Six Tips on How To Make Your Website Pinterest Friendly
05/04/2012
Pinterest. Pinterest. Pinterest.
There I've said it. Now I'm definitely out of the P-closet. That does sound a bit odd .. well you know what I mean.
Couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of conducting a members only web cast for the American Marketing Association on Pinterest. The approach I took was a little different than the millions (not an exaggeration!) of webinars, presentations and posts that help you through the logistics of how to pin. Important no doubt but here at Diva Marketing it's a focus on the strategy and tactics versus the logistics.
I have so much 'good stuff' to share that I thought a series on Pinterest might be fun. Oh no Toby not another Pinterest post! Well, yes but we'll look at Pinterest a little differently.
As my friend Barb Giamanco the diva of social media for sales said to me - I get B2C but other then showing the "human side" of a B2B company I'm not sure of the application benefits. So we'll explore verticals and brands that you might not think "fit" in a social visual communication network.
Social Visual Communication
Vocabulary matters. No more pinboards when you talk to the C-suite please.
A CMO of a prominent B2B company recently told me she thought of Pinterest as a game for moms and didn't consider a "pinboard" a serious business tactic. Rather reminds me of the days of when blogs were called journals or diaries. Love this quote:
However, along the way we learned that if we thought a little differently that blogs could support business objectives. The rest, as they say, is social media history.
With Pinterest it's not only a matter of looking at the world a little differently .. but repositioning to include concepts and language that the C-suite (CMO,CEO) can understand and "get." As social media becomes more sophisticated and is integrated into the life style of our customers, it is no longer is a rogue tactic that flies under the radar and suddenly becomes the darling of the company. There is too much at stake.
I'm suggesting that we use the term Social Visual Communication.
We'll talk strategy, target market, customer insights of course. However, there are so many people that are off and running that I want to start inside out. With very basic website tactics.
Six Tips on How To Make Your Website Pinterest Friendly
1. When you're planning content on your site include an image as part of each text article
2. If you're not serving videos publicly e.g. YouTube include a graphic near the video.
3. Graphics should align with your brand promise and values.
4.Consider what images your target audience will feel comfortable pinning.
5. Consider how your banner is created. If someone wants to pin your page versus an article is there a non flash image that can be taken?
6. Last, but important since people are still hesitant to pin because of copyright issues*, indicate that you encourage pinning. Best placement would be above the fold. *Poll taken during the AMA Pinterest webcast .. 80% of respondents were hesitant to go forward with Pinterest because of legal issues.
Bonus if you're really forward thinking: I do believe the Pinterest format: horizontal, graphics, sharing will become integrated into websites as the norm.
Devstand has identified 34 "Pinterest" Wordpress themes
And don't forget mobile -- - Pulse
Read more .. Diva Marketing Interviews with smozy/Kotex and Microsoft
By default this series began a few weeks ago with an interview with the CEO,Yael Linen-Zuchman, of an Israeli digital agency smoyz and the brand manager of their client Eran Sion/Hogla-Kimberly. They launched an innovative Pinner Relations (think blogger relations) program.
I also had the pleasure of interviewing BJ O'Hare, the woman in charge of Microsoft's Mouse Design Pinterest contest.
Reach out if I can help you with a Pinterest strategy. As you might guess, I've been sipping the Koolaid on this one (smile).
Pinterest Pinning For Business Learning Series
