Chapter 8: How To Market On Pinterest

    Hey guys,

    Pinterest is a visual pinboard-style social sharing network where people can discover and save ideas, these ideas are represented by "pins" that include an image, video, or link back to the online source of the product or idea. It was founded in November of 2009 by, yet again, college students Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp, and after much trial was soon after launched in 2010. Unlike many other social media platforms, there growth was slow initially, however they soon grew to the 10 most prominent social networking sites by 2011. 

    For my marketing people, Pinterest can be a great tool if utilized correctly. Brands can capitalize on Pinterest's popularity to enable sharing amongst users and increase web traffic, as Pinterest drives millions of visits to other sites through referral traffic each day. 

    It is recommended for brands to pin anywhere between five to thirty times per day to maximize their utilization of the Pinterest platform. Generally, weekends are the best time to pin content, Saturday being the best day of the week. However, consistency is important and these recommendation's mean nothing if brands are posting theirs pins all at once, and not spread out. 

A great tip for those brands wanting to utilize this platform would be to use high-quality visuals when pinning. Lifestyle pictures typically outperform product images on Pinterest, brands should pin visuals in the context of how the products are used. Another great marketing tip would be to focus on descriptions, these allow users to determine what a Pin is immediately about. Some things to include in a description would be benefits and value of product, keywords, price, and a call to action. 

The last tip I will leave you guys with is to utilize hashtags on your Pins. These can be added to descriptions and makes Pins more discoverable. Brands should use industry and branded hashtags in the descriptions of every Pin for greater reach. 

After reviewing this chapter I have learned more about Pinterest and its great potential for brands wanting to utilize this platform in their social and marketing campaigns. I hope you all learned something as well.