April 26, 2012
If ‘social networking’ makes you think ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’, it might be time for you to move on! That’s not to say that these popular websites are becoming passé, but they are definitely suffering from an element of user fatigue. The new kid on the block is ‘Pinterest,’ an interactive social photo-sharing website, which gives users a chance to pin images of anything they wish to, and re-pin any images that might be of their interest.
Put simply, the website is like a board that you could have in your living room, or office reception, on which you could pin articles, pictures, notes, reminders, or simply a newspaper clipping that you found interesting. Pinterest allows you to do just that, only that this ‘board’ is visible to all the users on the site. The concept is quickly gaining popularity, with Pinterest being labeled as the ‘fastest growing social service in the world’.
What the website is basically doing, is replacing content with images. There is nothing new about the fact that images and visuals are more captivating to the human eye than blocks of text. Pinterest allows you to bank on this fact, and use it to the advantage of your business. Just as Facebook and Twitter have proven to be a great marketing tool for SMEs, Pinterest is also emerging as a lucrative option for business enterprises for drawing attention to the products that they have on offer.
The great thing about it is that you do not need to invest all the time and effort that goes into delivering your message through words that will grasp the attention of the users. As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words! That’s exactly what you are doing on Pinterest- letting the images do all the talking. However, Pinterest is about a lot more than simply posting images of your products online. With a little more innovation, there are endless ways that you can draw attention to your business, and allow make sure that users re-pin your pins.
The basic concept is getting as many re-pins and likes as possible, since each time your pin is re-pinned, a link to your home page. You can create different boards with varying themes, based on user behavior, by taking into account what exactly users want to see when they visit the website. You can also organize surveys, hold contests, and promote offers using the website. So get yourself an invite on Pinterest, and start pinning now!