Pinterest and Social Media information

Barack Obama has more Pinterest engagement than Mitt Romney, but Ann Romney's doing better than Michelle Obama.

Consmr goes social....

A successful Pinterest campaign begins with assessing your brand and philosophy.

In their book Pinterest for Business: How to Pin Your Company to the Top of the Hottest Social Media Network, authors Jess Loren and Ed Swiderski detail how to make Pinterest work for your company. In this edited excerpt, the authors offer advice on how to make the most of Pinterest by first defining your brand.

When starting on Pinterest, keep in mind that a company is only as strong as its understanding of its own market and customer base. You have to define your services and how they can best be aggregated to your potential consumers.

Philosophy plays a huge part in defining and delivering a product. Beyond that, assigning a philosophy to your company can help you assess whether you have a true use for social media and Pinterest. To assist you in this process, think of your brand in different ways. Consider the following:

1. If your company were a car, what would it be? Think of your boards as different car lots, and your pins as different cars. What kind of car do you want to be viewed as? Be specific. It helps you understand the reasons behind why your pins exist, which helps you create an engaging environment for why your followers should care. Typical archetypes play a role here. Are you traditional, fun, or outlandish? Are you rusty or affordable? Family-friendly? Stylish? Don't allow your brand to identify with a plain, boring car.

2. If your company were a celebrity, who would it be? When people view your pins on Pinterest, you want them to come from an authoritative voice. At the same time, you want them to feel like they are coming from a voice that should be listened to. Much like a celebrity, your pins showcase your style and grace, and should leave your followers wanting more. Is your brand the kind of celebrity that demands attention? Are you controversial? Are you tough, rugged, or just plain friendly? Describe your business and use that to your branding advantage.

3. If your company were an animal, what would it be? This can go a long way toward developing your brand on Pinterest. Loyal, fun, watchful: These are quality characteristics with which your company might want to align. Don't be tame in thinking of your response. Identifying your brand is critical in understanding and developing your success. You don't have to act like the animal you most closely relate to, but use it as a guide to understand your brand. Think of social media as a zoo. Pinterest's users stop by your boards, gawk at what you've put on display, and then move along on their way. Finding clarity and confidence in your brand's personality reveals powerful insights into your organization's internal culture. This power can be directly realized through harnessing your marketing prowess on Pinterest.

4. Define your purpose. Business is all about purpose, and so is social media. Finding your niche is the first step to carving out a large market segment. Understanding your product and how it affects your potential clientele is necessary to accessing all the possibilities of Pinterest... Take the time to look at all of your offerings and how these play into your other social media properties. This role, and how you have used it in the past, helps you to move forward with Pinterest. The key is to think of your offerings in a way that is most attractive to a wider audience.

5. Define your competition. With Pinterest in particular, it is important to understand and define your competition. You have an opportunity to take direct advantage of your competition's pins, promotions, or contests, while directly reaching customers. Following your competition isn't a new strategy, nor is it a devious one. There are so many great ideas about business, so it is a good idea to keep informed on all the newest trends and technologies. If you don't already have a dedicated file or area where you store information about your competitors, set up a Google Alert to keep tabs on them, and add a Pinterest account and boards to the file.

Pinterest is a way for businesses to learn from one another and interact. Examine Pinterest by your industry and competition. Including this in your research gives you a better grasp on both your business and your industry.

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Optimize Pinterest To Make Your Social Media Strategy Sizzle!

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Pinterest is practically a newcomer in the social media landscape but it has so caught the fancy of millions of netizens since its launch in 2010 that it is now officially the third largest social network in the United States, behind only Facebook and Twitter (Experian Hitwise, March 2012). According to Comscore.com, “Pinterest buyers spend more money, more often, and on more items than any of the other Top 5 social media sites,” and according to Hitwise data, “Pinterest drove more referral traffic to retailers than LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+.”

(More Pinterest facts and figures)

Consumer brands have been taking advantage of Pinterest’s fast-growing user base and getting good results with their efforts. B2B marketers as well can integrate Pinterest in their marketing campaigns, as many B2B experts and social media analysts agree that it is an effective marketing tool.

According to marketer Jim Ewel, Pinterest is a great way to “humanize” your company. A lot of B2B marketers today advertise customized or personalized services to retailers, business owners, and second-level wholesalers they are targeting. People want to interact with people, instead of faceless brands.

Just this month, Pinterest dropped its invitation-only approach and is now open to everyone. Here are some useful tips and tricks on how you can use Pinterest to gain B2B marketing success:

Optimize your Pinterest profile. Upon signing up, this is the first thing that needs your attention. In the profile settings, fill in the “About” field with a concise and optimized description of your company. This description is important because it appears in the SERPs when someone searches for your page. You would need to choose a company image to use for your profile. Make sure it is consistent with what you use in your company’s other social media profiles. The profile settings also allow you to link Pinterest with other social media. You can choose to automatically share your pins on Facebook and Twitter.

“Pin” photos of corporate events you participate in. While B2C (business to consumer) companies can just easily pin their products, put a price, and gain new customers in an instant, it is a bit different for B2B companies. One thing that you can do is to start a pinboard of trade fairs and other important events your company participates in. You may also start a board for each major event if you’ve got lots of material to share. Post photos of you engaging with delegates, photos of exhibitions, banners, and anything related to the event to pique users’ interest.

Feature photos of your company officials. You can feature the movers and shakers of your company by posting photos (you got to make sure they all look their best for this!) in one Pinterest board. Add a brief description or perhaps a testimonial from a colleague or a customer as a caption, and then link the photos to each employee’s LinkedIn profile. You may even create a separate board dedicated to company culture.

Start a “nostalgia trip” pinboard. I used to be very active in Pinterest and as a personal user, one of my most favorite things to “re-pin” are photos that evoke in me a feeling of nostalgia. If your company starts from way, way back, this strategy might work to your advantage. So perhaps now is the best time to dig up pictures of old products, old office buildings, and maybe even old photos taken in the workplace and channel that vintage vibe. Make sure to link each pin to a landing page that you want people to visit.

Generate and post your own visual content. Even as social networks are becoming increasingly visual, fresh content will always be king. That charming photo of your old company building may win you new followers but you definitely need to keep those followers interested and even prompt them to initiate a new business relationship with your company.

Use Pinterest to support your blog. Pinterest would by no means take attention away from the company blog you have been diligently maintaining for the past couple of years. As a matter of fact, you can use Pinterest to spike up your dwindling readership. For every new company announcement or news you are posting on your blog, put up a pin on Pinterest where you include the title of the post, the link to the blog post, and a related photo (make sure it is attractive). Include some “call-to-action” text to prompt your targeted customers to take the next step in further engaging with your business.

Monitor traffic and evaluate leads. To become a master “pinner,” find out which types of Pinterest content brings the most traffic to your website and/or leads to conversions. By analyzing your traffic stats, you get an idea on what you can further improve on and what your customers are looking for.

There is definitely a place for Pinterest in B2B marketing and if you are brave and creative enough to tap this potential, there are many benefits that await your company. Still hesitant? Check out the Pinterest profile of GE Electronics and be inspired by the creative ways the company is using the platform. If you are already using Pinterest in your B2B marketing campaign, leave a comment and do tell us how it’s going for you.

Started in 2010, Pinterest is a big website with people pinning and pinning. I never really saw the point of it, and still don’t, but I know how to use it (not for me, personally), and I have seen stats for some of the brands we’re working with.