How Using Pinterest Can Grow Your Retail Business

By now, you may have heard about Pinterest. The site lets you easily browse, share, and comment on photos, videos, and other digital content. It’s a social media network that offers visual appeal and a “down-the-rabbit-hole” approach to finding new products and ideas. Plus, there’s a huge audience; the site had 10.4 million users in February alone, most of whom are active consumers.

Using Pinterest, you or your retail business can…

• Create your own online “pinboards” by picking and choosing content from throughout the web.
• View other people’s pinboards and write about or “pin” the items that you like.
• Find pins by a specific user or about a certain topic, such as “men’s shoes.”

Here’s where it gets interesting for retail businesses. Let’s say you are a consumer and you are looking at the results of a search for those men’s shoes. You scroll down the screen on Pinterest and spot a picture of a pair that looks nice: formal, glossy, laced, and black.

You click the picture to see what the person who posted it has to say about the shoes, and it’s all positive. So are the comments that other users have shared about the picture. You think, “Maybe I’ll go out and buy them at the mall.”

However, you want to learn even more about the shoes. The person who pinned the picture has also provided a hyperlink, so you click it. Immediately, a new window opens and takes you to the website of the company that sells the shoes.

Consider what is happening here. In a totally organic way, Pinterest helps you find a product that others are sharing, discussing, and promoting on behalf of the shoe company.

• The shoe company’s products are being spotlighted on Pinterest with large, attractive images. These get the attention of other users, provide them with a way to act on their interest, and help build the company’s brand.
• A pin by a Pinterest user and comments by others in the community gives the shoes more validity than an advertisement by the shoe company.
• Chances are good that earning a pin on Pinterest costs the shoe company a lot less than paying for traditional or online ads.

If you are a retail business, social media marketing through services like Pinterest can give your company these benefits and more. Get in touch with us at Firm Media to start crafting your strategy.