We all know that Pinterest is a no brainer if you want to sell jewelry, bags, clothes and other awesome “visual items”. But what about for B2B marketers? Mastering the social network can be pretty tricky. With Pinterest’s rapidly growing user base, ignoring it could prove to be a costly mistake.
So how is successful B2B marketing on Pinterest done? For those a little curious, I want to help you out. I recently came across several interesting articles offering some great tips for marketers to get the most out of Pinterest. So let’s get down to it.
Humanize Your Company
Agile marketer, Jim Ewel, offers up several suggestions in his post from the agile marketing blog. He points out that Pinterest, like most other social networks, is a great place to humanize your company. People have always preferred interacting with other people, not amorphous brands. Today’s customer wants to conduct business with others they trust, and Pinterest is a great place to start cultivating that relationship. For example, Ewel suggests “Instead of posting boring images of your executive in blue suites on your About use page, how about linking to a Pinterest board, with pictures of your executives actively engaging with customers and employees”. Ewel also suggests using Pinterest to announce and celebrate corporate events. Posting several photos from employees or by a professional photographer is a great way to help give your audience a “behind the scenes” sense of what goes on inside the organization.
Engage with your Audience
Another benefit of social networks is that companies now have a direct line to their target audience, so use it. Ewel writes, “Share new designs of products on Pinterest. Ask for visual feedback. Hold contests, asking customers to pin pictures of how they use your product.” A great example of a Pinterest contest designed to increase customer interaction was what AMC Theaters did for the 2012 Academy Awards. AMC created a pin board featuring all of the Oscar nominees in the Best Picture, Director, and Actors categories. Contestants were then asked to “pin” the photo of each of their choices to a board titled “My Oscar Picks”. The movie fans who most accurately predicted the winners won tickets to the AMC Best Picture Showcase.
Infographics, Videos, Ebooks…
Odds are that you are already producing some of these so why not get the most out of them. Infographics are all the rage right now. Because of their visual nature, they are an excellent medium screaming to be taken advantage of on Pinterest. If your organization is not producing original infographics, no problem you can still take advantage of the craze. Try setting up a board of curated infographics that reflect your brand.
Did you know that Pinterest also allows users to pin videos? So, in addition to posting your new videos on your site, and on YouTube, try pinning them to your boards. Think of it as just one more way to reach your customers. The same can be said for ebooks and whitepapers. While ebooks and whitepapers are certainly the least visual of the three, there are several things you can do to make them more pin-able. For example, try adding the covers of these reports to a board that’s a collection of ebooks for people to read. If you’re not in the habit of making your ebook covers visual, make a point to give them better design from now on to make them pin friendly – you’ll be happy you did.
It’s that simple. Give some of these simple suggestions a try, and you will quickly be on your way to mastering Pinterest B2B marketing in no time.
