Startup Revolution

Pinterest & Startups
This image of Batgirl staring out of a doorway is one of Scenttrail's most popular pins (http://www.pinterest.com/scenttrail/ ). Pinterest is important for startups because:

* Marketing is becoming VISUAL & Pinterest excels at visual marketing.

* Pinterest is asynchronous to other social nets.
* Pinterest is EASY and doesn't require much time.
* Pinterest creates community faster than other social nets.

That last bullet should have a caveat. Pintererst builds community FAST once you figure out the secret handshake. I was frustrated with how long it was taking to develop a following.

I would share content on Pinterest and I could never understand what seemed to matter, so I shared LOTS more content (one key to success). I also Repinned from others and commented on pins.

All of those tactics helped, but the real dam breaker was creating the King and Queen of Pinterest boards:

http://www.pinterest.com/scenttrail/queen-of-pinterest/

http://www.pinterest.com/scenttrail/king-of-pinterest/

The real winner is the Queen of Pinterest with over 400 pinners now and a great daily rhythm. Community boards do get spammed so I developed some simple guidelines, pinned those guidelines (and do so again and again when the board starts to get spammy).

The victory with King and Queen of Pinterest shares an important secret. Pinterest is a tad solipsistic. People who love to pin really LOVE to pin. There are cult-like moments (lol). So one way to connect is to have a board that shares obsession with Pinterest.

Your startup may not be obsessed with Pinterest, but bet you need to develop a following. When I started the King and Queen of Pinterest boards I had 114 followers. Now, about six months later, Scenttrail has more than 5,000 followers.

Cool thing about community boards is people begin to tell their friends. I invited about half the people pinning on Queen of Pinterest. Interesting I invited 90% of the men (lol). Women understand the core of social media better. They are more naturally social about topics that people love to pin about such as culture, art, celebrity, travel, weight loss, etc...

If you are a startup you should be using Pinterest if only because it builds community, once you figure out a secret or two, faster than any other social net. The other reason Pinterest is important for startups is its focus on asynchronous visual marketing. Learn "asynchronous marketing" even a little and your startup will rock.

8 Visual Marketing Tips From Vogue

* Be specific & Use BIG NUMBERS to help.
* Branded - use existing and known brands.
* Portrait Images - images staring at camera = most powerful.
* Events - Ride wave of current events.
* Alliteration.

* Juxtapositions.
* Action verbs.

* Simple colors.

If every startup were to follow those 8 visual marketing tips from Vogue they would improve their website's performance. Just don't copy off of Vogue's website. For some reason great magazines haven't been able to crack the code for great websites (strange since these rules apply to either).