Mobile Marketing & Online Customer Getting Solutions

Pinterest is the hottest new social media site. Its population surges every day.

It surpassed 12,000,000 users faster than any site in history.

It’s mostly women. Women make most buying decisions. So it’s a great place for your local business to be.

But 3 pitfalls include:

1. Copyright violations — these can hurt your brand and expose your company to liability that individual users don’t have.

2. TOS violations — again the rules are different for companies versus private users

3. Link stealing — Pinterest had a policy of swapping out user’s links for their own affiliate links. There’s conflicting information from Pinterest saying they’ve stopped this practice. But the jury’s still out.

As a local business owner your link should be fine because you’re not using affiliate links.

A good rule of thumb is to use only your own images. Post only those you own copyrights on into your company’s Pinterest account.

Here’s more from open forum:

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Guard your brand

Limit your liability as a company by only pinning or posting images that you own or have licensed. There are big differences in how a consumer can behave on the Web and how a company can, according to Brian Heidelberger of Ad Age. His post, “How Brands Can Use Pinterest Without Breaking the Law,” is a worthwhile read.

If you have concerns about your company images being used or pinned on Pinterest, you can insert “no pin” code on your website and your blog posts. Flickr, the large photo-sharing service, instituted a no-pin rule for all its photos unless they are not copyrighted (as in Creative Commons).

I don’t think that Flickr banning pinning will be an issue or even a blip for Pinterest. But it signals that people are paying attention to copyright at Pinterest on some level.

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Are you pinning yet? If you don’t believe the hype say why in the comments.

I promise to read and respond to your comments.

Pinterest defines visual bookmarking, visual sharing, visual commenting. Call it visual engagement in an unegaged ADD world. Because of this you must take notice.

Pinterest users pay attention there. So doesn’t the story of your business deserve some of that attention?

Since it’s audience is a little over 70% women, topics geared to and appealing to women work best. So photos which perform well here are pictures of good-looking guys, recipes, and you can weave in the story of your company and products.

Don’t just do blatant advertisements. Don’t just do product photos.

Include interesting stuff around your business. Include interesting photos telling the story of your company and employees.

Create your own “pin” boards of related pics. Almost like a mini scrapbook. Create multiple “themed” pin boards.

A pin board is a web page on the Pinterest domain.

Users can “pin” your cool photos they like on their own “pin” boards and come back to them later. This is especially cool because they’ll pin things and return to buy when they’re ready.

Bonus: “pin” what the women in your life are pinning. These make great gift ideas for their birthdays and when Christmas rolls around. You’ll be a much better gift giver.

Pinterest is outperforming Google+ and Twitter for actually sending clicks. So Pinterest can be a major force in your overall traffic strategy.

And it’s relatively free – requiring only some time to strategize and then implement.

Sell to women and particularly the boomer set. Bridal companies, soap companies and others are report soaring sales.

It’s got tons of interest right now. It’s growing leaps and bounds.

It looks like Pinterest has staying power. Make it part of your strategy.

I’d love to answer your questions about strategies for better using Pinterest. Or if you’re using Pinterest successfully crow about your excellent results in the comments.

You don’t have to give away details of HOW you’re doing it. Just what results like:

- how many visitors
- how many sales
- other cool numbers you’d like the world to congratulate your awesomeness on.

I promise to read and respond to your comments.

Pinterest is the hottest new social media site. It’s sending an absolute tidal wave of visitors to any website which gets links from there.

So Pinterest must be part of your small business marketing plan online.

You’ve gotta know it’s mostly dominated by females. So if you’re in a retail business, female specific local business, or your business buying decisions are primarily made by females then it’s critical you get on Pinterest now.

Pinterest is driving more traffic than Google plus. It became the fastest site ever get to 11 million unique visitors monthly.

So even though you’re a local small business there’s still tons of users in your local area. They’re engaging with and clicking on links from Pinterest.

Will your business be represented there? Or will your competitors continue to steal your customers from Pinterest?

See the story on the Pinterest Phenomenon:

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Is 2012 the year that you want to add/update a product or service offering? If so, Pinterest can be an effective online focus group to learn more about your target audience. By tracking what consumers are pinning, who they are following, and what they are saying about certain images across the site, your business can effectively predict trends and opinions within your industry’s community.

Pinterest’s co-founder said it best, “For most consumer brands, the idea behind your brand makes sense on Pinterest.” It is frowned upon for marketers to simply blast out photos of your products, it’s important to think outside of the box when using the platform. Try to post images that capture the essence of your business. If you own a hotel, post pictures of cool attractions nearby or even pieces from local artists. If you own a restaurant, post pictures of cool appliances that you use in your kitchen or dining room furniture that goes well with the décor of your establishment.

Aside from your products, Pinterest also can be a great forum to showcase your company culture.  I love it when I see companies post pictures of all the different surroundings and events around their office. These types of images help to humanize the business.

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