Pin It! The Potential of Pinterest for Business Branding

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing phenomena in social media. Its purpose is to connect people from the world over through things that interest them. Its value strongly relies on pictures and visual inspiration arranged similarly like a pin board.

Founded by Ben Silbermann, Pinterest lets users collect images with a common theme; this can be anything from hobbies, interest and events. For your business, Pinterest can help shape the image of your brand with other Pinterest users with the help of carefully chosen pictures.

Beacon of Ideas and Inspiration

People come to Pinterest to find inspiration and to share ideas. When your business has an established presence in Pinterest, you can help shape their new ideas and inspiration while conveying the message of your brand at the same time. One of our clients, a New York based clothing brand, used Pinterest very successfully to garner interest and get clients.

Pinterest users can create their own pin boards where they can post their own theme-based pictures. They can interact with the pin boards of other Pinterest users. If they like the content of a certain pin board, they can “re-pin” these to their own. This creates a network of appreciation and interaction with different kinds of people.

If your business can convey useful visual information, expect other Pinterest users to “re-pin” your content. This can help spread the word about your brand. Content is king. And if yours is useful and can create inspiration, it can significantly help your business. Simply put, be an interesting brand and success will follow.

Even if Pinterest is growing in its popularity, it is still emerging and this gives your business an opportunity to establish its presence in Pinterest. Here are a few ideas:

Creating an Online Space

As of now, a Pinterest account can be registered by invitation. You should immediately secure your business name in Pinterest. You should then integrate the Pinterest account of your business with its existing Facebook and Twitter accounts. Registration is quick and brands such as Karen Millen and Diane von Furstenberg have already reserved their own Pinterest space.

The Visual Edge

The chances are high that your business has already invested in photography services to convey the high quality of your brand. You can put this investment to full use with Pinterest. Inspiring and visually appealing photographs will definitely merit “re-pins” from other Pinterest users.

Think of Themes

Pinterest is all about visual pin boards with common themes. Find a theme where you can showcase your products or services. Do this creatively so that your pin boards will not look like they are nothing but a boring product catalogue. You can do this by posting images from the Web relevant to your theme.

To differentiate pictures which convey your products or services, you can put include information about its price. This signals to other Pinterest users that this particular image is something that is for sale.

Attract Attention

You can help organize your content in Pinterest by using hashtags. Yes, Pinterest supports hashtags such as Twitter. This makes it easier for users to find content and pictures with the help of hashtags

The “Pin It” button is another feature, which helps expand the network capabilities of Pinterest. If your content will interest users, they can use the “Pin It” button to place your images in their pin boards.

Precautions in Pinterest

To be successful in Pinterest, your business should not simply advertise your products and services. You should interact with other users and appreciate their content and inputs as well. Be an active member of the Pinterest community. Your pin boards should find ways to be useful and inspiring at the same time.

Also make sure that there are no copyright infringements in the photos you will pin in your pin boards. When creating themed pin boards, you may use external images and you should be careful about its copyright restrictions. There are free images in the Internet and there are some pictures, which need permission.

The Branding Potential of Pinterest

Pinterest is a community and as your business interacts with more users, it conveys a perception about you brand. Nurture your reputation as a Pinterest participant with meaningful content and images, which are both compelling, captivating, inspiring and useful. Success will then follow your brand.