Entries Tagged as 'pinterest'

want pinterest to help your business?

Pinterest had been confusing me for a while. I couldn’t see the point in it. It seemed like a kind of electronic scrapbook that didn’t have any business application.

But being a social media lemming, I started an account anyway.

The more I started to think about this strangely popular new media tool, the more I kinda understood how it might be of benefit to my business. Again, I don’t know if there will be a direct ROI, but I think from an awareness level, Pinterest may help build my brand. I’m willing to give it a shot, anyway.

It’s a work in progress for me but here’s what I’ve learned from reading, asking questions and experimenting:

1. What’s your business purpose for being on Pintrest?
If you just want to scrapbook that’s fine but my guess is if you are a business, you’re trying to impress and get the attention (or interest) of a prospect or more specifically a type or category of prospects. This leads to the next question….

2. Have you thought about the prospects you want to attract?
Think about it…and be as specific as possible. First, look at the your most beloved (highest billing) clients. Do they have any similarities….interests, topics, images, some kind of information that these prospects would find so interesting that they’d spend time on your Pinterest site and possibly connect with you. Then think about subsets of other clients and maybe create some boards on Pinterest that they would find interesting.

For example, two audiences I want to attract are other voiceover talents (who might want to participate in my Voice Over Workshop) and advertising agency creative directors.

3. Let your Pinterest page become a resource for your prospects
So you know WHO you want to attract and WHAT they would find interesting so now you have to go about finding the stuff. The stuff these folks are looking for likely isn’t all about you and your business so making your whole Pinterest site a commercial for your business won’t be of interest to them. Instead, look at it like you are trying to help solve a problem for them or giving them interesting ideas that will help their business. They theory being that if you can help them via social media, you could probably help them in real life via your business.

So back to the examples – for the voice-over talents, I have pictures on my Pinterest page from the many voice-over meet-ups I have had over the years. I know from my blogging that these pictures (and accompanying posts are some of the most read on my blog). For my advertising prospects, they might find my logo collection interesting.

Like I said earlier, for me this is all a work in process and my Pinterest page is still evolving, but it’s a start.

So organize your thoughts on your prospects and then do some searching. You’ll not only find things that interest your clients, your research may help you better understand your clients a little better. That kind of knowledge goes a lot further than just a social media page.

I hope this helps.

If you have an interesting take on how you’re making Pintrest work for your business, please let me know below in the comments section. And of course, feel free to connect with me on any social media channel!