Social Media Marketing
It’s not breaking news that companies have started to become more innovative by using social media as a platform to market their products. As social media sites began to rise, so did companies efforts to conquer the digital realm. A company’s involvement in these sites can greatly impact how well they compete with the competition, and subsequently, how long they will stay in business. In the past few years, the competition to have the best social media approach has been fierce, with companies paying people for the most inventive ideas. Companies on Facebook and Twitter? That’s old news. The headlines now should say, “Are companies making enough of an effort on Pinterest?”
The Rise of Pinning
Pinterest is the new social media darling. With the site just catching on recently, some of you may have some questions about what all the hype is about. Well, basically, Pinterest is a way to share images of what you are really interested in to followers. Cute pets, crazy furniture, dream vacation spots, if you can think of a category, you can share it on your own virtual pinboard. Users can post images they find on the web to these boards by "pinning" them. Also, if you see something you like on someone else's board you can simply repin it to your own.
Company Pinboards
With Pinterest’s growing popularity, it would seem logical for companies to make a move towards marketing on the site. However, from what I’ve seen on my attempted searches on the site, not as many companies as you’d think have jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon. These companies are missing out on great marketing opportunities. By having a Pinterest account, companies can make boards featuring pictures of their products and services. Also, clicking on a pin takes you to the site the image was originally taken from. So, if someone likes what they see, they can easily click on the companies pin and be taken directly to the website. Pinterest is also promising in that users can also repin to their site, effectively advertising for the company. An exapmle of this that I've seen is Victoria’s Secret. They company made a Pinterest account for their Pink products. Their boards feature pictures of their products as well as cute, girly pictures, which many people (myself included) would find worthy of a repin.
Pinning Customers
Although having a Pinterest account would be a great strategy for companies, an argument could be made that companies don’t need one. The idea of having a pinboard is to share things you love. Successful companies stay in business for a reason, people love their products. Companies may not need to waste their money paying someone to come up with ideas for their Pinterest account, because their loyal customers already advertise for them- for free. If you type in a company, or the name of one of their products, into the search bar on Pinterest, thousands of results will prove that people are pinning pictures, with links attached, of products they love. Also, a popular name for a pinboard is in fact “Products I Love.” Although the images don’t always link directly to the company website, the image and idea is still out there. And for the pins that do actually link to companies websites, well that’s even better. Want proof? Try searching “Big Mac.” The number of pins you get results for are astounding. Not all of them are real Big Mac’s, but the name and image are similar, and put the burger on your mind. In the end, the constant cycle of pinning, repinning, and creating boards may generate enough free advertising for companies to ask the question: why pay for something you can get for free?
What is Pinterest?
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