What is Pinterest?
If a picture is worth a thousand words then Pinterest is on to the millions.
Pinterest is the latest craze in social networking it is highly addictive pinning all the interesting things you come across on the web and adding it to your pin board.
Pinterest has grown very fast with a steady stream of users and studies show it drives more visitors to third-party sites than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined.
In fact it has sky rocketed to the top 10 most visited social networks.
Pinterest has a devoted base of users who are fast becoming pinning addicts.
Pin it
You can pin anything you find interesting from across the web, The main demographic of users are female and a reason for its huge growth there are no barriers to entry it is however invitation only. This highly visual site lets you curate content you love and share it with all your friends
The fastest way to get an invite is to ask a friend to invite you or go on the waiting list. I know which option I would rather take.
Find your Niche
You can curate and create pin boards where you customise your boards with whatever interests you.
Pinterest also has the added benefit of grouping or categorizing pins by a wide topic area such as women’s apparel, Art, DIY & Crafts, Food and Drink to pets and people.
The interface is what makes it amazing, it is highly visual, effortless, topic centric and people centric with a many-to-one sharing aspect.
Fellow pinners can also re-pin posts, comment and like your pins. Pinterest is very useful for designers and can positively influence your style and design inspirations.
You can use Pinterest for fashion marketing, Pinterest users are highly engaged and as it’s so addictive it is a marketers dream and the open interface makes it easy to search for anything.
It is very habit-forming you find yourself immersed checking out all the best pins for shoes or handbags.
Pinterest is good for your brand
If you are a fashion blogger you can pin all your own stuff to your boards and share and re-pin with all your followers generating a steady stream of traffic to your site.
I I must say that I absolutely love the Dior brand; it is very easy for brands to set up their own pin board and for users to follow you.
Interesting pins get re-pinned hundreds to thousands of times, you would do a blog post with a collage or work with a blogger or just a tutorial that includes your logo and let the fans do the rest of the work as your logo and product gets pinned all over Pinterest.
Content is king
If you really want to boost traffic to your site make sure you have beautiful visual pictures, quotes, art and other interesting stuff.
Add a pin it button to your posts to make it easier for readers to pin your stuff.
And once you are on Pinterest add a social media icon to your site so people can easily find you there and last but not least pin your own stuff and re-pin other others interesting stuff too!
Contests
Brands and companies can create a viral buzz by creating contests and competitions on Pinterest, from best “Pin board” to earning the most re-pins.
For example brands can ask users to shoot a picture and create a contest of the best dressed or pick a theme such as Valentine’s Day and come up with the most creative Valentines’ presents. This offers a way for brands to visually engage and interact with followers.
Press for Product Launches
If you have launched a new line or next seasons must have collection, Pin it on Pinterest to find out first reactions to your flair for fashion and your products look and feel. Based on the all the sharing and comments on your pins you can get a good idea of how successful your fashion product will be, branding managers can gather inside intelligence on the range and decide whether to produce and market their creations.
This is a key tool in determining future trends and getting a better insight into the minds of consumers.
Market your Brand
Even if you do not have product lines you can always just communicate your brands personality and create a brand awareness campaign.
For example if you are a retailer and you have stores in various locations why not take a photo of your store and place the name of the city and create a board. If you have been to many fashion events take some photos that showcase the events that have been covered and add those to your pin board. Convey your message to your followers out there; communicate your philosophy, mission and future plans.
You can also integrate your customers/followers and get them involved in the curating and creative process by taking snaps of customers wearing your brands outfits and comment on what other items they have paired it with, customers can also pin their favourite ensembles it gets your brand recognised, keeps your customers involved in the creative process and creates engaging content.
Pin Boards by Topics
If you are a big company with various branches you also can branch out on Pinterest by creating various topics of interest boards, you can host several themed boards
You can have a cross over with the design team who can post photos of their designs and products and the marketing team can pin marketing slogans or storyboards and both these boards can feature the behind the scenes of various people working in both these areas. This could enable a new way of businesses to view others work and they cross over and interact with one another.
And Finally…
Pinterest holds enormous growth, power and potential in unlocking your interaction and engagement with your audience, get them to see an insight of how you operate what you stand for, your vision and values and all your awesome products and ultimately create a sizzling hype around your brand and the people involved with it and create beautiful visual masterpieces while you do so.
Now what are you waiting for go and Get pinning!
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