It’s more than just the “social media channel of the hour,” a visual chatterfest for wedding planners or fashionistas. The image pinboard
site, Pinterest, presents some pretty solid reasons why a B2B marketer may want to develop a social targeting presence there.
1. It’s hot. Through June-December 2011, Pinterest traffic rose 4000%. Consumer retailers like Nordstrom and, Whole Foods are leveraging the site, but Mashable and Time Magazine are using the site, too, to post art and articles. You can trust there’ll be other B2B social marketing acolytes on this bandwagon, seeking ways to leverage the channel, even if only for a means of posting event photos or product sheets.
2. Visualizing your story. There are precious few “face-to-face” opportunities to impress, and Pinterest gives you a
chance to visually show off your products, people or culture in a way that’s uniquely engaging — because they’re pictures, and because
there’s a refreshing informality and ease about the user experience on each board. Post product shots – or shots of customers interacting with
your products. Or striking infographics that demonstrate ROI, or videos of tutorials and conferences. Or photographs, naturally, of
events, meetings, parties, the office dog…anything that takes advantage of this chance for positive visual engagement.
3. For SEO lift. Pinterest uses stored links with its image, so users can follow them back to their original locations. Those links
are considered inbound links to a site, which pumps up SEO. So post away with product info, blog posts, infographics, videos and more –
because it’ll help you in search.
4. To prove your category leadership. Social channels are becoming increasingly servicing individual industries. So create an
industry-specific Pinterest board accessible to all users, customers and competitors alike, to post their interests and content.
That’ll position you as being a high-minded leader within your category who’s all about shared knowledge and community.
5. Friendly persuasion. Pinterest’s ease of use allows you to create bulletin boards where you can share important (or
not-so-important) information readily. Whether it’s a photo gallery from an industry event, or sharing how-tos and hint guides about
everything from upcoming conferences to category news, use Pinterest to make yourself out as the good guy on the block — by facilitating
others!
6. The power of push. Pinterest is sort of a refreshingly laissez-fairechannel: you don’t need to create a page that needs constant updating
or maintenance. You can simply push out content at your leisure. Just make sure to tag and keyword your Pins to draw searches, or pin them to other boards with a signature that can lead users back to you.