Pinterest offers businesses the unique chance to interact and engage with customers on a regular basis. Using Pinterest in your social media marketing program benefits your brand because regular interaction with your consumers on their turf (in this case, Pinterest) encourages a sense of appreciation and loyalty within for your brand. If you have an online presence but don’t interact with your audience you may seem aloof and disconnected, which can negatively impact your brand’s influence. On the other hand, if you use social media marketing on Pinterest, one of the fastest growing and most popular social platforms, you seem approachable and sympathetic to what your audience finds important. Clearly, social media marketing with Pinterest is a highly effective way to reach and grow your audience. Not sure yet how Pinterest can be used to engage your consumers? Here are 10 ways you can use Pinterest as a (free!) engagement program to interact with current consumers and attract new ones.
10 Social Media Marketing Tips for Pinterest Beginners
1. Regularly post new pins from your business or brand’s website to let your followers know about new products and services that your company offers.
2. Regularly check your messages, shares and news feed on Pinterest. Your consumer engagement ability depends greatly on your ability to relate to and understand your customers and by reading and browsing their pins, you’ll be more aware of what matters to them.
3. Knowing what matters to your consumers isn’t just important for engaging your current consumers – tweak the content that you’re pinning to attract attention from new customers and expand your consumer base.
4. Make sure your pins achieve a balance between self-promotional and consumer interest content. A good rule of thumb is to post self-promotional content only 20% of the time, with the other 80% being non-promotional content that your consumers find appealing.
Engage Consumers with Pinterest’s “Like,” “Pin,” and “Follow” Features
5. First of all, make sure you regularly “like” posts by clicking the “like” button at the top of a post. If you do not want to re-pin or comment on a post, but want your customer to know you’re paying attention, the “like” option is perfect!
6. Occasionally comment on the content that your target audience is pinning, an effective way to communicate to your audience that you are seeing what they’re pinning and you’re willing to engage with them, which obviously goes a long way in running an effective social media marketing campaign.
7. If the content is appropriate or relevant to your brand, be sure to re-pin your followers’ posts. People put a lot of a time into their Pinterest accounts, so make sure you acknowledge and appreciate this through re-pinning what they’ve posted.
8. Additionally, make sure you use Pinterest’s “follow” feature with your brand’s more loyal fans and customers. Following someone on Pinterest is a bit more of a “commitment” than liking, commenting, or repinning their content, as it ensures that whatever they pin shows up on your feed.
Contests are Effective Ways to Expand Your Social Media Audience on Pinterest
9. Get your readers, followers and customers involved with your pins. Ask them to re-pin and re-post your pictures to enter a contest or giveaway. Each person who re-pins your content will get one entry, or you could allow multiple entries for your brand followers who pin your content multiple times.
10. Hold contests regularly to give away gift certificates or free product to readers. This lets your readers know that you value their business and are willing to go out of your way to give them something special.
Pinterest Isn’t the Only Effective Social Media Marketing Program
There are plenty of other free online tools that are excellent for expanding your audience, engaging your consumers, and promoting business loyalty. Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and many more social media marketing tools can be used with exciting results. If you’d like to learn about other social media marketing methods that you can use to connect with your clients, Thrive Internet Marketing is available and we’re experts at social media marketing! Don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll get you started on a successful social media marketing program!
