Aspirational social network Pinterest has grown leaps and bounds over the past couple of years. It went from being a fun, tiny community of early adopters to one of the most gigantic social networks ever created.
Sure, it lacks the ad click potential of Facebook, or the influencer reach of Twitter. But it has something that no other network has: it inspires people to do things. In this way it is somewhat similar to Instagram (another aspirational social community), yet it stands apart.
Instagram is a place where people look at the carefully cultivated image of its members and think, “Wow, what incredible lives they must lead.” Pinterest is a place where people look at the pinned images and think, “Wow, what an incredible life I could lead.”
Using aspiration for marketing is nothing new. Most television and magazine ads follow by the same formula. Old commercials from the 70’s and 80’s took it took an extreme, making it actively look as though without their product you were failing on a real and devastating level.
Pinterest takes a more positive position through its trends. Everything you see is a possibility for sure user, and all it takes is a pin to get started.
Important Statistics To Consider
- Women maintain the lion’s share of sign ups, as they have since the inception of the site. However, ⅓ of users are now men.
- More than 100 million active users sign into Pinterest every month.
- Approximately 42% of US women online used Pinterest as of 2014.
- Almost 75% of all Pinterest use is done on mobile devices.
Finally, according to Megaphone Marketing:
While on other platforms, users may be looking to connect with friends or engage in new ideas, Pinterest is where people go for inspiration for their wedding, holiday or dinner party – so they’re usually more receptive to branded content. Compared to all other social platforms, it’s most similar to Instagram.
These four facts show you four distinct ways in which you can achieve more on Pinterest. Let’s break each one down.
Go Outside the Box
Pinterest is a useful content marketing channel hence, as any other content marketing channel, it poses one important problem: You need to continuously come up with original and relevant content.
It is too easy to burn out.
Text Optimizer is a cool tool that can help you to find great content ideas for your site and other channels.
Campaigning Based On Gender
Most of your demographic available on the site are going to be women. But that isn’t all users, and not specifying gender could mean you miss out on a significant chunk of engagement. You should create to separate campaigns to appeal to each gender, or else narrow which gender would be most beneficial and focus all of your efforts on reaching that audience.
Women have a tendency to pin from these categories most: DIY and Crafts, Food and Drink, Home Decor, and Holidays and Events. Of these four categories, all but Holidays and Events are also the most browsed categories.
FirstSiteGuide lists some great examples on how DYI bloggers utilize Pinterest
Men tend to pin to Food and Drink, Technology, Gardening, DIY and Crafts, Humor, and Tech the most. Right away, you see an overlap between two of those categories, making them an excellent base for people trying to target both genders.
The others provide you with insight into where you can focus. What are your goals? If it is to be seen, go with most browsed. If it is to be pinned, go with most pinned.
The Need For Regular Contributions
With 100 million unique views expected to expand even further monthly, you can see how regular contributions are extremely important. The more often you pin, the more you are going to be seen. So how often is the right amount?
Pinterest is not your primary social platform, as its uses are somewhat limited in scope. Especially as the website attempts to gain a foothold in new ad programs. Yet it should be given a fair amount of focus in your campaign.
Posting daily and interacting with the community should be a priority. Giving Pinterest even ten minutes a day can grow a fair audience connection, as long as your contributions are valuable and aimed at the right audience.
Re-packaging is a great way to make sure you have lots of visual content to post on Pinterest. Sitegeek Pinterest dashboards demonstrate that well: They re-packaging their hosting reviews into infographics to maintain active dashboards:
US Versus International Targeting
There is nothing wrong with geolocation targeting based on different regions. But keep in mind that the largest share of users are centered in the US. While half of all users are now out of the United States, they are spread up over the rest of the globe. That makes these groups significantly smaller.
Campaigns to go outside of US users will have to be much more specific, and smaller in scope. However, you can take advantage of fairly new changes in Pinterest search results that include multiple languages. While it has not spread to all major languages, it is a start and expected to expand.
If you do base your campaign on location, be sure to use metadata, tags and descriptions to give users more relevant results. All info should include the location.
Optimizing For Mobile
Knowing that 75% of all traffic on Pinterest is mobile is stunning. Just imagine what that would mean for someone who had pins that were badly measured for mobile screens! Or someone who had a website that hadn’t been optimized for mobile users?
Responsive web design is undoubtedly the “it” thing, and you can see why it is more important than ever. If your pin doesn’t look good on a smartphone, or users can’t easily access and read your third party link that it leads to, why would you bother with Pinterest in the first place?
It is worth checking out Hubspot’s Anatomy of a Perfect Pinterest Pin. It covers quality, UTM parameters, descriptions, and other important elements. Following by common aesthetics will never lead you astray.
Unlike many other social networks, Pinterest trends have remained fairly consistent through the years. A certain look is expected and yields positive results.
Other Tips
- Always opt for evergreen. Don’t post something that has an expiration date when the alternative is posting something that will be just as hot a year from now as a week from now. You want staying power, not flash in the pan.
- Pay close attention to viral trends. Some topics are going to burn brighter than others. Don’t be afraid to exploit current trends in the community.
- Get creative. When Kotex wanted to reach elusive influencers in the Pinterest community, they create gift boxes out of items in those influencer’s pin boards. This was a huge success, and an example of one of the best social media marketing campaigns of all time.
Do you have a tip for better Pinterest results? Let us know in the comments!
