin their pins if they are relevant to your company. Try letting other people post pins on your board, while still monitoring the activity. By doing this, it will make your theme boards grow faster and your customers will feel more involved.
A Word of Caution
Double and triple check that when you are pinning your brand’s photos that you are not infringing on anyone else’s copyright. When you add images from across the web, you don’t own that content. If you do want to do this, make sure you give credit to whose picture it is.