Is Pinterest Important in a Marketing Plan?

I love Pinterest. I was immediately enticed with its exclusive invite and personalization. It’s a fantasy web space where I store all of my dreams. There are perfectly labeled categories and pristine pictures to visually showcase all of my wishes.

But how does this play into marketing in the business world? Can companies use this tool in social media to leverage themselves against competition? Yes! It cannot stand alone in an IMC plan, but when used effectively it can maximize your brand’s presence.

As a marketer, there is one important question to consider: Is your brand visual?

If it’s not visually appealing then it will be difficult to engage pinners. For example, the brand Sony has done an excellent job pinning on their Electronics Page.  From February to January, Sony’s website traffic increased 900 percent because of their Electronic Pinterest page. How did they do this? They featured Twitter posts that linked their customers to specific boards on their Pinterest page and created a blog post about current products on Pinterest. By integrating three different platforms, they were able to garner more traffic on their website.

Another example of a successful brand using Pinterest is a company called The Grommet, located in Massachusetts. They were founded in 2008 with the purpose of finding unique, undiscovered products in order to help them succeed. With over 21,000 followers, the company uses Pinterest as a place where business entrepreneurs can submit pictures to an online gallery. Customers can then pin, tweet, or post them on Facebook creating activity for a specific product of their liking. Once the item successfully populates across all platforms, The Grommet will sell the entrepreneur’s product. This is genius because the company does not have to choose the products to sell, but allows the consumer to pick making their brand thrive!

Even though Pinterest started only four years ago, it is the third biggest social network and can be successfully evaluated through social analytic tools such as Pinerly, Pinfluencer (now Piqora) and Curalate. I believe Pinterest has a lot to offer, but marketers must think creatively to engage their audience in an integrated way.