Pinterest Marketing

Jennifer Evans Cario is founder and President of SugarSpun Marketing, a boutique social media agency specializing in sustainable social media strategies, web analytics, and corporate training. She also serves as the Social Media Faculty Chair for Market Motive, a web-based training facility, and as adjunct faculty for Rutgers University's Mini-MBA programs. Jennifer has been in the industry since 1996 and has trained or consulted for a wide range of B2B and B2C companies across the United States and Canada.

• Introduction xxviiChapter 1 Understanding Pinterest 1What is Pinterest? 2Visual Bookmarking 2Visual Idea Searching 4The History of Pinterest 5Pinterest’s Quietly Explosive Growth 6An Organically Formed Community 6Demographics 6How Pinterest Makes Money 7Affiliate Links 8Ad Platform Potential 8Premium Account Potential 9Pinterest’s Long-Term Potential 9Early-to-Market Advantage 9Third-Party Integration 10Sustainability for Users 11Chapter 2 Who Uses Pinterest for Marketing and Why? 13Why Are Companies Using Pinterest? 14To Drive Traffic 14To Generate (and Track) Loyalty 16To Demonstrate Product Potential 18To Better Understand Consumers 20To Establish Brand Personality 22What Types of Companies Can Benefit from Using Pinterest? 24Bloggers 24Retail Stores 26Online Publications 30Big Brands 32Small Business 34Nonprofits 36Chapter 3 What Makes Pinterest Valuable? 39Pinterest Plays Off the Impact of Imagery 40Visual Bookmarking 42Saved Images for Later Exploration 43Driven by Impulse Clicks 44Pinterest Has a Low Barrier to Entry 45Easy Account Setup 45Minimal Account Management 46Freedom from Publishing Schedules 46Pinterest Provides an Outlet for Content Curators 47Users and Businesses Can Share without Flooding Streams 47Provides Businesses with Freedom to Share More Content 48Pinterest Offers Content Segmentation to Users 49Pinterest Serves as a Gateway Rather Than a Destination 50Better Than Bookmarks for Users and Businesses 51Pinterest Works Off Latent Click Conversions 52Increased Opportunity for Traffic 53Pinterest Puts All Users on an Equal Playing Field 53Both Big and Small Companies Have Equal Leverage Potential 53How Pins Get Fed into the Stream 54Potential Benefit of More Traffic with Followers 55Equality in Ultimate Pins Based on Size of Posting Account 55Chapter 4 Week 1—Set Up a Pinterest Account 57Monday: Create an Account 58Registering for an Account 58Setting Up Your Profile 61Personal Name vs Company Name 63Setting up a Business Account 63Tuesday: Understand the Category System 66What Are the Pinterest Categories? 67Why Do You Need to Use Pinterest’s Categories? 68Browsing Categories 68Wednesday: Understand the Search System 69Searching for Pins 70Searching for People 71Searching for Boards 72Thursday: Create and Organize Your Boards 72How to Create a Pinboard 72Naming and Categorizing Pinboards 75Organizing Pinboard Display 76Friday: Start Pinning! 78Chapter 5 Week 2—Curating Content with Pinterest 79Monday: Repinning Content from Pinterest 80How to Repin Content 80Repinning Content from Your Friend’s Feeds 80Repinning Content from Category Feeds 81Tuesday: Pinning New Content with the Pin It Button and Bookmarklet 82Spotting the Pin It Button on Websites 82Installing and Using the Pinterest Bookmarklet 84Using the Pin It Pop-Up Window 85Wednesday: Uploading Original Pins to Pinterest 86Why Upload an Original Pin? 86Editing an Original Pin to Include a URL 87Thursday: Pinning Products 88How to Trigger a Product Listing 88How Pinterest Displays and Categorizes Products 89Friday: Pinning Content Using a Smartphone 90Using the iPhone App 90Using the Mobile Version of Pinterest 91Chapter 6 Week 3—Find and Attract Followers 93Monday: Understand Followers and Following 94Why Following Users is Important 94Why Gaining Followers is Important 95Understanding the Exponential Reach of Pinterest 95Tuesday: Find People to Follow 96Finding People You Know 96People by Association 98People by Category 98Wednesday: Selectively Follow Users’ Boards 99The Problem with Following a User 99Follow One (or Many) Boards 101Refi ne Your Follow Strategy over Time 102Thursday: Understand Commenting and Liking 102Liking a Pin 102Commenting on a Pin 104Friday: Recategorize Pins over Time 105Creating Multiple Boards for the Same Topic 106The Value in Recategorizing 107Deleting Pins 108Chapter 7 Week 4—Purposely Propagating Pins on Pinterest 111Monday: Getting Your Pins into the Stream 112How Pins Enter the Topical Stream 112The “Popular” Stream 114Getting into the Product Stream 115Tuesday: Building Momentum by Timing Pins 115Testing the Impact of Pins by Time of Day 116Giving Pins a Boost 116The Cycle of Popular Pins 117Wednesday: Controlling How Pins Are Posted 117Influencing the Images a Pinner Shares 117Influencing the Description of a Pin 118Disallowing Pinning from Your Site 119Thursday: Understanding the Impact of a Good Image 120Pins vs Repins: The Difference is in the Drive 120Types of Images That Capture Interest 121Why Teaser Images Work So Well 122The Question of Watermarks 123Friday: Creating Pinterest-Specific Image Collages 123Using Step-by-Step Collages 124Using Before-and-After Images 125Using a Magazine-Style Captioned Image 125Chapter 8 Week 5—Track and Monitor Pinterest Traffic 127Monday: Finding Out What Content Has Been Pinned from Your Site 128Searching Pinterest for Pins from a Specific Website 128Quick-Click Access to Other Pinned Images 129What to Look for in the Listings 131Tuesday: Understanding the Value of Pins vs Repins 132What Does a High Number of Pins Mean? 132What Do Pins Mean for Your Marketing Efforts? 133What Does a High Number of Repins Mean? 133What Do Repins Mean to Your Marketing Efforts? 134Wednesday: Tracking the Traffic Generated by Pins 135Checking Your Analytics for Traffic Increases 135Measuring Pinterest Traffic 136Identifying Traffic from Individual Pins 137Which Pins Create the Most Value 138Thursday: Understanding Why Pinterest Traffic Arrives over Time 139The Pinterest Wave 140Impulse Pins and Latent Click-Throughs 140Why Traffic Doesn’t Always Match Pin Numbers 141Friday: Using Third-Party Tools for Pinterest Analytics 142PinAlerts 143Curalate 144Repinly 145Chapter 9 Week 6—Developing a Successful Pinterest Strategy 149Monday: Learning How Your Target Market Uses Pinterest 150Mining Pinterest Search for Consumer Insight 150Identifying Potentially Influential Pinners 153Tuesday: Discovering Patterns in Topical Pins 155What Concepts or Ideas Are Pinned Repeatedly 155What Images Are Being Selected 155What Are the Board Names Being Used for Pins? 156Wednesday: Recruiting Evangelists and Fans for the Effort 157Letting Influencers and Evangelists Curate Your Boards 158A Warning Regarding Group Boards 160Pinning and Featuring Fan Content 161Thursday: Finding Tie-ins to Other Social Media Channels 162Promoting Involvement on Facebook 162The Twitter Connection 164Video Sites (YouTube and Vimeo) 164Friday: Understanding Your Staffing Availability 165Determining Staff Needs 165How Much Time to Spend on Pinterest 165Regular Hours or Scattered Hours 166Chapter 10 Week 7—Leveraging Boards for Better Reach 167Monday: Creating a Strategic Pinboard Structure 168What Are Your Goals for Pinterest? 168Tuesday: Categorizing Boards 174When to Add New Boards 174Determining Board Names 176Wednesday: Organizing and Reorganizing Boards 178Moving and Removing Pins Over Time 178The Value of Reordering Board Displays 181Thursday: Creating Boards with Multiple Curators 183The Value of Multiple Curators 183Finding and Adding Curators 184Friday: Creating Short-Term Boards for Marketing Purposes 185Seasonal Boards 185Event-Driven Boards 186Campaign-Driven Boards 187Chapter 11 Week 8—Using Pinterest to Attract Traffic 189Monday: Promoting Your Own Content 190When to Pin Your Own Content 190Joining or Creating a Cooperative 192Tuesday: Creating Pinterest-Focused Content 192The Most Popular Topics on Pinterest 193The Most Popular Types of Pins on Pinterest 194Wednesday: Leverage Your Team 198Taking Stock of Team Interests 198Focused vs General Staff Involvement 201One Account or Multiple Accounts? 201When Your Team Consists of a Single Person 203Thursday: Developing a Resource Board 204Pinning Content That Educates Your Audience 204Pinning Content That Inspires Your Audience 205Pinning Content That Supports Your Brand 206Pinning Content That Displays Your Brand in Use 207Friday: Pinterest Best Practices 208Individual Pin Best Practices 208Pinboard Best Practices 209Pinterest Marketing Best Practices 210Chapter 12 Week 9—Using Pinterest to Engage with Fans 211Monday: Play to the Interests of Your Audience 212Look for Natural Brand Tie-ins 212Offer Activity-Inspired Discounts 214Measure Response to Test Boards 215Tuesday: Featuring Content That Highlights Your Brand 216Inspirational Content and Quotes 216Educational Content and How-tos 217Your Products in Action 219Wednesday: Promoting Other Sites’ Content 220The Value of Promoting Third-Party Content 220Pin the Content of Evangelists 221Promote Other Pinners and Bloggers 222Thursday: Creating Crowd-Sourced Boards 223Curating from Hashtags and Mentions 224Leveraging Content from Other Channels 225Leveraging Third-Party Pinners 227Friday: The Value of Cross-Channel Integration 229Highlighting a Featured Pinner 229Promoting Pinterest Content on Other Channels 230Chapter 13 Week 10—Pinterest Marketing Through Contests 233Monday: Understanding Pinterest Contests 234Pinterest TOS 234Why Run Contests Through Pinterest? 235Tuesday: Exploring Contest Examples 236bmi Pinterest Lottery 236Homes.com Spring into the Dream Contest 238Wednesday: “Pin It to Win It” and Board Curation Contests 239How It Works 239Why It Benefits Your Brand 239Measuring Value 240Thursday: Pinterest Scavenger Hunts 241How It Works 241Why It Benefits Your Brand 242Measuring Value 242Friday: Pinterest Product Feature Contests 242How It Works 242Why It Benefits Your Brand 243Measuring Value 244Chapter 14 Week 11—Measure and Refine Your Strategy 247Monday: Setting Pinterest-Related Goals 248Setting a Business Goal 248Letting Your Goals Define Your Tactics 249Putting It All Together 250Tuesday: Analyzing Your Campaigns 251Matching Metrics to Campaigns 251Analyzing Campaign Details for Consumer Insight 253Wednesday: Understanding Common Pinterest Problems and Their Solutions 254Lack of Repins 254Lack of Followers 256Lack of Traffic 258Thursday: Continually Testing Your Approach 258Test Topics and Concepts 259Test Descriptions and Calls to Action 260Test the Best Time to Pin 261Friday: Learning from a Pinterest Case Study 261Chapter 15 The Future of Pinterest Marketing 267Pinterest Will Change the Web 268Beyond Browsing: Content Curation 268Potential for Buyouts or Partnerships 269The Archival System: Changing the Way We Engage with Content 270Pinterest’s Effect on Search 271A Future Pinterest API 272The Potential of a Pinterest API 272Speculation on the API Delay 273API Discussions for Developers 273Understanding the Pinterest Effect 274The Impact of Social Channels Over Time 274Pinterest and the Future of Social Media Marketing 275Appendix A: Pinterest Marketing Resources 277Pinterest Marketing: An Hour a Day Pinboard 27897th Floor Blog 278Pinboard from PinnableBusiness.com 278Marketing Land 278Pinboard from Team MarketingProfs 278Social Media Examiner 278Pinterest Marketing Articles Pinboard 279Entrepreneur 279Pinterest for Marketing Pinboard 279Mashable 279Appendix B: Appendix: Pinterest Tips from Top Marketers 281Ryan Sammy 282Prafull Sharma 282Matt Siltala 283Carrie Hill 283Amanda Nelson 284Katie Laird 284Dirk Singer 285Megan Rivas 286Jamie Grove 286Glossary 287Index 289