Pin your interest on this!

There are a multitude of businesses that could benefit from the family lifestyle-oriented Pinterest social media network. Bridalwear, maternity or kidswear specialists, weight-loss companies, photographers, travel agents and interior designers, not to mention cookbook retailers, pet, baby and giftware suppliers as well as manicurists (the list goes on) could all grow with a healthy helping of Pinning.

Styled on the affectionately placed kitchen pinboards (typically covered in family photos, best recipes, outstanding school report cards and ‘wish list’ home decor pics and travel destinations) found in middle-class homes around the world, Pinterest certainly has our interest.  

Launched in September 2011, Pinterest is growing -- fast! Amassing more traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined, it is overtaking other social media networks with its rapid growth. Recent figures show the average Pinterest user as female aged between 25-44, half of whom have children and 28% have an annual household income of more than $100,000.

To win in the pinning game, you need an eye for the appealing, with images that are worth ‘pinning’ by users who will want to share it and using topical keywords in your headlines will help, too. You can be an electrical appliance company or a financial advisor. It doesn’t matter that you may think your subject matter can’t be turned into something beautiful; as long as you Pin a delightful image that links to quality and/or informative subject matter, what you do is irrelevant because it’s the Pinboard that will get the hits and then in turn be shared within the Pinterest community. Keep in mind how visual the online Pinboard is and you can create interest within this community by using infographics, lists and charts as well as stunning photos.

You can add a Pin-it button to your website, similar to other social media networks, such as Google+. Create your own Board whereby you invite customers to share their experiences with your product, service, business. Also, consider Pinning articles that are visually pleasing to your website. Reach out to other businesses by applying the Tagging feature and notify the business that you have referenced them.

Also, don’t just cut and paste the kind of stuff that appears on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, there needs to be a point of difference as users are ‘invited’ to join the Pinboard community and it’s this relative exclusivity that appeals to the typical user.