Pinterest: Twitter's baby sister

Pinning

Pinterest, a virtual pinboard, is an emerging social media tool which is quickly gaining popularity. It allows users to explore, upload and pin pictures to their boards. Pinterest is interesting and addicting because it’s unpredictable. Tabs labeled “Everything,” “Videos,” “Popular” and “Gifts” allow users to explore pins and even purchase products. The “Everything” tab includes 32 categories of interests ranging from wedding & events to cars & motorcycles. The “Gifts” tab includes six price ranges for consumers to explore products.

Pinterest has features similar to Twitter, making it a powerful social media tool for brands to utilize.

Hashtags Meet Interest Categories

Just like Twitter uses hashtags, Pinterest uses pinboards and interest categories to organize content. Users upload and repin pictures to their boards. These pinboards are tagged with at least one of the 32 interest categories, allowing users to search a specific interest and find pins. For example: If I’m looking for a dessert recipe, I would search “Food & Drink.” The results would be any pins on boards categorized under this interest.

Interest categories are extremely helpful to brands. They can search interests relevant to them, staying updated with pins regarding their brand, competition and all things regarding that interest category. Depending on what’s of interest to them, brands can follow one of a user’s pinboards rather than all of them.

Retweet Meet Repin

Serving a purpose similar to retweeting, users can repin pins to their pinboards. Just like Twitter, the option to repin something gives content on Pinterest the potential to go viral. Pins may be continually repined by other users. The more times a pin is repined, the more users it will reach, promoting that pin and particular brand.

Traffic Driver

Similar to tweeting links, clicking on pins drives traffic from Pinterest to another site. Brands want to gain attention and spark interest in their products. When users click on pins and are driven to another site, it’s obvious that the pin/product grabbed their attention. Promotion on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest drives traffic to another site, crucial to increasing their traffic.

Integration

Just as users can sync their Twitter and Facebook accounts, pins may be shared on Facebook, tweeted on Twitter or emailed. When users have the option to share content on other social media platforms, chances are they’re going to do it. It’s beneficial to a brand when its product gets repined, but it’s even more beneficial if it gets shared on a different social media platform. Integration like this makes it easy to share content on multiple social media platforms, reaching different audiences and demographics.

Pinterest allows brands and individuals to implement a “Pin It” button on their product pages, blog posts, et cetera, allowing people to easily pin content from the web.

Future

According to a Mashable article, brands can use Pinterest in five effective ways. Brands may hold contests, requesting submissions from followers. “Social media focus groups” may be used for product launches by testing it out on Pinterest. Brands can show off their personalities and showcase their portfolios through pins. Pinterest lets brands cultivate their relationships with consumers by communicating visually.

Visit Pinterest to explore your brand’s pinning potential!