How is your business using Pinterest? Surprised I’m asking?
It’s time to give Pinterest a second look. Over 450 million active users is no small number. Plus, it’s not just for women anymore. Male users increased 40% year-over-year. These are just a few statistics to get you to start considering this channel for your social media content calendar.
Let’s take a look at the advantages and changes that are making pinning a thing that social media savvy organizations should be doing regularly.
I was a session panelist for the Agorapulse Agency Summit: Pinterest Edition, where I had the pleasure of learning from a who’s who of marketing pros. This gave me a great opportunity to reimagine how marketers can re-position Pinterest for optimal promotional success.
Why Pinterest?
When you pin, it’s a best practice to include a link back to the source. Pinterest does not penalize you for going off channel, as is the case with all of the other social media channels, so you are encouraging the audience to go to your website. Pinterest is the easiest platform for showing up as a referrer to websites, and Pinterest conversion rates are typically much higher than other sites.
Many consider it to be a search engine instead of a social media channel. The search aspect is the most important for most users, which is why the social platform’s about section calls it is a visual discovery engine.
Doing research on your target audience? Consider starting with Pinterest to find keywords. Then, compare it to what you find in SEO tools, and include both in your next content piece.
“Doing research on your target audience? Consider starting with Pinterest to find keywords. Then, compare it to what you find in SEO tools, and include both in your next content piece.” — Debbie Friez @dfriez Click To TweetPins Have a Long Lifespan
When reviewing and comparing to other social platforms, Instagram and LinkedIn posts typically may have a maximum life of 48 hours. X/Twitter is only 15-20 minutes, and Facebook is 5-6 hours. Pinterest posts however typically have a lifespan of 6 months!
Have some older, but still relevant pins? Go update them with new visuals and post text content. Tip: previously it was a best practice to add hashtags on Pinterest, however doing so is no longer needed.
Helping to extend the life of a pin, Pinterest users save pins. So while they may not convert immediately, if your content is interesting, users will often save it and come back to your pin.
“Helping to extend the life of a pin, Pinterest users save pins. So while they may not convert immediately, if your content is interesting, users will often save it and come back to your pin.” — Debbie Friez @dfriez Click To TweetSearch Engine Optimization via Pinterest
Have you ever done a search and had Pinterest pins come up at the top of your results? This is because Google’s search algorithms often like good pins. Many searchers do not even realize that they are pulling up Pinterest pins, so they automatically go to the accompanying link and convert. Anne Popolizio, CEO at Social Squib, calls this “back door Pinterest.”
Robin Dimond, CEO and founder at Fifth & Cor, touts great Pinterest successes from the male demographic, including with an automotive client. She says they pick up the pin faster and often think of it as another search engine.
I have personally seen success pinning blog posts with particularly great creative to Pinterest. Try it out yourself and then check the referral traffic in your particular analytics tool.
Tips to help with SEO using Pinterest:
- Google prioritizes user generated content (UGC). Encourage it, engage with it, and re-pin USG posts to help share your brand’s products.
- Repurpose social content across channels. Just be sure it is original without a watermark from another channel.
- Focus on creating helpful content that answers questions.
- Research keyword trends and topics.
Paid Ads on Pinterest
The death of the cookie is coming. It’s been forecast for years, but most marketers anticipate 2024 to be the year it crumbles. Larry Kim, CEO at Customers.AI suggests you use Pinterest’s traffic or link ad campaigns to get people onto your website so you can retarget them, so the conversion is on the back, allowing expanded remarketing opportunities.
As with pins, paid ads need time to see their full potential. Pinterest strategist Laura Rike Sura says it takes 30-40 days to see an ad’s potential. Plus, for any project, you should map out six months so you can test a variety of different campaign types.
As with any platform, increasing visibility comes with paid ads.
Trendspotting
What will we be searching for in 2024? You can do some trendspotting utilizing Pinterest Predicts. Personally, I would skip the 1970’s wedding and fuzzy peach as the color of the year, but I am all in on the tropical decor and silver metallics.
As a Pinterest advertiser, you can sponsor trend packages on specific boards. Your team can also jump on a potential trend and look to rank.
Taking these predictions off the Internet and into our world, the brand opened a Pinterest Predicts pop-up shop in New York City partnering with Levi Strauss & Co. and Mac Cosmetics. This leads us to another trend — partnering and influencer collaborations. Nike and Tiffany dropped a collaboration sneaker board this past year that went viral on the platform. The Tiffany blue box alone has given their audience a lot of FOMO.
Missed the Agorapulse Agency Summit: Pinterest Edition? You can still go watch the replay and learn from a fine lineup of top marketers.
In the words of Neal Schaffer, digital and social media marketing consultant, it’s time to re-imagine Pinterest. Are you ready?
Create brand connection and engagement through a custom B2B social media marketing strategy including Pinterest – designed to boost brand reach, awareness and conversions.
