As a business, you know by now how important it is to have a presence on Social Media. Brands can’t just push a message out to everyone anymore, they must be engaged in the conversation with their targeted audience. But another important factor is knowing where to engage.
Pinterest, the image-bookmarking site, recently launched Promoted Pins for brand advertisers to push pins into user’s home feeds. Before, Promoted Pins were only shown on category pages and search results pages. This is a huge announcement for many businesses! Pinterest has nearly 70 million users with 85% of these users being female. A survey done by Cowen and Company shows the average time spent on the site is 20.8 minutes. However, this announcement doesn’t mean every business on the block should jump onto this new marketing bandwagon.
Your business needs to target the correct audience; that means a brand should only be on the Social Media platforms that are appropriate for the business’ audience. You should be spending your valuable time and resources on platforms where your most valuable potential customers spend their time.
In order to know if Pinterest is the correct platform for your brand, you must first look into who is using this popular image saving site. Another study, done by researchers at the University of Minnesota and Georgia Tech, says the site’s most pinned categories are food & drink, crafts, home décor, and fashion. Even among the men who use the site, their most popular categories are photography, art, design, and home décor. These insights show that the majority of users on this site are highly creative individuals looking for inspiration.
Ask yourself, is this your target audience – creative people in your local area that are looking for inspiration?
In order for a business to engage with this targeted audience on Pinterest you must market your brand differently. Again, you’re not sending a message, you’re engaging in the conversation. Think of it this way, a car dealer shouldn’t promote the cars they currently have for sale on their lot, but, rather, they should promote pins that build a relationship and trust with their target audience. Pins should inspire ideas like different interior or exterior car designs, road tripping destinations, food and games to take along on road trips, safety features in cars for children, and winter survival kits to keep in your car. These pins would connect the car dealer with his customers.
Pins should be created to build relationships with users. Company’s pins should interact with audience members that have a high potential to turn into loyal customers. Pinterest is a visual blog that shows your brand’s personality. Pinterest is the place to give your targeted audience a view into the brand, not just the products.