Pinterest: Not just for recipes and home decor
17 September 2012 by Kerri Moran
My sister was the first person to tell me how great Pinterest was for her business (interior design). I immediately understood why that would be as her line of work is highly visual. She creates specific boards for each of her clients and “pins” images of furniture, paint color, and room concepts that fit with what home design plans. She also includes a description of each pin so that when her client goes and reviews their personal board they see her reasoning as to why she chose those specific images and what her vision is for taking that idea and incorporating into her design plan. Current and potential clients can also view her boards and see what she’s working on with other clients, which gives them insight to the depth of her design skills and offers them options.
Well, I don’t work with interior designers; I work with B2B technology companies. So how am I supposed to counsel my clients on how to best use Pinterest for something like contact center or mainframe technology? It’s actually very similar to how my sister the interior designer uses Pinterest.
The biggest challenge for B2B users is getting over the perception that Pinterest is just for pinning crockpot recipes and home furnishings. According to a recent study from The Creative Group, 61% of advertising and marketing executives interviewed are hesitant or not interested in using Pinterest for business purposes and only 7% reported they’re already using it.
Some suggestions for Pinterest success from The Creative Group include:
- Make it easy and intuitive for viewers to find what they’re looking for, and create a clear, concise title for each board
- Make certain viewers understand the context of pins by labeling personal portfolio samples
- When repinning, comment on the compelling nature of the image
- The best way to attract more eyes to your Pinterest page is to engage with other pinners to attract more eyes
To get an idea for a how some B2B companies are using Pinterest, take a look here. You’ll see how to add visual appeal to products and services that may not normally be highly visual (software, marketing services, etc.).
Many people scoffed at the value Twitter and Facebook would have for B2B companies, but they were clearly wrong about that, so at the very least consider Pinterest as an option for your company, and in the words of the company, “Happy pinning!”
