With its emphasis on visuals, Pinterest is quickly becoming one of the best ways to showcase products and services in social media – introducing your business to a wider, stronger female-driven audience. Generating four times as much revenue as Facebook, Pinterest should be an important component of your social media marketing strategy. Here are seven features the platform has provided to help you boost your business:
1. Business Profiles.
You can now create a business profile, or convert an existing personal profile to a business account. You’ll want to create this account, complete the profile sections – including your logo and confirming your website URL, then add a Pin-it button to your website to get going. Pinterest offers a getting started with Pinterest for Business reference and a help section with information on how to create a business profile account.
2. Promoted Pins
Promoted pins allow you to reach people who aren’t already fans of your boards. This helps your brand get exposure and followers, and possibly generate new leads. If you have many pins to select from, consider the ones that are already doing well. If your current followers like them, they will likely appeal to other users in your demographic. Pinterest lets you choose your promoted pins for a specific audience based upon location, demographics, gender, and the type of pins they’ve shown interest in or are searching for. Currently promoted pins are only available to certain businesses, but you can apply to be on a waiting list. You can learn more about how to use promoted pins at Pinterest.
3. Related Pins
These are automatically chosen for users based upon the items they like – such as other pins they favor or save – and are sent directly to their home feed. Pins will appear in this feed, both from people they follow and from those they don’t. Things users look at elsewhere also influence their feed. If they visit a site that has the Pin It button or a Pinterest widget, their experience can be further customized based upon their behavior. Related pins work to help promote your pins to an audience that is already self-selected as interested in your type of content.
4. Buyable Pins
These pins allow people to find and purchase your products on Pinterest. This feature is currently limited to Shopify merchants – pins with blue prices are buyable – and the blue price filter can be used to find the right pin. When buyers are ready to purchase, they can checkout with Apple Pay or a credit card, right in the app. The website doesn’t take a percentage of your sales, and you still get to handle shipping and customer service as you’re accustomed to doing. Visit Pinterest to learn more about buyable pins and apply to be a seller.
5. Guided Search
Made for exploring, descriptive guides make it possible to filter through good ideas from other users. Users can view the guides, open any that look interesting, and steer their search in the right direction. Entering a search term results in keyword suggestions to further narrow down the search. Users type in their term, and guides pop up below the search bar, suggesting keywords to add to the search. Selecting a guide adds it to the search query.
6. Private Messaging
Use private messaging to develop a stronger bond with your followers. The messaging feature is designed to spur conversations about a specific pin, so that you no longer need to leave the website in order to send a text or message on a different platform. Promote your pins by sending them to your followers – and watch them like, repin, and send them right from the message – making it easier for users to share the pins you send to them.
7. Analytics.
Discover what viewers like best about you and how much traffic is generated when you add the Pin It button. See what people like from your profile and save from your website. Learn about their interests and see the other organizations they follow. This will help you tailor the pins you add. Thanks to analytics, it’s now possible to track actions originating from your profile – including boards and the pins you’ve shared.
Tracking from your business profiles includes: Impressions, Repins, Clicks, and All-Time Views. The Impressions section shows your top 50 pin impressions and top 20 boards. Repins displays your 50 most repinned items and the boards that have the most repins. The Clicks section shows your 50 most-clicked pins and your 20 boards with the most-clicked pins. Finally, the All-Time section displays your 50 most repinned pins, those with the highest search rank, and power pins (those with the highest mix of clicks, repins, and more).
Now the most mobile social network – deriving over 60% of its traffic from mobile browsers – Pinterest has become an essential resource for many businesses wanting to increase sales and connect with potential clients. Test these 7 tools and features on Pinterest to generate more traffic, increase your brand’s social media presence, and boost your sales.
