As Pinterest becomes one of social media’s top dog, it is important for your business to learn how to capitalize on Pinterest’s ability to increase Web traffic to your sites and translate these visits into dollars.
Right now, Pinterest is the number one referral source to Websites for all of the social media platforms. Not only is it number one, but if you took the referral rates of Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ and added them up, Pinterest’s rate would STILL be higher. Pinterest has linked itself to other social media giants like Twitter and Facebook thus marketing themselves to a greater audience. There are presently 9 million Facebook users linked to Pinterest whose pins and boards can be seen by their friends on their wall.
Okay let’s get down to the meat and bones of this blog. Below you’ll find the top 5 ways to grow your business using Pinterest as noted by entrepreneuress Melanie Duncan in a recent Webinar.
1. Embed Links to your Website or blog in the caption section of your pin. This will allow your potential client to obtain more information, or see the product that they were interested in when they clicked. Adding the link within your caption is almost like a call to action. I can’t tell you how many times I have found an item on Pinterest that I loved, only to realize that I had no way of finding where to purchase it because of the lack of a connecting link. The easier you make it for your audience to find and purchase a product or service, the better your chance of converting that user into a paying customer.
2. Add the “Pin-it” button to your website or blog. With one click, a user can add an image or video from your Website or blog onto their own personal board. Remember that over 80% of pins are repinned, making Pinterest an easy way for any of your products or services to go viral.
3. As you know, Youtube is one of the leading Websites for content to go viral. Not only can you pin images to Pinterest, but you can also pin videos. One of the most popular video genres that are uploaded to Pinterest is “do-it-yourself” tutorials that many pinners often post to their “DIY” or “craft” boards, which are one of the most popular Pinterest boards.
4.Use strategic wording in your photo captions. A lot of people use hash tags as a way to classify their pin and make it searchable within the Pinterest platform, and on search sites like Google and Yahoo. It is also a great idea to include keywords and SEO backlinks to increase the traffic to your Website/blog. Remember that when people are searching specific topics in the Pinterest “search” bar, the only way that Pinterest will be able to find their requested search term is through captions, as they obviously can’t read an image. Be specific as to what your image is within the caption. If you have a bouquet of peonies, use “peony,” “peonies,” “flower” and/or “bouquet.”
This user captioned this shirt as simply, "." Nobody is going to type that in to search for this shirt. Try, "Gold Sequined Top."
5. Make sure to strategically arrange your photos/images to be visually pleasing. Pinterest is all about visual aesthetics so if you have the money, hire a photographer or a designer to make your image pop. Tall/long images have also proven to receive more “likes” and “repins” so when possible, stack related images onto one another to create a bigger buzz for your pin. Infographics and step-by-step do it yourself instructions are very popular. As Melanie said in her Webinar, “take your information, and make it visual.”
This DIY pin received more than 700 "likes" and 4,000+ repins!
Happy pinning everyone : )
