By now, you’ve probably heard of Pinterest, there’s very little chance the buzz surrounding it has left you untouched. However, I’m not sure how many of us have actually signed up with Pinterest. By design or default, It has been a huge hit among women, a whopping 80% of Pinterest users are women, especially from North America & Europe. Since CBAZAAR’s primary Target Market are women and those from outside India, we signed up quite early. You can reach CBAZAAR’s Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/cbazaar/
Facebook had also provided a similar opportunity when we initially launched our page ( You can give us a ‘like’ at - http://www.facebook.com/cbazaar ). However, Pinterest makes the paradigm shift, for me this is more of a two-way communication platform wherein we can interact ever so closely with other users who share similar interests and tastes. Unlike Facebook, where my Facebook fan page cannot have any access to fans wall, Pinterest allows you to part of the fans. In the sense, they have no exclusive fan pages, every user gets the same features. This allows you to interact directly with other users as a buddy rather than standing out as a separate entity ( It has its own benefits though ) call it the ‘buddy effect’
If you are a small business, start-up, a growing entity, Pinterest is the place to be in, but before you jump into the bandwagon make sure you get the following right to avoid disappointment.
1) Products Vs Services - Given Pinterest’s image sharing functionality, it is easier to display product and merchandise rather than a service. I’m not saying you can’t but for that to happen you have to be extremely creative.
2) Target Market - As I have earlier pointed out 80% Pinterest users are women, which means it could be little hard for men oriented Brands to make an impression.
3) Plan - Call it a ‘cliche’ but trust it works and works big time. Draft a plan on how you’re going to go about Pinterest. Make sure you come out with interesting, out-of-the-box themes for the Boards. For an example, I saw a food company, it had boards related to exotic kitchens, fine dining, Yummy Desserts etc, quite interesting.
4) Assign - I strongly believe that the power of social media lies in continuity. So make sure you assign a team member to pin, re-pin, comment, etc, on a daily basis. It’s paramount to stay active if you fancy reaping results.
5) Integrate & Build - Pinterest allows you to publish to Twitter & Facebook. So, get creative encourage your Facebook fans or Twitter followers to join you on Pinterest. Ask your fans to post their pinterest details, go follow them, interact with them. You can also take things a little further, run contests on Facebook / Twitter and make the winner a ‘contributor’ to your Pinterest profile. Get your fans excited, get them onto Pinterest they could be your biggest Brand Ambassadors.
Here’s a brilliant post on ‘ How to get started on Pinterest ‘, This should get you started - http://bit.ly/GH2yLq
Happy Pinning! Trust me you would love this.
