Pinterest is the social network for picture collections, it went online in March 2010. As a WWW user, you can attach pictures with descriptions to virtual pin boards. Other users can share (repin), like and comment on these images. “Pinterest” means “pin something interesting”. The number of users in autumn 2019 was 400 million worldwide. This social network has grown rapidly.
What should you post on Pinterest?
For businesses, Pinterest is a digital bulletin board to share ideas. It can be a matter of mere concepts, wishes for cooperation, inspiration or instructions. The account also makes it possible to save all the links that you like while surfing. The platform then fetches the appropriate photos from the web. You can build a treasure trove for yourself this way, which of course has an impact on your traffic.
The prerequisite for this is that you operate a website, shop or blog and actively use Pinterest. Several thousand clicks a month are not uncommon on the virtual pin board. For some companies whose products are best represented by images, the platform is now the largest traffic provider. The idea behind Pinterest is absolutely great, so it didn’t become so successful for nothing. With the stylish implementation there are extremely many possibilities.
How Pinterest works
The social picture network consists of certain building blocks. A pin consists of a link that you can attach to your own or someone else’s pin board using a photo. The link can be saved and sorted thematically with the pin.
With Repins you can share pictures of other users, and conversely, users can do this with your pins, which generates traffic. Pinterest boards are responsible for the order in the account, there are also secret and shared boards. If you share a board with someone, you also get their followers.
You can get more followers on Pinterest with a good strategy. The pictures can be liked, and the following function known from Facebook and Twitter is also available on the virtual pin board.
With the Pinterest button – an add-on for your own browser – you can handle the network more easily. First you create a profile on the platform, then you design boards according to interesting topics that will definitely affect your company and your products. Now you can pin, repin and hope for lots of followers and traffic.
The benefits of Pinterest for SMEs
Pinterest is practically irreplaceable for branding with images. Small shops as well as large companies use this to tap into a visually oriented target group. Many of the users want to buy what can be seen on the virtual pin boards. The platform also offers first-class marketing tools, because e-mail campaigns can be easily integrated. The traffic through images also takes on great dimensions, after all, Pinterest is now the third largest social network and the fourth largest traffic provider.
The platform offers countless possibilities for branding. In order to take advantage of this, SMEs have to keep their campaigns interesting. It is also important to promote the searchability (findability) of one’s own account within the network and externally. For external presentation, the link with your own website and all other own profiles in other social networks is important.
Of course, not only branding is possible on Pinterest – there has been a shopping cart here for a long time, and the visual network has switched completely to e-commerce since around 2015. This is not surprising: the willingness to buy on the visually strong platform is high. First there were advertising pins, then buyable pins that users can use to buy products directly on the Pinterest platform. There are other features for e-commerce as well. Several 10,000 sellers are now using the platform for direct sales.
Pinterest SEO
There are various SEO effects on Pinterest itself and for the Google search engine. For this you should design your own profile well and make it “visible” for search engines (in the account). The account description must be meaningful, and of course you can also include important keywords here. Enter your company website as a link and connect the Pinterest account to Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Create boards with the names of your product categories and use the opportunity to describe the boards. The own following of people who are obviously interested in your products can also be valuable for Pinterest SEO. At least you get that person’s reverse interest. Every click and link counts for SEO! So, with your product images, keep in mind that Pinterest is completely visual. Use larger images with a calm background. High quality images ensure many re-pins, which are a basis for good ranking.
