What You Need to Know About... Pinterest for Your Business
You may be thinking, “So how could a visual site like Pinterest work for a retirement plan adviser?” By exercising some creativity and developing a sense of your target audience’s interests, you can use the site to prospect clients and grow your business. And because Pinterest is new and not many plan advisers are using it, why not start now before the masses catch on? In March, Pinterest was third-most popular social network in the country, according to Experian Marketing Services.
As always, it is important to check with your company’s compliance department before using social media for your business.
Getting Started
To get started on Pinterest, you must first request an invitation, found on the website, at the top of the home page. Once you receive an invite, you can register via Facebook Connect or Twitter. Then you create a bio and start “pinning” information.
A pin is an image added to Pinterest and can come from any website by inserting the URL and clicking the “Pin It” button. Pinterest then pulls images from the website for you to choose from. These types of pins link back to the original sites. Another option is to upload images from your computer.
A board, on the other hand, is a set of pins—the number is unlimited—that can be created on any topic. For instance, if you type “retirement” in the top-left search bar and click “boards” below that, you will see a plethora of boards related to retirement, ranging from vacation hotspots to home décor to crafts and projects.
Best Pinning Practices
It is important to develop an understanding of your target audience. What are their interests? Do they enjoy travel, food or home remodeling? What is their lifestyle? You can create boards that speak to all of these interests.
Advisers considering using Pinterest for business should explore the website and gauge its content before pinning, suggests Kevin Darlington, senior vice president of digital products at HNW Inc., a marketing firm specializing in high-net-worth financial services.
Darlington cautions against being too sales-focused and instead recommends educating Pinterest users with helpful factoids and infographics.
“A lot of it comes down to ‘use it and don’t exploit it,’” Darlington says.
Advisers should reserve their comments and pins for when they genuinely have something informative to add to the conversation, rather than for just hunting for new clients. The focus should not be on selling a service but on establishing yourself as an informative resource.
Pinterest is visual, so it is the perfect medium for using infographics to attract viewers. If your company newsletter contains an appealing image, you can “pin it,” which will link viewers back to the articles. Retirement plan pin boards require a bit more visual creativity, but it can be done.
Interacting With Other Users
Once you feel comfortable working with Pinterest, you can start following other users and commenting on other boards. “Following all” on Pinterest means you have access to all of a user’s pins. You can also follow individual boards if you want to see only certain ones.
If you are following a Pinterest user’s board, you can mention pins to him by typing the “@” symbol, followed by his username.
You can also allow people to contribute to your boards by changing your setting from “Just Me” to “Me + Contributors.” To add a contributor to a board, you must follow at least one of his boards.
Lastly, you can add a Pinterest “follow” button on your website. Pinterest buttons are available on the website’s “Goodies” page.