Pinterest: Social Branding for Businesses

Friday, February 10, 2012

Pinterest: Social Branding for Businesses

On Wednesday, I discussed the rise of social scrapbooking and social sharing. Pinterest, and how scrapbooking and sharing is the next level of personal relationships. While Pinterest can be used by individuals, brands can and should definitely take into the phenomenon as well. Why? See my three reasons:

1. Humans are visual

This one is as much obvious. Men and women when looking at another individual judge others by their appearances, above all else. Photos are just as much, and create memories with people and places. Pinterest takes advantage of that and does just that: create a visualized perspective of a brand, from the office to the employees to the events that the company is putting on. If you are Disneyland or a professional sports franchise, or even a college, with upcoming travel seasons, games and needs to recruit new students, there is definitely no hurt in implementing a strategy to put your best visual foot forward.

2. A picturesque experience

The social media experience is of course social, but also very experiential. One of the beauties of Facebook is that it has brought in an extra added flair to being at one place without actually being there. Being able to browse photos of a friend being in a foreign place is great, and Pinterest takes that to the next level. “Wish you were here” takes on a new meaning when you can like, comment and re-pin to another person’s wall, without the fear of seeing your picture going to all of your other friends’ walls by way of Facebook’s EdgeRank system.

3. A social experience

Tweets make it readable. Facebook makes it a relationship, and Pinterest makes it pinnable. Imagine if you were a restaurant and you posted each day’s special to your Pinetrest page. The potential of that is not only tasty, but sociable as well, and if you are a popular restaurant, a re-pinning of each day’s special adds flavor, meaning and fun - no pun intended.

What reasons do you think that businesses should use Pinterest for? Let me know in the comments below or tweet me @albertqian. Let me know how I can help your business become social, using Pinterest, as well!