Brooke and I have a few rules for watching TV on the couch together. We have "no phone shows" - usually the more intense shows like The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad. And we have "phone shows" - usually shows on Netflix we have seen before and are re-watching like The Office, Parks + Rec, Arrested Development, New Girl, Friends or Seinfeld... basically the only six shows you ever need to watch.
During "phone shows" I am usually clicking around on Instagram, Twitter or Clash of Clans. Brooke is only ever on one app every time I ask her - Pinterest. Seriously, almost 99% of the time she is clicking around on her phone, all while George Castanza is in the background yelling about who knows what, Brooke is looking at Pinterest. She's usually scrolling through home decor trends or healthy meal inspiration. It is totally her jam and so over the past few weeks I have been using Pinterest a lot more. You can follow me here - @tjmousetis.
Now, we have always used Pinterest for walk in love. but after using it for a few weeks I am only now seeing the incredible power it has for business. I can see a future where your "normal Google searches" end up looking more like a Pinterest layout and less like the Google layout we are accustom to seeing today. Why? Because people LOVE visuals. Whenever you go out to eat and look at a menu you usually point to whatever is pictured in the menu and say, "Oh, that looks good!" That's because we love visuals. We don't point to text as often and say the same thing.
Because the brilliant minds behind Pinterest have captured that in a searchable way, I think their layout will eventually be what a lot of search sites look like. We want to see what something looks like before we click on it, whether it's for remodeling your kitchen or baking chocolate chip cookies.
So, what does this mean for your business? It means stop what you are doing and GET ON PINTEREST! It is such an important tool that you need to be using yesterday. Especially if you own one of these types of businesses.
- Clothing
- Photography
- The Wedding Industry. Brides literally plan their weddings on Pinterest.
- Contractor, or anything to do with home repair/upgrades.
- Children's Products - Clothes, accesorries, baby food, etc.
- Home decor
- Fitness, Health & Wellness
- Tattoo Artist
- Or, any business where you can take a photo of your product or service. This doesn't however exclude your brand if you can't seem to take a photo of it, like an Accountant or Musician for example. There are plenty of creative ways you can still offer content to your clients via Pinterest. Get creative!
I know starting out on a new-for-you social media platform can appear daunting, so here is what I suggest. First, set up an account with whatever handle/username you normally use. Then, use IF THIS THAN THAT to set up a simple recipe to send all of your Instagrams to a board on Pinterest. We just recently started doing that and those pins have already been re-pinned 57 times in just two short week. In this scenario, we aren't even making any new content for Pinterest specifically, just posting Instagrams like we always do.
Pinterest isn't just for DIY crafts and crockpot recipes anymore. It is the new type of search engine and your business can really benefit from being on it. Bottom line: If you aren't on Pinterest, no new customers will ever find you on Pinterest. And that's where your customers are.
If you want to remember this blog post you can pin this graphic!
