Pinterest is a fun and engaging tool that I use personally to collect a wide range of online links that I find interesting such as recipes, fitness tips, style options, pictures of owls, and embarrassingly enough, wedding planning ideas (I’m not engaged). With millions of users, the amount of visually stimulating content being shared is astounding and because of the “pretty” interface of the site, I don’t ever find the process of hunting for items to pin overwhelming, instead it’s actually quite delightful.
Organizations have also latched onto the power of Pinterest and have found ways to use pins to drive business to their sites. I came across an article from Entrepreneur that highlights some common examples of how organizations have used Pinterest to their advantage:
Pinterest as an online catalog for an organization’s e-commerce site
Carl Christopher is a photographer who sells his work through Etsy. He uses Pinterest as a catalog where pinners can click on image and get directed to the Etsy platform where they can choose to purchase items. “The combination of Pinterest and Etsy accounts for about $60,000 in annual revenue, he says.”
Building web traffic and profiting from the ads
PopCosmo is a teen trends tracking site that derives its revenue from web traffic. The site’s creator pins photos that she takes that are interesting in her hometown. Those pins drive traffic to her site which has largely contributed to the 120,000 visits her site receives per month.
Pinning images to inspire consumers to use the company’s products
Freshfully is a local and online food distributor focused on local and fresh products. Their pinboards provide recipes that use the season’s freshest ingredients and drive traffic to Freshfully’s site encouraging them to purchase their produce.
Pinterest as a method to keep the brand/organization in consumer’s thoughts
Mr. Rooter is a plumbing franchise that uses more traditional advertising methods for driving business, but they created pinboards to help keep their brand name on the top of consumer’s minds. They have a DIY board for home maintenance tips and a fun “Where in the World…is Mr. Rooter” board that shows their Mr. Rooter action figure in various locations.
Is your organization thinking of using Pinterest to help drive business or awareness?
Sweating Out the Lazy 