Should Your Small Business Take an Interest in Pinterest?

By Shashi Bellamkonda - Meet the Expert

Pinterest is a website where people share "pins," that is, images, photos or items of interest—either their own or from websites they visit. The graphic here is from the ComScore Blog that I "pinned" on Pinterest.  

Currently, Pinterest is invite-only, but current users can invite others, so it’s fairly simple to participate. I like the invite aspect of Pinterest, which matches the philosophy Gail Goodman of Constant Contact shared on a radio show we were both on: " Your next customer will come from your current customer."

Should you join Pinterest and test the waters to see if it can be a useful marketing tool for you? Another way to think about participating is, "If you got it, flaunt it" – in other words, if you have good visuals to share, why not show them to the world?

- Yes! If you own a highly visual business, such as arts and crafts, photography or design, you could use Pinterest as a public showcase of your work. Restaurants can put their food pictures up and organize the menu into "Boards." (For example, see what a search for Co Co Sala, a DC restaurant, brings up.

- Maybe! For most other businesses, Pinterest is a “maybe.” It can be an advantage if you use it to tell your clients a story or share ideas. For instance, my friend Kim Oser, the professional organizer who first introduced me to Pinterest, has a board called Clever uses for everyday things.

 

Source: blog.comscore.com via Shashi on Pinterest

Pinterest is growing very fast, as you can see from the graphic. Andrew Lipsman, Vice President, Industry Analysis at comScore, had this to say about Pinterest:

The site, which first came onto the comScore radar in May 2011 with 418,000 unique visitors, has surged over the past six months to nearly 4.9 million visitors. Also significant is that, like Tumblr, Pinterest is exceptionally sticky and keeps its users engaged for long periods of time. In November, the average visitor spent nearly an hour and a half on the site over the course of the month and more than 15 minutes per visit, ranking it third on consumer engagement.

In a previous post Does Your Biz Maintain Social Business Hours? I wrote about the small business struggle with time spent on social networks. The speed at which the social media landscape is changing means your social media strategy must be constantly evolving. Most important is to have an objective for participating in Pinterest. See if any of these goals fit your business objective:

- Increase your exposure to the people who are active on Pinterest
- Use it as another search result or link back to your business
- Use it as a creative drawing board for your business

It is not just enough to just create a Pinterest board. You should promote it. Here’s how:

- Share your "pins” on Twitter and Facebook.
- Add a widget to your blog or website. There is even a Pinterest  WordPress plug-in to display your pins.
- Add a link to your Pinterest board to your email signature
- Display a flyer or sign in your business asking people to check out your Pinterest board online.

Check out these two posts that also talk about Pinterest:

- How to Use Pinterest for Marketing by Monika Jansen
- HOW TO: Get Your Nonprofit Started on Pinterest by Maddie Grant

Are you using Pinterest? Do your customers talk about Pinterest? Did I miss something here? Please comment and let me know. (Of course, don't forget to follow me on Pinterest!)