By Published On: March 7, 2012

by Jordan Bainer, Senior Account Executive at d.trio

All the internet is abuzz with marketing bloggers, social media experts, and data research firms extolling Pinterest for it’s ability to draw in users to visual stimuli and then drive them elsewhere to find more information and take action. It’s still considered a budding social channel, and there is no indication that it’s growth and significance will wane anytime soon (if the below rate of unique visitor growth stays consistent).

 

Source: comScore data and @MDGadvertising infographic

We’ve watched this social channel hit critical mass and provide ripe opportunity for marketers to participate with this engaged audience. To help you decide whether your business should jump into the fray, below are 6 “do’s and don’ts” for Pinterest management:

DO – Spend time following your target audience first to see what resonates with them before you beginning posting. By narrowing down your target’s interest categories, you can save time and effort in how you organize your content.

DO – Post often. As with any social channel, taking a break from sharing content can be a relationship killer. Create a plan to post content on a daily or bi-daily basis.

DO – React to your target. Just posting content to your boards isn’t going to start a trusting, two-way conversation. Narrow down a few target audience influencers (those with a significant following of their own) and regularly comment on their postings relevant to your brand (but don’t go too overboard!). In this same vein, do NOT allow a comment to go unanswered on any of your postings. Use this as an opportunity to connect on a personal level.

DON’T – Expect your target audience to find you. Pinterest does a great job finding and suggesting relevant influencers for users to follow, making users less active in searching out relevant friends. Make a goal of connecting with a set number of your target audience each week, hopefully spreading your influence outward.

DON’T – Oversell yourself. Though Pinterest allow users to link images to relevant retail sites, you shouldn’t be using the medium to only sell your wares. Pinterest allows you as a marketer to capture your brand’s essence through related visuals and images relevant to your target audience. Keep a healthy mix of your original content and shared content.

DON’T – Keep Pinterest to yourself. Put a team together that can manage your Pinterest account in order to keep content fresh and invite various opinions/viewpoints. With the ‘boards’ feature, you can easily separate your content by topic/interest/category- making it easy to divvy up the responsibilities of postings and conversations among different individuals. As with any social channel, put a policy in place to help guide the team’s actions without hindering their creativity.

Keep in mind, Pinterest is only one of many social channels that you can use to interact with your target audience(s).  If your company/brand needs to use visuals to get information across, then it may be worth your time to explore this medium. Just remember with all social channels – you get out what you put in.

Jordan Bainer is a senior account executive at d.trio. New to Minneapolis, he comes from the land of Lincoln (Chicago specifically) where he began as a media planner at Starcom Worldwide and evolved into a account strategist at the higher education focused agency, Lipman Hearne. He spends his time arguing with others on the taste profiles of beer and pretending he’s someone else through improv comedy.

About the Author: cat-tonic

cat-tonic
Born of curiosity and enthusiasm, we’re a scrappy group of smart, passionate marketers who work hard and play hard. We show up every day and fight for our clients who are making the world a better place. We listen with curiosity, explore deeply, ask hard questions, and sometimes put forth ideas that might make you squirm. Because we believe the status quo is good for growing mold but not much else. The way we see it, change is the way forward and the magic happens when curiosity, math, science, instinct, and talent intersect.
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