Pinterest seems like a no-brainer choice for B2C companies or companies that have a lot of visual content. But what if you are a B2B company or if you sell widgets? How in the heck are you supposed to make Pinterest work for you? It doesn't even really seem like your constituents are on it, right? There are lots of good examples of B2B companies doing really well on Pinterest. And here's what they are doing:
- It's all about the boards you create and the parallel you draw between them and your brand.Recently I was asked to create a Pinterest strategy for a B2B company. At first I scratched my head: what on earth? It's not something I would have come out of the gate with and recommended as a platform for them. But, since the company was so passionate about it, I examined the brand, what they had to offer and started drawing parallel's. For example, they cater to the project manager in a business so we created a board: Getting Organized because that's what project managers do, they organize and execute on projects for a company. In that board we post project management tips and tricks, tips for organizing your work station, tips for organizing your closet, etc. Look at GE. They talk about #GetFit and by putting a hashtag in front of it they inspire people to use that on other mediums. They also break down the hard stuff and make their technologies more tangible.
- Tell people why they want to follow your board.Instead of creating a board that's says "Careers at x" why not name it "Come work at x" or "What it's like to work at x" and feature holiday parties, volunteer opportunities, pictures from around the office and people having fun. Look at SalesForce's board "Arround the Salesforce offices", show what it's like to work there!
- Take advantage of the Article Pins. Many B2B companies have a lot of white papers and corporate blogs that have little or crappy graphical content to showcase, so they don't pin well to Pinterest. However, back on September 24th Pinterest started rolling out the Article Pin. The article pin allows you to include: article headline, story description, author and link. This is a great way to showcase dull boring content in a more media rich friendly way.For information on how to create rich article pins and go back into previous content you've pinned, see this how-to from Tailwind.
- Event Boards: Consolidate Let's say your B2B company throws events, do NOT create a board just for that event. Create a board for all events. That way you are not pigeon-holed into creating a new event board every year. For example, Marketo has two boards: one for upcoming events and one for Dreamforce, which they will probably go to again, but you notice that there is no year on Dreamforce.
- Invite customers to pin to a Community Board (user generated). Remember the golden rule of social media, "it's not all about you"? Well, a great wayto showcase your customers is to invite them to pin to a community board. Take a look at HootSuite's community boards. They range from Certified professionals, to HootSuite all over the world to costumes and food that pays tribute to their owl logo. The community board can be:
- on a particular topic or their industry as a whole
- on a particular cause or issue
What other B2B tactical Pinterest strategies have you seen work really well?