If you’re like me, life comes to a full boil at least once a day. (Now that school is back in session, that once-a-day usually occurs right around 7:45 in the morning.) Just as one kid tumbles down the stairs, another produces a forgotten homework assignment. Meanwhile, my cell phone won’t stop chirping at me and I suddenly realize that we’re out of milk.
And then it’s time to get to work, where a whole other set of challenges await me.
Sometimes my four-mile commute to the office just isn’t long enough to help me switch gears. But now I have a new way to hit “refresh” and get started on my second shift: Pinterest.
Have you discovered this super cool website yet? It’s a simple virtual bulletin board on which people “pin” images of their favorite things, whether they be baby hedgehogs or bridesmaid dresses; the cutest of cupcakes or a cut set of abs. For me, Pinterest surfs are as energizing as my essential cups of coffee. When I scroll through the site, I might be looking for a great gift idea but find myself lingering over a sumptuous plate of spaghetti, a clever portable salad system, or a way to belt a blouse that I hadn’t considered.
Unlike some bulletin board sites (Delicious, for instance) Pinterest seems to have a distinct voice and aesthetic—one that’s whimsical, rhapsodic, classic, and very, very cute.
In other words, feminine.
It’s clear—from both the names of the “pinners” and the growing number of my female friends who are obsessed with Pinterest—that the site is driven by women.
So what does this mean for marketers and how can you leverage this increasingly popular social media site.
Here are a few tips to get you started.
- Think about your audience and what they value and provide a mix of content that is interesting and engaging to them.
- Like other social media tools, Pinterest is not purely a self promotion tool. It’s about developing a conversation that requires a delicate mix of pinning your own content and repinning others’ content.
- Be sure to follow people with like interests. Following people on Pinterest is as important as pinning.
- Determine how often you are going to pin and make sure you have a good variety of content that will keep people interested.
With almost 1.4 million active users on Facebook, Pinterest is yet another interesting tool in the ever growing social media toolbox.
Meanwhile, download our free Pinterest Whitepaper.
