Pinterest has taken the social media world by storm. Created on the basic concept of a real pin board, Pinterest allows you to create and manage theme-based picture collections on a typical pin board-styled photo sharing website.

As a small business owner, there are countless reasons why you should join Pinterest. Not only can the platform boost your enthusiasm to share your products and services with an eager user base, but it can also help broaden your brand recognition.

Why Pinterest is a Great Marketing Tool

Not only is Pinterest considered a great way to gather and share thoughts, but it is also emerging as a viable medium for internet marketing, especially for small business owners.

Considering the patronage of 10 million (and growing) members Pinterest enjoys, the platform has the capability to make any product or business idea popular and successful on the web. But what makes Pinterest really click when it comes to promoting a small business?

The social photo sharing platform:

1. Offers a user-friendly website design allows users to link with other social networking sites such as Facebook, which makes it even more attractive from a marketing standpoint.
2. Succeeds in its primary aim of attracting a user base with a high retention rate. This makes Pinterest a great place to promote your business online to millions of loyal users.
3. Is a cool place to transform casual users to actual buyers.
4. Generates a good amount of in-bound links with each pin.
5. Let’s you view how others are innovatively using Pinterest for marketing, which you can leverage in your future marketing plans.
6. Has design elements that have been conceptualized like a mini web page with features like ‘Re-pin’,‘Like’ and ‘Comment’, which are major crowd pullers.

Leveraging Pinterest’s Design and Aesthetic

Pinterest’s platform has been a constant topic of discussion. It has also raised questions as to how a single website could significantly impact the web design industry. But what is it specifically that has enabled Pinterest to make such an impact?

Let’s start with its design. The ‘pin-up’ concept is so nicely planned and unique. Also, the social aspect of the site lets people in your network (or those who follow each other) know when someone pins or repins something – thus offering small business owners more of an opportunity to indirectly and potentially attract new customers.

However, the best part about using Pinterest is that you can now sell your designs on the website. A recent Steelhouse survey reveals that 59 percent of Pinterest users have made purchases from the website. And the most encouraging finding is that Pinterest users are almost 80 percent more likely to make a purchase when something is pinned in comparison to Facebook users.

Simple Pinterest Marketing Tactics

To start using Pinterest for your small business, pin your product or service images to attract users’ attention. Besides creating links to your company website and projects in your Pinterest account profile, you can also set up boards with specific themes hat relate to specific areas of your industry or business.

First, consider creating two separate boards for your small business. One board can be used to feature your products and services, and the other can be used to highlight press clips, company blogs, customer photos and more.

As a small business owner, it is imperative to recognize Pinterest’s potential. Not only can you build your brand, but you can also promote your products and services by simply ‘pinning’ them up online.  In short, Pinterest gives you impressive tools to help market your offering to a growing user base of engaged consumers.

Ellis McGrath is a Digital Marketing Strategist. He is passionate about online marketing, web trends and web usability. He is associated with VITEB – a full service custom web and mobile apps development company providing complete IT solutions.

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