Why Pinterest Should NOT Be Part of Your Social Media Marketing
Pinterest is a hot topic right now within the marketing community due to recent algorithm changes. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry! I’ll get into that in a minute.
Because of these updates, marketing departments everywhere are scrambling to figure out how to make the best use of this social channel. Like many others, they have noticed Pinterest is a consistent source of traffic for their businesses, sometimes with little effort, but they can’t seem to figure out how to maximize the platform.
In this post, I’m sharing the 3 critical mistakes I’m seeing marketing departments and small business owners make when it comes to leveraging Pinterest for business.
Mistake #1: Treating Pinterest Like A Social Media Channel
Pinterest, as cute and fun as it may be, is not a social media platform. Not in the traditional sense, anyway.
You don’t go on Pinterest to comment and reply to others. But you do have the ability to like and share a post. Due to this, a lot of business owners treat it like a social media platform when in fact, Pinterest works more like a search engine.
According to Pinterest, they have more than 335 million users per month conducting 2B monthly searches, and they are using the platform looking for new ideas.
85% of Pinners say Pinterest is where they go to start a new project
98% report trying the ideas they find on the platform and
89% use it for purchase inspiration
That is a lot of potential customers that your business could have access to on the platform. So if you’re not using Pinterest, you’re leaving money on the table, friend!
In order to win on Pinterest, you need to ensure that the content you are sharing has powerful long-tail keywords and relevant titles and descriptions to their users. Pinterest is equal parts compelling creative to thoughtful SEO.
Mistake #2: Lack of a Platform-specific Strategy
While syndicating content from Instagram to Facebook works just fine, this isn’t the same with Pinterest. Your business needs a personalized Pinterest Strategy.
A successful Pinterest account is posting 10-15 fresh pins a day at a minimum. Each of those pins upholds a unique, attention-grabbing image and a searchable Title and Pin Description. On average, Pinterest Managers spend 3-5 hours on Pinterest per day in order to drive the best results. This is just on organic content creation. There is an entire Paid Promotion side to this as well, but that’s a story for another day.
Some essentials that your Pinterest strategy should include are:
First and foremost, complete your profile to the fullest (seems like a no brainer but it’s the most overlooked)
Optimize all of your boards for SEO and ensure they are relevant to your target market
Plan to create dedicated content that drives to your lead magnets and product detail pages
Mistake #3: Not Having a Dedicated Marketer for Pinterest
Because most business owners associate Pinterest as a social channel, they assume this responsibility should fall under the Social team. However, the ideal Pinterest Manager is a dedicated resource or contractor on the team. You need someone that is part content creator, part graphic designer and part copywriting wiz with a pretty good understanding of keyword research and SEO strategy.
This person can come up with 10 compelling titles for the same article or product listing in the blink of an eye, and they know their way around Google’s search console like nobody’s business. You want them fully focused on how to grow this platform while making it a one-stop-shop for your target customer.
Some typical duties of a Pinterest Manager are:
Pin design
Pin scheduling
Repin research & management
Understanding how these mistakes can be critical to the success of your efforts on Pinterest is a step in the right direction. Once you stop treating Pinterest like social media, implement a Pinterest-specific strategy, and carve out dedicated time for the platform (outsource or hire) you will tap into a world of Pinterest success.
If you’re ready to scale with Pinterest and want to see why this platform is the number one source of traffic for most small businesses, chat with us. We’re pretty passionate about Pins and are confident you will be, too!
