The Why and How of Pinterest For Your Business

Benjamin Moore brings more life to paint colors with their doors! board.

Pinterest is more than just the latest fashion, assorted DIY crafts, and animal pictures.  Pinterest rules the pack with 70 million users and it is the fourth largest traffic driver in the world!  However, if the promise of growing reach with an attentive user base isn't compelling enough, Hubspot has compiled six reasons why companies should use Pinterest.

Pinterest...

1. Converts more browsers into buyers
2. Drives tons of traffic (10 million plus unique views)
3. Garners more inbound links (about 95% of images on Pinterest were pinned or re-pinned from the web)
4. Has addictively high user engagement (attributed to its visual format that enables people to search for whatever interests them
5. Integrates with a company's website, Twitter, and Facebook
6. Helps companies discover what their audience loves

Now that we've covered the "why," let's dive into the "how."

1. Establish the goals for your Pinterest account, and measure accordingly.  This article shares some common goals that businesses may have for their Pinterest accounts.
2. Integrate your Pinterest activity into the rest of your marketing campaign.  Your marketing campaign and plan are vital so you can get a clear picture of all your planned activities and communications to your customers across channels (and segments, if you're segmenting).
3. Don't use your own content.  It drives higher engagement because it's new and relevant for your users, and builds on your brand.  Honda provided customers with money to make their DIY projects come to live and Loew's inspired their customers by sharing their customers' DIY projects made with materials from Loews.
4. Be a source of information and knowledge for your customers.  Whether you're positioning yourself as the authority on children's fashion, unique desserts, or like Wall Street Journal, sharing current events infographic-style.
5. Put your marketing hats on and get creative.
• Etsy asked Random House to be a guest pinner and they created this shared board, which has 229,000 followers, to celebrate their shared love of books and handmade items.
• To get customers jazzed about dog insurance, Petplan created this board featuring photos of adorable dogs, provided background information and medical information relevant to each breed.

A snapshot of the variety consumers have on their boards.
Check mine out here.