Pinterest For Business: The Mind Shift Involved So Marketers Don't Ruin It For Everyone Else!

Copyright (c) 2012 Vizzitopia

With each new social network comes the question of whether or not it could be useful for business. It is equally true that as soon as marketers get anywhere near a social network, they ruin the fun for the rest of us! Part of this reality is that most marketers have a single focus - sell more stuff. The other part is there is nothing social about parting someone from the contents of their wallet.. Selling is transactional not social at all.

But you know all that.

So, how, then, should we marketers think of Pinterest for business? Can we add it to our marketing toolbox without ruining the fun for the huge numbers of people happily whiling away, according to Experian, "an average of 1 hour and 16 minutes a day?"

Pinterest is now the number 3 social network. The demographic, according to another metrics company, Modea, is "2/3 female, in households earning more than $100,000 and mostly American." What users are doing is grazing, window-shopping and dreaming about things they would like to have,rooms they'd like to live in,crafts they'd like to make,recipes they'd love to cook,clothes they'd love to wear andplaces they yearn to visit.This is just the surface, of course, there's more, much more.

Users curate these whims by "pinning" a picture onto a "pin board" so that they can come back and find the ideas whenever they need them. Pinterest, in this way, is the best, visual filing system going right now. As a marketer, you will want your products to sit on those boards.

But you will also want to potential customers to want to find out more about you and your service or product, and to come visit your "store" (website, ecommerce platform, brick and mortar store.) This is important to keep in mind.

And that's the new mind shift that using Pinterest for business brings to the table. Just like when Twitter arrived we all had to become better writers, more concise, efficient and pertinent. That 140 characters has to include a message PLUS a link. It forced us all to up our game and I believe that we marketers are the better for that discipline.

So, too, with Pinterest. By being purely visual, Pinterest forces us to become fluent in visual messaging. Each image pinned has to tell the whole story without any text. We can entice, encourage, implore folks to click the photo and come visit the source (our store) in the comments section, but it is the image itself that is the hook.

The most impactful images on Pinterest, the ones that get re-pinned over and over, the ones that become "viral" are those that are: dramatic,lush andarresting. If you can find an emotional element, that is good too. (Hence all the images of cute puppies napping with soft teddy bears.) Think: John-John saluting JFK's coffin.

Vertical images are more effective because of the way Pinterest is laid out. The info-graphics are the primary example here.

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