Lollipop Local

Having written a piece for Costcoconnection.com, the lovely Harvey Meyer interviewed me recently with a view to compiling an article about Pinterest use in the UK.  Unfortunately, I did not get my copy back to him in time for it to be included in his piece but, never one to let content go unleveraged, I thought you guys might enjoy the read.

** How long have you been using Pinterest?  

I’m very much a beginner,  just a couple of months really and, with so many other platforms to monitor, it really is a bit of a Cinderella.

** How many pins and pinboards do you have? What are some of the names of your pinboards?

I have three boards – social media and small business infographics, local seo infographic and Lollipop Lady Pictures.  I have 49 pins and 42 followers

** Why did you decide to start using Pinterest?

Truthfully, because several of the SEO gurus spoke about the domain authority and how it could help you get a front page ranking for boards related to less competitive longer tail keywords.

In fact my ‘social media and small business infographics‘ board was on the front page for that search term for a while but I have not checked its ranking recently.  Now I just do it for my own edification.

However, I do think it’s good as another way for business owners to find you and get to know you and your business.  Trust is huge when it comes to using social media to influence potential customers and if you’re looking to promote brand awareness, you need to be everywhere that those people might be hanging out.

Pinterest is particularly good for putting you in front of a targeted audience.  So if you’re selling cake making supplies, you might want to put up a board with images of fabulous cakes.  Make sure you give it a suitably appealing title for those users.

People who make cakes like to look at other people’s work and, if they like what they see on your page, then they will go to your profile to find out more about you. If you’ve filled it out properly, they should see a link back to your site. 

They click on the link and check out all the different products that will help their own efforts at cake baking and decorating.  They already like what you’re putting up and if the price is right, it gives them an incentive to purchase from you.

I was also on a big social media webinar with Mari Smith where she talked about the lady who put up her photographs of homeless dogs and was able to build a business which helps support homeless dog charities.  I wanted to try to find out more about how it could be used as a selling tool.  I have been told that if you put a price on something, it gets put into a Marketplace section, although I have not actually tried it yet.  For people with creative products to sell, like artists, photographers, cake makers and decorators, interior designers, graphic designers and clothing designers, it is a wonderful opportunity to get their work out to people in other parts of the UK and also worldwide.

I guess it’s like an international gallery divided into very specific interest sections.  But I do hope they have sufficient controls in place to stop it from being overtaken by the ‘marketers’.

** Do you use Pinterest for your personal interests, your company, or both?

A bit of both.  I do find it interesting going around to the boards of other people in the same niche, as well as some of the more creative boards.  Some people just have such flair.

** If you are using Pinterest at least in part for business reasons, can you briefly explain what your business does? In what city is your company headquartered and how many employees do you have?

LOL, I get businesses found online through SEO and Social Media in a small town by the Thames in the depths of Essex.  We work with clients from all over England.  I’m also a lollipop lady at my local primary school.  My tagline is We Direct Traffic!

** Assuming you enjoy using Pinterest, can you briefly tell me why you do?

I love the colours and the imagination of the images.  It’s also a great way to keep track of infographics and images that could be useful to help illustrate points I am trying to make in my blog posts.  It keeps them all together.  Things tend to get lost on my computer.

** Other Pinterest users I’ve spoken with call it addicting. Does that characterization resonate with you?

If so, why?  Yes.  If I did not have so many other platforms for myself and clients, I could definitely see myself becoming addicted.

It’s the whole ‘collector’ mentality.  But it’s also the desire to share that Mark Zuckerberg exploited so well for Facebook.

We are such social creatures, we want to show things we like to our friends… and their friends… and anyone else who might be watching.  The thrill of having a stranger share something that you have pinned, it’s like a validation of your good taste.

** Is there anything else you would like to add about your Pinterest use?

When the marketers move in, the people move out.  I hope they are better at policing the rules than Facebook seem to be if they want to keep it as a nice relaxing place to frequent.

If you would like to find out more about using Pinterest and Social Media for your business, call us today on 01702 476517 or 0121 249 1306

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2012 at 8:42 am and is filed under Local Business Marketing, Pinterest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.