Your Daily Dose of Pinterest Part III – Pinterest Tips & Tricks

Ready to become a Pinterest Power User?! If you’ve got the basic functionality of Pinterest down, then you’re ready to move on to some more advanced operations. These tips and tricks separate the leisure Pinners from the pros; the consumer Pinners from the cut-throat marketers. Employ some of these techniques on Pinterest to foster a more rich user experience and implement a more effective marketing tool.

Pinterest Contests

Contests are always great for getting your followers involved and for attracting new followers on the social networks. As with any contest held on a social network, it’s important to consult Pinterest’s contest rules and terms of use.

Pin it to Win it

There are a couple of different ways to hold contests on Pinterest. One of our favorites is the “Pin it to Win it” contest put on by children’s furniture and decor retailer, Rosenberry Rooms. Contestants have to create a pinboard containing their dream kid’s room or nursery using Rosenberry Rooms’ products. The winners receive products from their boards. This contest is brilliant because it not only gets followers to interact with Rosenberry Rooms on Pinterest, but it also gives people a reason to spend lots of time looking at their products and sharing their products with friends.

Drive E-Commerce Sales

Although there is not an e-commerce component built in to Pinterest, there are some tricks to help facilitate the transition from the network to your website. If used correctly, Pinterest can basically act as your virtual store front. Pinterest allows you to display items by category, shed light on new product lines, and even price items.

Price Your Products

Make it known that your pins represent products that are for sale by including the price of the item in the description of the pin. Anytime there is a dollar sign in the pin description, the pin is flagged with a price tag and automatically gets categorized in the “Gifts” section of Pinterest.

Unique Uses for Pinterest

Consider your customer base and the things they like. Think about the people that make up your business and the type of culture your business embodies. Create boards that speak to your target market and display the kind of brand you’re working to build.

Show Company Culture

Businesses that don’t have a tangible product or service to pin definitely want to pay attention to this one. You can use Pinterest to give followers an inside look into your company and give your business a persona. If your company exudes a certain lifestyle or culture, create boards that reflect that.

Electronic Portfolio

For designers, artists, and stylists, Pinterest is a dream come true. It’s a great way to showcase your work and promote your business. For example, ThreeOwl Photography has created a board for each type of photography package they provide, including senior portraits, landscape photography, and kids pictures. It gives people a feel for their style of photography and makes it easy for people to share their work with their followers.

Interact

The beauty of social media marketing is that it allows you to actually interact with your fans. It allows you to get your message across without irritating the consumer. Consumers actually want to see what you’re up to on Facebook and it’s fun for them to contribute to your boards on Pinterest. As a marketer, you should embrace this unique opportunity to interact with
your customer base and encourage participation any way possible.

Follower Boards

Creating specific boards that followers can contribute to is a great way to encourage followers
to interact with you. Pinterest allows you to grant any follower the ability to pin to your boards. For example, Drake University has a board called, “Pin Your Pride,” which allows alumni to pin pictures of themselves wearing their school apparel. Any business could follow this concept and encourage followers to pin pictures of themselves using their favorite product of yours to the board.

Action Summary

For more great tips and tricks to help you become a Pinterest power user, download our e-book, All Aboard the Pinterest Train – Your Express Track to Powerful Marketing on Pinterest. The book is chuck full of great technical tips to help you get the most out of Pinterest.