Tamara Bechai – 1606467 – JIC-B01 – @ICM_Tamara
Ever heard of Pinterest? It lets you do many things, such as: redecorate your home, plan a wedding, find your style, save inspirations or recipes and many more! They say that it is the hottest new social network; people are spending more time on Pinterest than on Facebook. It is not very surprising that brands and companies started thinking about how to embrace it.
Pinterest is a social network that lets you organize and share all of the beautiful things you find on the web. You can make your own pinboard; give it a name and start pinning! Nice thing is that you can browse pinboards created by others, which makes it possible for you to get new inspiration or discover things. Now the big question: why should brands and companies use Pinterest? This video explains it all:
Pinterest enables your brand/company to display high-quality images that are visually very attractive and what sells better than that? You can present your own Pinboard and add photos with your brand’s style, colors, values, products and more to give your followers an idea of who you are and what you stand for. There is just one BUT, do not get fooled, because it is not as easy as just pinning your photos on your Pinboard. You have to decide whether Pinterest is the right social medium for your business.
Some useful things to think about when using Pinterest for your brand/company:
1. The right planning means success
Make sure that you take the time to set up your profile properly. Also make sure that your blog or website are set up for Pinterest by using the “Pin it” buttons. You can also integrate with other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. This way you can also generate more traffic.
2. Strategic pinning
Be creative with your Pinboard names and pins. Start following other users or Pinboards. It is also smart to follow popular users because once they start following you or pin your photos their followers will see your stuff too. You can type a price tag onto your photo of a product and it will add a price banner onto your pin. It is also not necessary to pin all day, just a few times a day is enough since your pins will (probably) remain for a couple of weeks. It is also helpful to find out what the best time is for you to pin.
3. Be social
It is not a social medium for nothing; you have to be social with others. Like and comment on pins from other users, use hashtags and very important; thank people for repinning your pin.
4. Contest
By using Pinterest for your contests you can create more engagement with consumers.
5. Measure
Measure your engagement and sentiment rate to find out how high or low your engagement is and what you have to improve.
Example of a brand using Pinterest successfully
Victoria’s Sectret
Victoria’s Secret already had a successful contest on Pinterest called the “PINK Summer” Pinterest contest. Because of this success they recently started another contest from the 6th of July to the 20th of August, which is called “My Victoria’s Secret Summer”. The contestants had to go to the Victoria’s Secret Facebook page (integrated media!) for the details. As a participant you had to pin at least three images from the Victoria’s Secret fan page or website to your created Pinboard for this contest.
The six best Pinboards were selected and the one with the most votes won the grand prize. The grand prizewinner received a $1,000 Victoria’s Secret gift card and the five other prizewinners received a $200 gift card (what girl wouldn’t want this!). To prevent any disputes Victoria’s Secret did create a terms and conditions for the contest.
What is so great about this contest is that Victoria’s Secret is not only promoting their products but also increasing its traffic and engagement on their Facebook page, Website and Pinterest account!
This shows why brands/companies should use Pinterest.
Blog roll
I found two blog posts about the same topic. I liked the blog from Amy Porterfield the most and also commented on her post. See photo below.
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/07/20/10-tips-for-marketing-your-business-on-pinterest-infographic/
http://www.amyporterfield.com/2012/06/the-10-commandments-of-using-pinterest-for-business/
Links to my comments on the course blog:
http://www.icm-courses.org/socialmediaformarketing/2012/10/memevertising/comment-page-1/#comment-435
http://www.icm-courses.org/socialmediaformarketing/2012/10/vlogging-101/comment-page-1/#comment-441
Bibliography
Pinterest
http://pinterest.com/about/
http://pinterest.com/source/vsfans.victoriassecret.com/
Social Bakers
http://www.socialbakers.com/how-to/420-will-pinterest-become-the-next-social-media-giant
INC
http://m.inc.com/?incid=39780
Amy Porterfield
http://www.amyporterfield.com/2012/06/the-10-commandments-of-using-pinterest-for-business/
Social Media Examiner
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/pinterest-contest/
Jeff Bullas
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/07/20/10-tips-for-marketing-your-business-on-pinterest-infographic/
Group members:
Tamara Bechai
Jolie Emmen
Iris Hofman
Laura de Kievit
9 Responses to Pin up your business!
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Haha I also just recently have been using Pinterest! Funny, and quite handy that almost any website has the Pin It! button, since I’m lazy and I just have to click on one button!
Yes, it is very handy indeed but i honestly have never really seen a Pin it button on a website maybe because i didn’t pay any attention to it or it isn’t being used as much as the share buttons for Facebook and such. On the other hand i do think that we will see much more from it now that it’s becoming more popular!
Looks nice! It’s awesome that you can use Pinterest for your business. But I didn’t know the contest of Victoria Secret, that’s pretty smart. When you’re integrating different media you are able to attract even more people to your company. Thanks for sharing:)!
Thank you for reading my blog! I haven’t heard from those contests before either, until i did some research! There are actually a lot more fun contests, from airlines to car brands! If you’re interested in more examples you can take a look at this website, they have several examples!
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/pinterest-contest/
Very interesting post from a marketing point-of-view ! I am also new to pinterest but I absolutely love it already. I’ve noticed though that there isn’t yet a lot of very visible advertising or promotion going on, which is nice since it makes it more personal and less chaotic. Pinterest is so easy to use because they keep the layout and useability simple
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Have fun re-pinning !
Thank you! Yes, i agree with you and i hope that it will stay this way because otherwise it might turns out into a whole another social network, which is more about advertising, promotion, marketing and so on and less about expressing who you are for instance.
[...] Just pin it! – by Lysanne Krouwel Pin up your business! – by Tamara Bechai My comments Pin up your [...]
I like your post!
funny, we wrote about the same but we both had a different point of view 
Interesting to see how you think about Pinterest as a marketing tool!
Thanks! I read your post after reading your comment, i didn’t know that our article was about the same subject; what a coincidence! I like your post too and think that more brands/companies should consider using Pinterest as a marketing tool