Show Off Your Personality On Pinterest

Consider Pinterest As A Showcase And A Traffic Generator

You’ve heard the hype about Pinterest.

If you’re a merchant, you’ve considered your product line and wondered if this fast-growing social network was a good fit.

If you’re an affiliate, the uproar about affiliate links and copyrights may have discouraged you from using it.

Why am I saying you should consider Pinterest as an important business tool?

• It’s the easiest social network to master – really! The whole premise is to put things out for people to see!

  You don’t have to camp out to comment or update status or catch the right hour of the day. Unlike the other options, Pinterest is something you do when it’s convenient or when you’re most creative.

  A daily email and some upkeep adds another few minutes to your participation.

• Pinterest is perfect for creating a showcase that perfectly represents who YOU are and what YOUR business is about.

  Creating boards full of things to show your customers is a little like decorating the front window of a big department store.

  It’s all visual and inviting. Don’t make it harder than it is – just show off!

• Pinterest drives traffic! Some of our merchants who use Pinterest already saw the traffic coming to their store because of pins shared by others – before they even started creating boards for the store!

  It doesn’t replace your selling and customer service efforts, but how long have you dreamed of advertising that would send potential customers through the door, looking for the exact product you sell, ready to ask questions and swipe a credit card?

So What Works? What Doesn’t? Who Am I Reaching?

The whole point of Pinterest is to share images that reflect who you are, what you like and why. The “boards” offer a way to organize those images by topic.

For a broad brushstroke understanding, think magazines. People who enjoy Pinterest like it for the same reason they like to flip through topical magazines: beauty, good ideas, advice on improving your surroundings, help with daily chores, motivation to improve fitness and health.

Use that concept to visualize your business presented as a publication. What problems do you solve? How does what you do make life easier? Prettier? Nicer?

What doesn’t work is hard sell. If you study the humor boards, you’ll find you can preach and speechify on just about any topic if you’re funny, but hard selling your product won’t work.

Describe what you have in terms of usefullness, even tips for choosing the right model or maintaining, but the best way to present what you’re selling is the same way you would set it up in the front window of the store. Visually with informational signs.

Let’s Finish Up With the Whole Women To Men Ratio Nonsense

I’ve heard over and over that Pinterest is a hen party, a place for wedding planners and interior designers and everyone else is just out-of-luck. I don’t agree with that assessment, but even the tiny part of the demographic argument that’s valid still has potential for your business.

Statistics have been batted around that show the women / men ratio to be 48/52, 80/20, 90/10 and most of the numbers in between. There are days when you open Pinterest, that if the front screen was all you saw, you would be convinced that only butterfly chasing anime characters from old black and white movies were using Pinterest.

Take a minute and use the search feature or the topics menu and browse all the categories that might fit your various products.

The truth is that 3 of the most successful pins I’ve placed are for things I thought of as being masculine and all continue to be repinned and liked months after I put them up.

I pinned some beautiful classic cars on the board created for our hubcap merchant and there are still notices every week that one or more have been liked or repinned. Think about it. Who needs center caps and wheel covers? People with cars. Who loves classic cars? Men do!

The second pin that was a surprising success was a Whey Protein product in multiple flavors. I think that speaks to the huge health and fitness segment at Pinterest.

And last, because it proves a marketing truth we all know but wish otherwise, the most popular pin ever for me was an adorable French bulldog.

That’s because you can always generate traffic with a cute puppy or a sweet kitten. Make sure you have a basket of kittens somewhere in your front window showcase!

I would be breaking every rule of social media if I didn’t use this opportunity to invite you to follow us on Pinterest!