I started using Pinterest a few months ago and fell in love. To me, Pinterest is like flipping through the pages of a magazine filled with images of the things I like best: home decor. Blythe. Awesome outfits. Cute baby animals. And, I admit, even some recipes…even though I am NOT a cook. To me, Pinterest is pure fun.
Recently I’ve started seeing a rash of blog posts and articles about how Pinterest drives a ton of traffic and/or is in some other way the magic bullet for businesses. I don’t doubt it; I know I’ve made at least one purchase as a result of seeing something on Pinterest, and I have a friend who is runs a pediatric staffing business who raves about Pinterest. In fact, her company’s booth at the ASHA Convention featured postcards and booth art promoting their Pinterest account.
However, before you decide that you MUST set up an account for your business and start pinning, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Pinterest is VISUAL. If you’re Real Simple magazine or a pediatric staffing company, Pinterest is a great fit. If your organization is the professional society for a medical profession or some kind of trade, maybe not so much.
- Pinterest users are primarily female. According to Alexa, 54-70% of Pinterest users are female. But you don’t even need Alexa to tell you that; just go check out Pinterest if you haven’t already. It’s pretty obvious the majority of users are female. Is your organization’s key demographic female?
- Can what your organization does be articulated through images? And not just photos from conferences or other bland images, but artistic images? And are those images housed on your website, or on other sites? If one of the main business benefits of Pinterest is driving traffic back to websites, if the sites on which your images reside don’t belong to you, it won’t do you much good.
Do you know of any organizations that are using Pinterest? Do you have any tips of your own to share?
