Social Media Marketing with “Pinterest” – In and Out

Based on the first look

Let's start with an interesting fact - Pinterest drives more traffic to third party sites than Google +, Linkedin and Youtube Combined

Looks like another bad news for Google Plus . Pinterest is termed as the “hottest website” of 2012. According to CNN, pinterest’s unique visitor count has increased by 400% from September through December 2011. According to this news source, this unique photo sharing concept which was barely spoken on any news sites before 6 months is now the hottest topic in many of the Silicon Valley tech news sources.

The most interesting fact about pinterest is that this social networking site is found to drive very high traffic to thirdparty websites than the traffic achieved combined from Google +, Linkedin and twitter (* fact based on a study conducted last week and reported by all major news sources including CNN and FoX31).
 
So there is a huge potential to generate visitors to your website using pinterest. However, what I personally feel is that, pinterest is not meant for social media marketing for all. Best for social media marketing of :

• Local businesses
• Art and photography related businesses
• Template and theme providers
• Wallpaper websites
• Product websites (if the images are used with a few appealing additions if the product is common)
• Online Service websites (If you have great infographics otherwise stay out of it)
  

Basically, pinterest has a huge social media marketing potential if you already have success in using any photo sharing sites such as flickr or photobucket. Here is a valid reason for this statement



The image above is actual Google Trends and you can clearly see where pinterest is headed to, when compared to flickr and photobucket. Another interesting fact is that pinterest is fully loaded with actual users than internet marketers right now. So there is huge potential for the social media marketers who make an early entry.

How to use pinterest for social media marketing?
Pinterest is basically a photo/ image sharing social network presented in cool and innovative concept. Like the wall of facebook, pinterest provides you with “boards” where you can “pin” images (Boards and Pins are the common terms used within pinterest). You can create separate boards to classify your images. I had started mine with 2 boards “Products I Love” and “My Style” (Have to fill them with many images this weekend). The greatest and engaging concept with pinterest is that you can re-pin, share, embed and ofcource comment on the images (pins) and all of them is presented in a unique style. Obviously, there are a few things that you need to consider to gain visibility to your images in pinterest. Optimization for visibility in pinterest is not similar to SEO but it is purely based on visual elements.

My First Pin and My Observations
I added my first pin today about a “Bluetooth headset” that I bought. It was not a marketing post but a personal experience. However, the pin which I did is a bad example. Here is why (the screenshot below can be used as a reference, which is my first pin about Sony Ericsson bluetooth headset MW600):



Long description - As you can see, the description is too big when compared to the other images. Which makes my image (pin) loose visibility to the other pins (Loss of visibility was even more with the full page of other pins).  From my opinion gathering about the visibility of the pin, for some, my pin may be a good example because it certainly looks unique among all the other images around. However, majority had said, it doesn’t like an individual pin, but just looks like comments to the other pin.
- My observation: Make the description as short as possible so that the image does the talking. In fact pinterest allows links in the description which you have to use wisely to avoid making your pin look promotional. Description is the conversional part for local businesses. Just drop your contact number instead of providing the full address.

Choice of the Image – As I had mentioned earlier, my pin was pure personal experience and there are 2 things wrong with the image that makes it a bad example. First of all looking at the image, the pin tends to be promotional. The main reason is that, there is a price tag in the image (thankfully it is in a heart shape which would go with the valentine theme). But if the image had a plain price tag, it would be viewed as a pure promotional image in the first shot. Trust me that people hate promotional stuff in social networks and many consider it as spamming. So, your images should not get the first impression as a promotional post. Secondly, the image is too small to get noticed among the other pins
- My observations: Never include price information in the images (unless it is a discount). Best product images are real camera shots without any design or effects added to it. http://pinterest.com/pin/25543922856338456/ this image really caught my attention even though it was nothing but balloons because it is a plain camera shot without any tweaks.

No Titles? Are you missing Something?: Pinterest has no option to add titles to the images. That actually makes perfect sense. It is said that “One picture is worth thousand words” and why do we need a title? However, sometimes we do need a title when the images cannot do all the talking. Let’s take the pin about the bluetooh headset I added as an example. The message I wanted to convey using the image was that, the headset would be a “perfect Valentine’s day gift/ purchase”. However, no one would understand that unless they read the description. This is when a title could have been handy.
- My observation: If the image you are uploading does not convey the right message, add the key message (title) within the image itself. You don’t have to be a master of photoshop to do that. Think of the impact that my pin about the headset would have made if I added these lines within the image itself “Best Valentine’s day gift”. Everyone would notice it with the Valentine’s Day just around the corner.

Facebook and twitter to attract followers to your pins: Most of my colleagues and pals are not using pinterest . Somehow the pin I posted spread on to my facebook and twitter profile too. From there, I got a good reach for the message I was trying to convey and infact I attracted many to use pinterest as well. Guess what, as I suggested them this networks, there are already my followers at pinterest.
- My observation: Pinterest by default sends your pins to facebook and twitter. I would suggest checking and making sure this is done. Because, as of now, Facebook is still at un reachable heights and pinterest has still got work to do to overtake twitter in terms of trends. Obviously you need the support of facebook and twitter to get more exposure to your boards and pins.

Here is an image which clearly shows how well pinterest has managed to gain interest among the other major social networks.



Pinterest is becoming the real INTEREST of the folks out there. And this certainly is the best concept of 2012 that the social media marketers can make use of.

This unique social site is filled with real users right now with no room for spamming to succeed. If your business cannot be promoted by using pictures, images or info graphics, never try to stuff or force feed pinterest with images that you create for the plain purpose of getting into pinterest. Remember that social media marketing through pinterest is not for all businesses. If you find your business odd to get promoted with pinterest, simply stay out of it or you would be just wasting your time.

Alright, let me fill my board with some cool personal pics and get some celeb like attention ;)