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Health & Fitness

Pinterest for Companies

Pinterest is the newest thing in social media and another way to visually showcase your business.

Just a month into 2012, we already have one answer to the question "What is new with social media?"

The new platform Pinterest has been around for two years but has recently caught fire in the past two months. If you do not know what Pinterest is, it is a site built on recommendations as members can "pin" items they like to their board. An image based platform where users create and name boards anything they like (places to visit, recipes, quotes to live by, etc.). For example, there is a picture of a food dish and when you click on the photo a link takes you to the recipe on how to make that food dish. Fantastic for personal use, but what about brands?

Here are several ways that brands and small businesses can utilize Pinterest.

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New Products - Companies can create one board solely for this purpose to showcase any new products that have launched whether it be apparrel, food dishes, new exhibites, etc. Pinterest has commenting and repinning capabilities, which allows for excellent consumer feedback on new products. Brands can easily gather the information on what people are saying about the product and if it is being well received. Basically, you would be using the platform as a mini focus group.

Personality - This is one I think that we may see more of in the coming months. It's good for brands to showcase employees and what is going on behind the scenes. With this year being an election year and the big elections this summer here in Wisconsin, candidates can show users their campaign trail, some of the community events they are associated with and some of the issues that they are in favor of. When you 'pin' something to Pinterest it allows for a description of that 'pin' and a link, a great way to tell your story to the audience.

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Engage with Consumers - Just like Facebook and Twitter, Pinterst is a Social Media site. It allows companies to interest act with consumers and build relationships with people who are already using your products. By commenting on their pin and re-pinning it to one of your boards is encouraging them to follow you and re-pin some of yours and possibly post photos of them with your product on your board. You are building a community, a group of people who already love your products and are sharing them for you. All of this will prove to the consumer that you want their opinion and it is important to you.

Great for SEO - By pinning an image and attaching the link to a blog post about that image or to the product itself on your website, you are allowing the search engines to pick up your content. The idea is to have people repin your items and click the link. The more repinning and sharing of items the better. It has been said that Pinterest is driving more traffic to your site than Google+ and Linkedin combined. So, when you pin something, include a valuable link.

One thing I did not mention is that not only do you pin photos, but you can pin videos. If you have them on your YouTube channel just use that link and the video will play right in Pinterst. Overall, Pinterest can become an important part of your businesses social strategy if you use it correctly. By having fun with it and being creative, you should experience more traffic to your website and/or blog. Remember, it is like any other social site - you have to nurture it and build your community. Happy Pinning!

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