Pinterest = Social Media Success

It’s no secret around the EVG office that I’m a fan of Pinterest. There’s general agreement that it’s a cool social networking site loaded with visual appeal. But when I suggest that clients take advantage of this social platform, there’s more skepticism than support. So let’s look at how business-to-business companies can leverage Pinterest to pin their way to social media success.

Social Media Success

According to Shareaholic and reported on TechCrunch.com, Pinterest is beating Yahoo and is the fourth largest driver of traffic worldwide. Only Google, Facebook and direct traffic are ahead of Pinterest.

Fine, so they’re fourth, but what does that mean? Well, consider the case of a blogger named Kate: she started The Small Things Blog and garnered a total of seven readers in the first eight months. BUT between August of 2011 and January 2012, her readership boomed and she scored more than 10 million page views according to Business Grow.com.

Kate’s secret? Pinterest. And that’s social media success.

Links–inbound, outbound, getting, validating and deleting–are the soapbox focus of many content gurus. For those with Pinterest accounts, every pin links back to the source. While these links are no-follow and will not directly impact your SEO results, the links are successful at one key thing: driving interested (read as: qualified) traffic to your site.

And did you know that Google is seriously crawling and indexing pictures? Webmaster Central spells out how to make it easy for their spiders. So those engaging pictures that you upload and repin to your boards on Pinterest ought to include a keyword and tags to support these efforts.

Potential of Pinterest

Pinterest is not just for visually appealing businesses, like shoe designers and jewelry stores. Mashable, The Next Web, and even General Electric all have engaging and popular Pinterest accounts. Savvy content marketing in this age of social media acknowledges the power of stories to rise above the din of 24/7 advertising. And compelling images that subtly drive home a brand’s core message achieve the goal of social media success.

Achieving success in a marketplace that has expanded from Main Street to encompass the entire world is a challenge. Building relationships with consumers and communicating with them one-on-one in a social setting is one way to build brand loyalty. Pinterest offers a creative showcase to help others get to know your company.

Wondering how to achieve social media success with your business-to-business company? Give Pinterest a chance with boards dedicated to showcasing your employees, latest ideas, thought leadership at industry events, and goals you aim to achieve. Integrate it with your other social platforms, and you’ll be making new friends in no time at all.

Kathleen Gossman – Project Manager