3 Crucial Keys To Considering Pinterest For Business

Pinterest is the latest social media craze. With high traffic and loud buzz, the social media platform has risen to position 3 in the rankings, just behind Facebook and Twitter. It is no wonder, therefore, that marketers are scrambling to put their creative talents to the test creating ways to use Pinterest for Business.

Pinterest is a great source of traffic, especially for people selling things women, largely, look on the internet to buy. If you are not on the number 3 social network, chances are your competition is and you are losing ground if you don't jump in. Whether you get a high authority backlink from the site is yet to be determined. However, the traffic for those making money selling crafts and design services have already been able to prove demonstrates the value of Pinterest for any skeptic.There's a mind shift you have to adopt when considering taking your business onto Pinterest.

1. Visual Pinterest is all pictures. There are ways to pin articles but they don't attract attention. The more dramatic, funny, curious, lushly colored pictures the better. You will see an explosion of info-graphics on the network - which is simply a way to tell a statistical and factual story in a visual, pinnable way. Because pinners, the community that uses Pinterst, are scanning for things that catch their eye. So, you have two choices: go ugly and loud or beautiful and arresting. Both are effective.

2. "Like-able" vs. "Comment-able" Usually on a social network, we encourage folks to jump into a conversation already in progress. Then listen, and comment where helpful. On Pinterest, discussion is less likely. People are grazing, and fast. If someone likes a pin it rises on the front screen just as effectively as if it were commented on... or so it seems so far. We do not have real analytical data open and obvious to the public, yet.

3. 80-20 Still In Play You can promote your own sales items on Pinterest, but only 20% of the time if you want to keep a band of loyal followers. Any more is considered spam. (As is the use of the price tag/snipe.) And, your "sale" has to be presented in the context of "sharing an opportunity", a "did you know that I offer" and "you may find this helpful." The rest of the 80% is you demonstrating your expertise by curating great content from other people. This is why a 3rd party endorsement from a colleague achieves a sale, with an inbuilt recommendation, and is an effective way to promote your own material, and theirs, when you reciprocate.

Pinterest is a social community, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of business going on there. It's like those big conferences where JV deals are going in on the sofas outside the main ballroom. It's like a cocktail where girls are sharing where they bought the necklace, or where the dads are saying is the best place to buy...you can imagine!