Pinterest for Business?? Yeppers!

Are you one of the many Brokers, Agents, or Lenders still reluctant –- or downright skeptical --  about diving into the world of Pinterest?  Or have you created a Pinterest account, dabbled a bit by pinning a few items and then forgot about it?  Many skeptics think that Pinterest is simply a fad and is not as useful as Facebook or Twitter for branding and attracting potential clients.  But it’s become almost impossible to escape tweets and status updates that mention Pinterest.  Pinterest has blown up tremendously in the short time that it has existed. According to TechCrunch, comScore’s data shows that Pinterest reached 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors this past February. This makes the site the fastest standalone site ever to cross the 10 million visitor mark. Pinterest also averages 98 minutes per month on its site from each viewer. Dismissing these statistics wouldn't be prudent. 

We KNOW people are very visual in nature, and this visual facet is Pinterest’s greatest strength.  Pinterest personifies the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.  It is a simple solution to provide consumers a very real feel for all things home buyers usually consider in determining what home is right for them – from the characteristics of different neighborhoods, to the actual home itself.

Pinterest also stands out among the other big social networks because it separates topics and interests into categories. Users can filter what they want to see and not have to search through the whole site.

Come up with creative and interesting board names. They get shared whenever you pin something, so make them enticing, even fun. Be creative, but brief — you need to keep your board names short. There isn’t a lot of room for long descriptive titles. Then start pinning -- steadily, instead of in huge bursts, to maximize your exposure and engagement.  You also want to pin from a lot of different sources, instead of just from one or two sites; variety is important on Pinterest.

When you pin an image, add a description under it. Be smart about these descriptions — a good description will stay with an image as it gets repinned all over the Pinterest world. If the image is something from your own site, definitely use your business name in the description. When appropriate, tag other Pinterest users in your pins by using “@username” in your descriptions. Network with other professionals and vendors in your field by using this feature; it’s a great way to build your following and stand out.

Pin your own blog posts, but don’t over-promote. Follow standard etiquette rules of any other social media, and don’t be the boorish one at the party who only talks about himself. And be sure to pin videos!  Pinterest has a special section just for pinned videos, and there are far fewer videos than images on Pinterest at this point, so use them to distinguish yourself.  Any YouTube video is easy to pin.

Next week we’ll cover some tips for REALLY boosting your engagement and followers, such as repinning, commenting and “Like”-ing others’ pins, and embedding pins in your blog posts and website, among other tips.

Sourced in part: Beth Hayden