Why Companies Should Use Pinterest for B2B With 4 Key Tips

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The new "it girl" in Hollywood may be Jennifer Lawrence, but in the online world it's Pinterest. The image content sharing service just raised $200 million at a $2.5 billion valuation and is successfully being leveraged by several online retailers and large brands.

Eighty percent of Pinterest users are women and one in five women are on it. And they're not posting pictures of their kids - like that other declining social behemoth, Facebook. No, Pinterest users are curating everything from home décor and kitchen gadgets to baby products. They're in a buying mood and they're browsing for the next "it" item. Why is that important? Simply, if you can make social profitable and influence commerce you are going to win the popularity race.

With images, video, news stories, and local search results all appearing right on the top of page one of a typical search results page, it's becoming more crowded and challenging to rank for priority keywords for typical business websites. Especially as marketers become more and more savvy. That's why it's important to optimize and leverage social media platforms, such as Pinterest, to gain additional real estate and exposure for the keywords you know work in search.

How can businesses optimize their brand on Pinterest? Here are four things you should do today:

1. Pin e-books, white papers, and videos to generate traffic to your site. If your business has a white paper, leverage Pinterest by creating a rich and engaging graphic album cover that includes a link back to your website or landing page. Once a person clicks, you can then prompt her to supply her email address in order to download the full white paper. Now, Pinterest becomes a lead-generation tool.
2. Pin infographics. Does your company have great information buried away in old PowerPoint presentations? Hand this over to your graphics department to restyle and create an infographic out of it. Create a pinboard called "Infographics" and continue to add to this board over time. One example of a company doing a great job at this is HubSpot.
   
   
   
   HubSpot's infographics are continuously pinned and repined and have many likes on its Pinterest board. If you do a search in Google for the term "marketing infographics," Hubspot and Pinterest rank in the number one position.
   
   
3. Pin other people's content to build a wider following. Pinterest wants users to be active members of the community. The way to do this is to find other businesses that are relevant and complement yours and begin pinning their content. This has a ripple effect and broadcasts your brand to the community.
4. Get fans involved to help spread the word. Businesses need to engage followers and build relationships - a fundamental concept of social media. Reach out to your YouTube subscribers and Google+ and Facebook communities to inform them about your Pinterest activities and encourage them to participate. Use e-marketing to promote your Pinterest page and create new and interesting content that has the potential to be picked up by influencers. A great example is Corcoran's Pinterest page, which features images on what it's like to live in my home city, NYC, complete with a "burger board."
   
   
   
   This unique take on inspiring users to live in NYC via Pinterest was picked up by the blogosphere and gave Corcoran great brand recognition and positive press.

With search engines moving more and more toward social (and taking social "signals") and Pinterest being a big referrer of organic traffic, it's going to outrank other traffic sources and searches. So if you're not yet optimized, or worse, even present on Pinterest, now is the time to give it some dedicated attention. What are some creative ways that your organization is leveraging Pinterest to impact bottom lines and supplement traditional SEO strategy?

Crispin Sheridan