With image-heavy content and a myriad of topics, Pinterest can be an effective social media marketing tool for construction professionals.
Think Pinterest is not for business? Think again. Often associated with crafters and hobbyists, Pinterest can be overlooked by businesses. Believe it or not, there is a place for home builders and remodelers on Pinterest. In fact, Pinterest has more than 100 million daily active users and billions of “pins”. According to their success stories, major powerhouse companies like Bank of America and Sony use Pinterest, and home renovators like Bob Vila reported a 33% increase in referral traffic to their website.
If you are part of the Pinterest community or interested in joining for the first time, there are a few things to consider before getting started…
Know Your Audience – In order to get the most out of Pinterest, you should have a basic understanding of who you are reaching. This is important because the content you develop for Pinterest should be relevant to users and cater to their interests. According to the latest stats and a Pew Research report published last year, Pinterest is dominated by a female audience. That being stated, Pinterest has reported an impressive 120% increase in male monthly users in 2015. The social media platform is also known for being popular with millennials as they are using it as much as Instagram (source: Business Insider).
Use the Tools – Pinterest has a section of tools dedicated to the business user. From tracking tools like Pinterest Analytics to promoted pins, there are a variety of ways to engage your audience and build awareness of your brand. Additionally, you can find easy-to-follow guidelines to maximize use of Pinterest by checking out their Brand Guidelines page.
Develop Interesting Content – In addition to knowing your audience, your content should be interesting and dynamic. Pinterest is all about sharing and “pinning” content, so post images that people will want to share. High quality images are important, as well as ones that have text overlay from how-to information to a call to action. The image is the first thing your Pinterest audience will see, so make sure it is original and visually appealing. Although it makes sense to envision Pinterest as an extended portfolio of sorts, don’t limit yourself. Consider sharing videos, infographics, customer success stories and links to blog posts or other original content that would be of interest to your viewers.
Get the Pin It/Save button – Just as with any social media platform, you will want to make sure your website visitors can find you on Pinterest, as well as pin content from your website. Along with having a Pinterest widget included in the sharing links of your website, add a save button (pin it button) to your website; this will allow site visitors to share content from your website, enabling your brand to gain greater exposure.
Optimize Pins for Searches – The number of categories can be intimidating for first time users of Pinterest. To remedy the issue, search functionality was recently upgraded with a new added feature called Guided Search. With this tool, pinners can use descriptive guides to help sift through content. In order to be easily found, you will need to create pins that are in appropriate categories for your business. Look into the most popular categories and assess whether or not your content fits within them. To optimize content for searches, make descriptions as detailed as possible. For example, instead of “kitchen tile”, describe it as “blue subway tile for kitchen backsplash”. Along with descriptions, the images should follow proper dimensions (ex: profile photo 600×600).
From developing creative and relevant content to adding save/pin buttons to your website and other profiles, your business can become a visible member of the Pinterest community. As a home builder, creating original, professional and beautiful designs is the easy part; now it’s just a matter of getting out there and welcoming pinners into the world of your business, ideas and designs.
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