If you’re looking to tap into the power of Pinterest, Andy Bargery, managing director of Klaxon, provides six steps to getting started.
Pinterest started to hit the marketing headlines in late 2011 but updates in 2012 made it more user-friendly for marketers, and it’s now possible to set up a Pinterest business account rather than simply a personal version. Below are six steps to setting up your account for maximum impact.
1. Define your objectives
Decide what you want to achieve with Pinterest from the start. Is it lead generation, lead nurturing, market education, thought leadership, brand awareness, community development or content promotion? Think carefully about how Pinterest will integrate with the rest of your content marketing plan and other social channels.
2. Set up your account
Once you’ve decided Pinterest is for you, start setting up your account. The difference between a personal and business account is modest but with modified terms and conditions, and a few extra features to help brands, the latter is certainly the right option for marketers. If you already have an existing personal account, it is straight-forward to convert this into a business page.
When setting up your account, consider the following points:
• Get your content strategy sorted properly before you create any boards or start pinning images.
• Your profile is your identity and it’s important to pick a good image and create a clear, short and thoughtful description of your company.
• You can pin content from your own web properties, third-party websites and upload original content.
• Identify and start following influencers in your space by using the Pinterest search tool. There are also third-party tools you can use to help you drill down into who is influential, e.g. Pinfluencer.com.
3. Verify your account
With the new Pinterest business accounts it is possible to verify your organisation as the official account for your brand. This will add credibility to your Pinterest account.Verification is very simple and requires you to upload a small HTML file to your primary domain name. It should take you no more than a couple of minutes to complete. When you verify your account, a badge will appear on your profile identifying it as such.
4. Create compelling boards
Once you have the basics organised, it’s time to start adding images. Create boards around your core messages, or stories that relate to the culture of your company. Also consider creating boards that relate to the questions your customers are asking.
Ensure pinned images are high quality and reflect your brand positioning. Check where your pins are linking to, particularly important when you start to re-pin images. Are the sites they link to appropriate and are the images usable from a copyright point-of-view? Write a thoughtful description for your pins to make them easier to understand and to illustrate your message around the image.
Include a hashtag to make your content easier to find – useful for integrating with other social campaigns such as Twitter – and include calls-to-action within the images you pin. You could also create a group board and invite members of your community to contribute pins.
5. Encourage sharing
Once you have established your Pinterest account, it’s time to encourage other users to start sharing your content. This means making it easy for people to pin your images by embedding ‘pin-it’ (and other social sharing buttons) on your web properties. Pinterest makes this easy by providing you with a handful of buttons and widgets that are straightforward to install.
You also want to drive traffic to your Pinterest account. The simplest way to achieve this is by making your account search friendly through good image descriptions and hashtags. Also consider embedding links within your existing communications, e.g. eblasts, website, email footers and other social platforms.
6. Measure it
Pinterest, like any social media channel, will require time and resource to manage. You therefore need to be able to justify spending this resource through some solid metrics. Here are a handful of ideas for what this might include:
Entry level:
• Number of followers.
• Number of pins.
• Number of re-pins.
Intermediate:
• Volume of engagement and conversation.
• Traffic to your website or campaign landing page.
• Volume of sign-ups to your newsletter.
Advanced:
• Volume of goal conversions in your web analytics.
• Performance in comparison to competitor accounts.
• Conversion rates for traffic from Pinterest in comparison to email marketing or other social channels.
Remember, there is a place for Pinterest in B2B marketing, but not in isolation, only as part of a broader content marketing plan.
There is also a Best Practice Guide for using Pinterest, which can be downloaded.
