When is a picture worth a thousand words? These days, practically always. Pinterest is no longer just a digital scrapbook for personal interests — most businesses today are discovering that it offers solid audience interaction and a pumped up social media presence. Turns out, there is a method to the madness behind all those fun pics.

The platform’s professional services allow for engagement-generating activities that connect your audience to your website and open up a new way to interact with your brand or even buy your goods or services directly. We’ve helped some of our tourism clients showcase their destinations on Pinterest with custom itinerary boards, but we also see how it has practical application for any type of organization.

PROVE IT

• That search thing. Pinterest provides opportunities to use industry-related keywords, and by using keywords wisely, you get your content ranked higher on Pinterest searches and Google.
• Pump it up. As a brand-building tool, Pinterest offers another level of diversification in social marketing, but most importantly, it’s a great way to drive traffic to your website.
• Consider the numbers. On average, Pinterest buyers spend more (not just our opinion: facts exist from people who like to study stuff,) are generally 40 years old and younger and have disposable income. If any of that hits on your target audience, it only makes sense to start getting on board (creating some boards!) with Pinterest.

READY, SET, PIN

• Yours & theirs. There are two ways to get started: curating boards and pinning from what already exists on Pinterest, or adding your own custom pins. Both are essential, but while it’s important to pin things from other pinners, make sure you’re producing original content as well. These are good examples.
• Visual appeal. Images rule on Pinterest (though video works great, too), so you want strong examples that will capture those glances and enhance your brand. Also, make sure you get the size right.
• Pins, pins, everywhere. Cross-promote amongst all your social media, or use any original images you create in your newsletters or eblasts. Also, brand all of your images to ensure you get recognition when pins are shared or looked at outside the context of one of your boards.

TIPS TO TRY

• Mix it up. Consider doing holiday, seasonal or special event boards.
• Share and be shared. Create user-generated boards so followers can like and share. For example, have people show what they do around town if you’re a destination.
• Your information never looked so good. Infographics are a good custom-post idea — just make sure they are well designed and informative to your purpose.
• Text counts too (and helps people find you during searches). Use the space you’re given, include pin descriptions and link back to your website.
• Two (or more) for one. Repurpose content created from other places, such as blog posts.
• Don’t smile. It may seem odd, but research has shown that pins without people in them actually perform better on Pinterest. This goes against the rule, generally, of what you want to do on your website and other social sites, but in the case of Pinterest, stick to places and things.

REMEMBER THIS

• Relevancy matters. Resist the urge to get too pin happy. Aim for quality over quantity and curate Pinterest as you would any of your social platforms. We sometimes see boards and pins that get a little off topic and delve into reflecting the personal nature of whoever is managing the account. Though it’s perfectly fine to mix in some non-brand related content, just make sure it has some relevancy to your organization and is not overdone.
• Stick to the plan. Well, first, make one. Always remember you’re doing this for marketing and brand building, so pin down (yep) what message you’d like to convey and aim to have all your pins reflect that objective.
• Also, stick to a schedule. Don’t get lost in the process! All those fun, bright images may suck you in and we know it can be tempting to get lost scrolling through recipes or beauty tips, but schedule your professional Pinterest time and stick to it.

 Happy pinning!