Pinning is Winning!

http://pinterest.com/pin/97812623127065922/

An electronic form of a bulletin board has taken the internet by storm. Pinterest is its name and marketing is one of its (fairly new) games. The amount of people joining Pinterest is simply amazing.

I am an avid Pinterest user and being that I am interested in advertising I want to look at how Pinterest is being used as a tool to advertise and market products to its large amount of users.

To start off, for those of you who do not know what Pinterst is, let me explain. Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board where you ‘pin’ pictures of things you find online, that you like, on categorized boards that you create. In order to create an account you have to submit a request that you want to join or be invited by someone who already has a Pinterest account, then once your account is created you are free to go pin crazy!

Heather Sundell a guest writer for Forbes worded it perfectly, “Consumers are predominantly using Pinterest as a virtual treasure box of dreams, wishes and aspirations.”

http://wideinfo.org/revealed-90-of-pinterest-users-are-women/

However, marketers see Pinterest as a way to advertise their product in a new way. Pinterest had 21.5 million visits during the week ending Jan. 28, a nearly 30-fold increase over a comparable week in July. It is the 3^rd most visited social media site in the U.S. with 104 million visits in the month of March behind Facebook who has 7 billion visits and Twitter with 182 million.

Here are some ways that companies are able to use Pinterest to market and advertise their services and or products:

-Make a Pinerest account for your company in order to showcase your services and products to all the users.

-Link your Pinterest account to your company’s main website

-Create coupons or special promotions for customers only available via Pinterest

-Make sure to use interesting and fun images to promote your company

Below is a great illustration of how marketers use Pinterest as a tool.

http://go.maxymiser.com/PinterestInfographicMarch2012_social.html

I have seen, personally, how Pinterest can be a great asset from the consumer side of things. Right now I am in the market for living room furniture and after being unsuccessful with finding anything that I like in the furniture stores around town I was not sure what to do. I decided to search Pinterest for couches and found all types of couches that I loved. I found many companies who had furniture that I did not know even sold furniture. 

Pinterest is a pretty new thing and the idea of using it as a tool for marketing and advertising has only begun. It will be interesting to see what changes we will see happen with Pinterest in the future.   

But in the mean time, Happy Pinning!