Description

Pinterest is now the third most popular social media network in the world, behind Twitter, and, of course, Facebook. Many businesses have not taken advantage of the incredible viral marketing opportunities that exist on this site. In this video, Eric Spellmann explains how marketing on Pinterest differs from Twitter and Facebook and the five strategies you can implement today to drive qualified prospects to your door!

Transcript

Note from Eric: Below, you will find a word-for-word transcript of this video. I provide this as an aid for the hearing-impaired and for those who might just want to read it rather than watch the video. This conversational style is not reflective of how I write. Be nice! Hey I’m Eric Spellmann with Spellmann & Associates. And today we’re going to be talking about how to use Pinterest for business. We’ll be talking about my top 5 marketing strategies for driving traffic to your website or more importantly, driving customers through the door of your business. Before we get started though, you have to understand Pinterest. Because I know some of you watching this video don’t even have a Pinterest account. So we got to understand what Pinterest is for.

Really, it’s all about the photos. Now some people are going to say Pinterest is just for weddings and recipes and photographs! Nooo. Pinterest is more than that. But, to be honest, it really does center around the visual. So understand that Pinterest is really going to benefit you the most if you have a lot to show, and that is the key. It’s all about boards and pins. It’s kind of like facebook and it is also social media. And in fact, Pinterest is third only to Facebook and Twitter in terms of user base. So if you’re thinking of a social media strategy, I HIGHLY recommend Pinterest!

Boards and Pins. Pins are basically a way to pin something from the web, usually a picture of some sort to a board, one of your boards that people can then follow or like. Sounds familiar to facebook. And then other people can re-pin something, like if you found an incredible photo and you pinned it, other people who are following you can see it. They can also re-pin it and you and see how it goes viral out there. They can also comment on it. So if you don’t have a Pinterest account, you may stop this video and go get one and at least learn how to look at other peoples’ things before you try to use it for marketing.

Basically from a marketing standpoint, your goal of Pinterest is the re-pin. You want someone to re-pin it so that more people see it. This is similar to liking or sharing something on facebook. We want more people to re-pin and it just goes out and out and far and far and it reaches out there.

So, strategy number 1 of my top 5 strategies is to add the Pin it button to whatever it is on your website or on your blog. That way they can click on the Pin it button and it will automatically take it to their Pinterest board. Now you must be wondering how to do that.

Well the key is to go to the right website. Pinterest actually has a goodies website that shows you how to create a Pin it button for your website. Now you may want to give this information to your web designer. But depending on how you built your website and how comfortable you are working with your website they make it very very easy.

So you go to “about.pinterest.com/goodies” and you’ll find the instructions on how to create your own Pin it button. And remember, it’s all about the pictures. You want to make sure that you have little Pin it buttons next to those. The boards and pins, that’s how they get there with the Pin it button. And once again, your goal is the re-pin and by having that Pin it button you make it easy as they don’t have to put in a web address or know a lot. They are easily sharing what you are offering with a single click. Now folks I can’t say it enough, its all about the re-pin!

Strategy number 2 is to use pinstamatic.com. This is a website and it’s one of my favourites. They basically make it easy to share just about anything without having to understand all those codes. It’s the fastest way to link any of your content and to get it on Pinterest. It allows you to easily pin something. You can pin all sorts of things.

For instance, web-links, photos, music, you can even create a quote and it will make it look very pretty and head straight to your Pinterest board. You can pin all sorts of stuff and what this site does is it allows you to easily get that content on to the Pinterest board. So if you are serious about doing this and you want to make sure you do it quickly, I’m a big fan of pinstamatic.com. It will save you tons of time. And of course the best part is it’s totally free.

This is kind of what it looks like. And across the top you’ll see all the different options that you have. You can pin tweets, you can pin events. I mean they make it extremely easy.

The number 3 marketing strategy is to add a link with your description. Whenever you pin anything in Pinterest it wants a description. And you basically have to enter something. So if you put in a web address and it knows that, it will automatically turn that into a link and that way if people see that pin and click on it, they will be directed to your website very easily.

It is a great backlink strategy. And if you haven’t heard of backlinks, basically Google does look at the number of websites that link back to you and gives you some credit for that. So this is an easy way for you to create at least 1 back link from Pinterest to your content.

Number 4 is to understand what you’re pinning. If you’re going to be pinning a bunch of text, I would rather you pin a list of items or bulleted items than just a whole paragraph of text. They’ve done studies and basically bulleted items are re-pinned more. And I think the reason for that is because they are easy to read. People can easily scan something like that. And if you think about Pinterest, people are always scanning it. They’re not just reading in terms of text. They’re scanning it, they’re looking at a list, they’re looking at pictures, and they’re looking at the list of recipe items. Also, people tend to believe that a bulleted list is more concise and has lots and lots of content. So, whatever the reason, people like to re-pin it.

Number 5 is to build your community. On Pinterest, you need a community so that when you pin something other people automatically see it. It’s similar in facebook to having people “like” you and having fan pages. The way to gather people in your community is to become a part of other peoples’ communities. So, one of the best ways to do that is to go re-pin other peoples’ content.

A lot of times the law of reciprocation will kick in and they will start pinning you and they will “like” you and start following you. You want to comment on pins. Look out for interesting pins on Pinterest and write a comment for the interesting ones. A lot of times the people who had originally posted that will then start following you. “Like” other peoples’ pins. There is a little “like” button you can click and once again the original poster of that will see that and chances are they might start following you and start liking your items out of reciprocation. And of course, follow them. It means you will see their stuff from that point on.

So if you want people to follow you, you need to follow some other people. Now keep in mind who you need to follow. Make sure it’s someone relevant in your industry. Someone who has a lot of “pull”, someone who has a lot of followers. You can follow a whole bunch of people, but really think about the people you’re trying to reach. And from a marketing standpoint think about their demographic, the people who follow them, if they would be complementary customers to you.

Well as always I am Eric Spellmann with Spellmann & Associates. And you can always go on my facebook or on my website (EricSpellmann.com) and ask me questions and I’ll be happy to help. Pinterest is wonderful; I highly recommend it but keep in mind you need something visual. I am Eric Spellmann with Spellmann & Associates. I’ll see you in cyberspace.