2012 has seen a definite shift in the way that businesses carry out their online PR and marketing. Companies have started taking to social media platforms in order to establish a strong fan base and market their products and services to a wider audience. There are many different social media platforms out there, being used by millions of people and most, if not all, of them can be used to your advantage as a business owner.
If you haven’t yet got your company set up on at least one social media site then now is the perfect time to do it. Many other businesses have made the step and if you are not willing to follow suit then you risk being surpassed by your competitors. With so many platforms out there though, how do you know where to start? Well here’s a brief guide of how Pinterest could become part of your PR campaign.
Is Pinterest Right For Your Business?
As with any social media, you need to make sure that you are choosing the right type of platform for your business and its intended audience. For example, if you are continually posting links to your blog or other pieces of relevant information and your audience is largely between the ages of 20-40, then Twitter may be the way to go.
Pinterest would really work for your business if your products are very visual and seeing a picture of them is more likely to drive people to buy than words would. Pinterest will also be helpful if your products are very industry specific and people from outside your line of work will struggle to understand what the product is just from its name alone. For example if you are doing some tech PR, your audience may struggle to visualise the products you are referring to without seeing them for themselves.
Pinterest is basically a virtual pin board onto which your customers can ‘pin’ their favourite items from around the web and then they can be seen by anybody else using the social media site.
What Can You Use It For?
To get the most out of Pinterest, you will need to have very clear pictures of your products on your website. The more exciting and eye-catching your pictures are, the more likely they are to be ‘pinned’ by the consumer. For this to be possible though, you will need to have a ‘pin it’ button placed on your site. This can be easily done when you register on Pinterest and will make it a whole lot easier for your audience to bookmark their favourite pieces from your site and come back to them at any time.
You can also use your own business Pinterest page to do some creative PR. Having a ‘meet the team page’ is a great way for you to be more interactive with your audience. This is more likely to create a fan base for your business as they can see who is behind the company and you will seem less like a faceless corporation. You can also use Pinterest to run fun competitions such as ‘name the office goldfish’ by posting a picture of the fish on your page. This will then create interest as people get involved with the competition; and once they are on your page, they can see your products. Simple, but effective.
Stick At It
Using social media for your PR and marketing is not something that you can dip in and out of; if you have committed to doing it then you need to see it through. It can take time to build up a relevant fan base that trust the things you are saying and so you need to be willing to put in the ground work at the start before you begin to see it pay off.
If you feel that you maybe don’t have enough time to spend doing this then there is a handy internet tool you can use to manage your social media. It’s called Hootsuit and lets you plan and schedule exactly what you want to post and when you want to post it. This can be set up months in advance so you don’t have to spend time doing it every day. It also allows you to synchronise your different social media pages if you are using more than one; clever little thing.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
This article is written by Chris Mayhew on behalf of Eclat Marketing. Eclat are a technology PR agency based in Surrey and social media is a big part of the way they promote their clients. Visit their website today to see what they can do for your business.
