Have you heard of Pinterest? if you haven’t, you’ve pretty much been living under a rock for the past couple of years. This website operates as a virtual vision board. It has been used to allow people to keep track of all of the things they come across online that they don’t want to forget about. The types of boards that people create run the gamut. Cooking, cleaning, crafts, fashion, beauty, and whatever else you can think of. think of a topic and you are likely to find it on Pinterest. that’s what makes it so darn addictive. seriously, I know I am not the only one who has slipped into the Pinterest vortex and gotten lost for hours.
However, beyond it’s usefulness as a virtual vision board, pinterest has become a tremendous tool for entrepreneurs and brands. Do you use Pinterest to promote your business? If you have not yet considered it or taken that leap, you definitely should! People love images and videos, and Pinterest allows you to use both of these mediums to tell a story. Pinterest, though relatively new (it was launched in March of 2010, so it’s still a toddler), has established itself as a social media powerhouse, and it is a powerful tool for those of us in direct sales to not only reach, but to engage with our target audience. It is a GREAT way to promote your products and services. You can use it to tell people about your business opportunity. You can use it to share valuable content for your target audience. It’s a pretty awesome tool to have at your disposal. But how do you use it effectively? Here are some tips that you can implement to make the most of your pinning:
1. First of all, realize that Pinterest is not meant to be just a self-promotional tool. As I have stressed in other posts, no one wants to just hear about sales and recruiting. if you are using Pinterest, don’t use it JUST for your business. That is lame and boring and will not get you loyal followers. Use your boards to create a story about who you are, what you care about, what you do, and what you care about. Pins about your business should only be a part of what you put out there.
2. Use clear images. Images that you captured or created are best. There are a ton of great resources out there to help you create pinnable images. One simple one is PicMonkey.
3. You want people to do more than just look at your pins. You want them to love what you shared so much that they repin, share, or comment on it. So make the content that goes along with your images something worth sharing. That means that you should NEVER leave the captions box empty.
4. Give them a reason to engage. One great way to do this is to create infographics. These are pictures that also provide relevant info. So, if you write a blog post outlining all of the benefits of joining your team or investing in your product, then you should include an infographic that outlines those benefits and pin that to your board. That way not only will they read your blog post, they will also want to repin your pin to THEIR board for future reference.
Here is a great example of a pinnable infographic.
5. Always link back to the original source. Don’t just upload the image itself. Pin it FROM your website. That way when people click on it, they will be directed to your website.
6. Pin everything. New products. Hostess incentives. compensation plans. You using your products. Pictures of events. Videos. Everything that is visual is fair game!
7. Speaking of videos — please don’t neglect this! if you have product videos, training videos, videos from events, etc, yo should DEFINITELY pin them. Videos are actually viewed more often than pictures on Pinterest. (“The more you know, right?!”)
8. Share valuable content for others in the industry. It just makes sense. The fact that you are reading this post right now proves that direct sellers are hungry for info about succeeding in direct sales. by pinning that type of content (whether it is original or just something that you came across and found interesting or helpful) can get your pins noticed by other people who will 9if you share quality content) pin it to their boards. even if it is a competitor that is pinning it, what it does is get YOU seen even more. help yourself by helping others. Everyone wins!
I hope that this has given you some insight into how you can use Pinterest to succeed in direct sales. Have you been using Pinterest in your business already? What are some tips that you can share on this topic?