Wednesday, July 25, 2012

To Pinterest, or Not

Digital Market Asia's 24 July 2012 dissection of Pinterest as a brand tool offers a nice place to start:  http://www.digitalmarket.asia/2012/07/make-most-of-pinterest-for-branding/?goback=%2Egde_66317_member_137800929.

1. Make sure you have pictures of your product. An easily demonstrated product can often be a better fit for Pinterest than services.
2. Make sure those pictures are within the context that might be useful to a reader and potential buyer like clothes on a person engaged in something fun, or part of a recipe with other ideas for how to use it.
3. Women 25-45 seem to like it most. Is your business attempting to reach that audience? If not, it's possible Pinterest isn't quite for you.
4. Let people know, especially your customers, that you're on Pinterest. Post the link on your blob posts, site page, maybe add to your collateral as appropriate.
5. Look for ways to tap into how your customers feel about your product: run a contest for them to submit the best use of your product and show off THEIR creativity. It could give you ideas for new versions of the product or a marketing angle, in addition to showing off your brand in a great light.

And it's always important to know before you start with Pinterest, like any other channel, what you expect to get out of the effort so you're using it efficiently. Is it reasonable to track a specific sale back to a Pin? Probably not so know what you can get from the time and energy and be sure you're willing to bear that cost. It may be really worth it.