Unless you’re a B2C brand, chances are you haven’t invested much in Pinterest. For most, it’s a place you go to look at products. A visual place with a million things to buy, and if you don’t have something to sell, you wouldn’t think about posting it on Pinterest. But it has the ability to do so much more. Here’s a look at how you can use Pinterest to drive traffic and interest in anything online.
Pinterest Is For More Than Purchases
Though most of what we see on Pinterest are products, that doesn’t mean it only good for selling stuff. Although many haven’t thought about it or tried, Pinterest can serve anyone, no matter what you’re looking to share.
Below, you can see the top 5 pins on my account in the past 30 days. While a product (Hi-C Ecto Cooler) does take the top spot when it comes to impressions, you can see that the others aren’t products at all. 4 of the top 5 pins are blog posts and 3 of those are marketing blogs.
This shows there is an audience for other types of content on Pinterest, even that which wouldn’t appeal to those we imagine in the typical Pinterest audience. Unlike other social networks, Pinterest is part search engine, allowing users to find any type of content relevant to our interests. If you share content and make it searchable (SEO your pins just as you would your blog posts), people will find it and your following will grow.
While beer is the topic I pin the most, you can see below that three of the five most popular boards on my Pinterest account are dedicated to business and marketing topics. With more than 70,000 impressions a month and more than 200 repins, these boards again show an interest in things other than just products on Pinterest.
Pinterest Accounts Aren’t Just Single Topic
I’ve got a fairly large Pinterest following (+40k) made up of people that love beer-related pins (my hobby) but also tons of folks in the marketing world (my day job). Because Pinterest allows you to create multiple boards for any topic you choose, a single account doesn’t just have to stick to a single topic, as they do on most other social networks.
The added benefit is that there may be overlap in the many audiences you attract. People from one board may find interest in what you share in another, further boosting your overall return.
A single account can serve countless audiences without the need for separate accounts for each, as we see on Facebook and Twitter.
You may also consider using boards filled with a popular topic (like fashion or food) to bring followers in, in hopes they see the other things you share on the site. While users can follow a single or multiple boards, they more often follow the user, which results in them following all of your boards. Someone that becomes interested in your board on one topic then follows you, will now see your pins on all topics.
More boards, more topics, more followers.
Pins For Any Product, Place, Piece, Or Post
It’s clear that Pinterest isn’t just a place to sell stuff or get recipes. It’s a place to post anything. There’s no limit to the topic or type of content you can share on the site.
If you’re already sharing content on other social sites, it’s simple to add Pinterest to the mix too. With the Pin It button in your browser, you can add pins in seconds, so it doesn’t add more than a minute or two to your day. I share more than a dozen posts to my boards each day and it adds less than 2 minutes to my social scheduling time.
Pinterst offers an audience most aren’t making use of. The competition is nonexistent for many business areas. The time is now to start building your boards and following. You’ll be surprised at the results.
