3 Pinteresting Takeaways for Brands Looking to Hop on Board

All pun intended. But maybe the title should read “hop on boards” instead? You tell me.

It wasn’t until recently that I grasped how brands can benefit from adding Pinterest to their social media plans. According to an AdAge Digital article, Real Simple magazine saw more referrals to their website from Pinterest than from Facebook in October, and retailers like Etsy have capitalized on the site’s ability to drive purchases. So, Pinterest doesn’t just offer hours of personal entertainment – it also offers a strong advantage for brands.

Before your brand jumps on board with Pinterest, here are a few key takeaways to consider:

A brand’s presence on Pinterest shouldn’t be forced. As always, make sure your brand is relevant to the social network. According to HitWise, 58 percent of visitors are female, with 59 percent between 25- and 44-years-old. If a majority of your brand’s target audience doesn’t fall within this demographic, it may be difficult to gain traction on Pinterest. It’s also important to note that Pinterest is an image-dominated social network, so your brand must provide the image content users actually want to share.

Pinterest requires a higher level of involvement and investment. While a low level of involvement (i.e. broadcasting information) can work for some brands on Twitter and Facebook, Pinterest requires an even greater investment, as the main goal is to increase brand awareness and consumer engagement. You can follow the examples of the TIME Staff board and Today Show’s Anchor Antics board to give your consumers a behind the scenes look at your brand, which will raise awareness of your company culture. By creating contests like Lands’ End Canvas’ “Pin It to Win It” or gift guides like Nordstrom’s Valentine’s Day Gifts, you will also be able to engage consumers and, in turn, use their “likes” and “repins” as crowdsourced data — that’s a win-win situation.

Brands that choose to solely self-promote on Pinterest will run into a brick wall. Pinterest designer and co-founder Evan Sharp said, “For most consumer brands, the idea behind your brand makes sense on Pinterest.” What does that mean? You probably shouldn’t pin every single shirt your brand sells. Users won’t react favorably to that strategy because, after all, they could simply visit your brand’s website for that information. Lauren Drell suggests that brands should instead promote a lifestyle or promote the essence behind the brand:

Bon Appetit can’t just pin pictures from the website or magazine, but it can pin images of cooking appliances, beautiful kitchen decor, cutlery, dinner parties and delicious creations or recipes — basically anything related to cooking and food. Seeing these culinary items will continually drive home the Bon Appetit brand, thus making pinners more familiar with and more likely to trust the brand, visit the website and maybe even subscribe to the magazine.

A few brands that I believe are doing a great job of promoting a lifestyle include the Travel Channel, Whole Foods and West Elm.

What are some other best practices you’d suggest for brands looking to join Pinterest? Leave a comment to share your thoughts!

For more: Here’s a great plan from Liberty Jane Clothing that embodies the above takeaways.

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