Social Media - Pinterest

Pinterest is more of a hands-off way to interact with your customers online; Pinterest is completely pictures and videos in a bulk presentation with other pictures and videos.  The main idea with Pinterest is to create a collage board, or many collage boards, that inspire your customers and get them excited about your industry and your business.

There are two main areas of integration with Pinterest for your website.  The first is the Pinterest "Pin It" button, and the second is a link to your Pinterest page, or a "Follow Me On Pinterest" button.

• Pin It Button - this can be placed on your product pages so that customers can pin your products to one of their collage boards.  Their followers will see their pin and may repin.  The benefit of this is (1), possibly more followers and more exposure, and (2) the pins can have a price tag on them, so that viewers who like the pin/product, know that it is something that can be purchased, and can click on the link to get to your website.
• Follow On Pinterest - your followers on Pinterest will see the things that you pin in their Pinterest feed (much like the Facebook news feed). 

If you are using ShopSite to build your website and you are using one of their built-in themes (or a custom template that supports this feature), you can enable both Pinterest options above by going to Merchandising > Social Media > Pinterest.

Now that you have Pinterest buttons on your website, it is time for you to utilize your Pinterest account for the good of your business, and for the interest of your Pinterest followers. Facebook has a few different types of posts that you can do, funny posts, beneficial posts, and informational posts.  Pinterest, on the other hand, has a more narrow focus; you want to do funny posts related to you or your industry, or product specific posts, such as uses, products in action, and product information.  However, similar to Facebook, you don't want all of one type of post.  You don't want to only pin your own products to your boards, and you don't only want to have funny posts about your industry.  Make sure your boards are inspiring so that customers get an energized feeling about your website when they see 'who you are' on Pinterest.

How To Gain Followers
Pin. Follow. Pin.  When you follow other people's boards, they are notified that they have a new follower. Much like Twitter, often times if you follow someone, they follow you back.  This is not always the case, but it is often enough that you want to follow people and companies that are in your industry or who have pinned things in your industry.  Don't follow everyone and their dog right off the bat.  Build up a few boards and pins, so that when people you follow click to see 'who you are' they see boards that may be interesting to them.

What Is The Point Of Pinterest?
The idea for Pinterest is inspiration. For example, if you have a paint store, you can pin different ways paint can be used, such as for a home, interior and exterior, for DYI decorations, to re-style furniture, etc. Or if you have a health goods store, you can pin other websites' suggestions on ways to stay healthy, healthy food tip ideas, or success stories for people getting and staying healthy. The idea is to get others inspired and excited about your industry.