This is my Pinterest Review from 2012, when Pinterest first started.
You may or may not have heard, but there is a social media site called Pinterest. Unlike other social media sites where the main focus is to build a profile, with Pinterest, the emphasis is on “pinning” pictures that interest you to your various pin boards (hence the name Pinterest). From there, you can vote up pinned pictures, or make comments. Getting started with Pinterest is easy, but getting in is not quite as simple. Here’s my Pinterest Review.
When Pinterest first started, the only way to get on Pinterest was through an invite from someone already on Pinterest. Once you get your invite, you could use either your Facebook, or Twitter account to set up a new Pinterest account. Once you have logged in, you could upload a picture to serve as the avatar for your profile. From there you are taken to a listing of default “pin boards” where you can start pinning up pictures immediately to get you going (ex. Pictures of Me, Things I Love, etc.). You can even make up your own pin boards, and pin pictures to them as well. There are several categories to choose from, such as Art, Fitness, and Sports. There’s even an Other category if you still can’t find a category that would fit your picture. Surprisingly enough, Pinterest is not limited to just pinning pictures. You can also pin videos as well. So if you have a favorite video that you would like to share with others, just go ahead, and pin it up.
Now, in 2017, you can set up a Pinterest account without jumping through hoops and getting an invite. Turns out that that was the way they got people to feel “special” by getting an invite to their network. It must have worked–because Pinterest, today, is a thriving social media network.
Here’s where it gets interesting for those who are doing marketing (and why I’m doing a pinterest review), and looking for a new avenue to market your products (for those who haven’t figured out some ideas already). Pinterest also has a Gifts category that is sectioned off according to price. Therefore, if you are looking to market a low, or high dollar item, then doing so on Pinterest is a possibility. Please keep in mind that spamming the site will get this feature shut down eventually, so please utilize this feature with wisdom, and some degree of moderation.
Here are some ideas of how you can use Pinterest to market your products:
— Write an article about various products that you offer under a particular price point (ex: Great Gift Ideas Under $20). Pin the pictures in the article to a pin board in your Pinterest account, and share them with others.
— Create a video teaching someone how to do something, and share the video on Pinterest. To make this idea even more powerful, you could write an article, or blog post, and include the video on the blog post, and then pin the video from the blog post to your Pinterest account.
— Take some funny pictures in your area, or neighborhood, and put the URL to your website at the bottom of the picture, and then share the picture on one of your pin boards.
While Pinterest is definitely a marketer’s dream, in order to help keep it that way, there are still a few things to ask yourself before posting a product picture, or video to Pinterest:
— Does the picture that you’re sharing provide value? Is it one that people would be willing to share? If the picture appeared in a regular magazine, would people pause to look at it, or would they skip right over it?
— Does the information in the video that you are sharing solve a problem? Does it highlight something unusual, or different? If its a video that you wouldn’t mind writing an article about, then there is a good chance it would do well on Pinterest.
— Have I “Liked”, or commented on other media shared on Pinterest that is not my own? If you show that you are interested in other people’s work, this will persuade people to be more accepting of your marketing efforts.
Pinterest definitely has some great possibilities in regards to marketing. Since the majority of people who use Pinterest are interested in finding interesting things on the internet, and also sharing those little known gems with others, Pinterest is a great place to share your articles, pictures, and videos with a growing population of people who engage with others via social media. Also, due to the fact that person wishing to join Pinterest must first get an invite from someone already on Pinterest, you won’t have to worry about having only “spam bots” view your shared media. But again, all of this must be taken with a grain of salt. If Pinterest is used wisely, then it can continue to be a profitable marketing avenue for many years to come. But if it is abused, then soon restrictions will be put in place making it difficult to market successfully on Pinterest. Keep that in mind when you formulate your marketing plans for Pinterest.
Feel free to get in touch with me. And don’t forget to follow me, you can follow me on Pinterest as Bhartzer.