Is Pinterest Just Another Social Media?

Sep 25

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Pinterest for your business is a game changer.

Don’t forget to grab your Pinterest checklist here!

I get overwhelmed with social media very easily. Sure, I can scroll and like some pics my friends post. But when it comes to engaging for business purposes, I feel like a fish out of water. It’s not that I don’t want to. I want to have meaningful connections with people I’d like to work or collaborate with in the future.

I think it’s great that there’s a way for us to connect with people that just a few short years ago, we’d likely never even know existed.

But for me personally, I get completely lost when it comes to how often to post, what to post, when to post, don’t post quotes anymore because no one wants to see that, don’t pitch in your posts because it’s spammy, don’t not pitch in your posts because you don’t have a business if you’re not selling, like 382 pictures in each hashtag that you follow, comment genuinely on 3482 pictures in those hashtags, but not all at once, and don’t DM people because that’s spammy too, but you better DM people to make genuine connections…

WTF.

Do you feel this way about social media too? There’s a better way.

I’m not saying ditch connecting genuinely with people online. But I am saying it’s not the only way to get your name in front of people.

Because Pinterest is NOT just another social media platform. :-)

And that’s what I LOVE about it.

Pinterest is a search engine

Pinterest works more like a search engine than social media. Sure, people may see your pins just by scrolling their feed. But more than likely they are going to find you when they search for something.

Think about it. Even if you don’t use Pinterest for your business (yet), when you open the app, you’re probably looking for something.

Halloween costumes.

Easy dinner recipes.

Cute puppies.

Disney quotes.

Anything else you can possibly imagine. You’re searching. And so is everyone else.

Which means, unlike with social media, if you use keywords in your pin descriptions and board descriptions, your info is likely to end up in front of the people who need to see it. Instead of whoever randomly happens to be scrolling by who probably doesn’t need your services. I mean, that doesn’t really do any of us any good, right?

Don’t forget to grab your Pinterest checklist here!

Should I ditch social media?

Absolutely not. Traditional social media is still incredibly important for making connections. While it’s possible to connect with people through Pinterest, it’s not super common. The goal with Pinterest is for people to find your content by searching for it, then connecting with you somewhere else. Like your website or email list.

They can also search you out on social media after coming across your content on Pinterest. So you still want to have a presence there. But it doesn’t need to be the only thing. You can have something working for you in the background that’s bringing people to you who are searching for you.

Do I have to treat Pinterest like another social media account?

Nope. Pinterest has a very set-it-and-forget-it vibe. Which is probably my favorite thing about it. Now, you can’t forget it forever. But with apps like Tailwind, you definitely don’t need to spend all day repinning pins. You can spend a few minutes each week adding pins to your Tailwind account that get repinned automatically for you.

If you’re still not sure if you should add Pinterest to your marketing plan, consider this: you don’t own your social media accounts. (To be fair, you won’t own your Pinterest account either, but bear with me). If any of the popular social media platforms went down tomorrow, would you be able to reach your audience?

With Pinterest, people are looking FOR YOU (yes, we’ve covered that, but it’s important). When they find you they’ll engage with you. They’ll find your website. Join your email list. You own your email list. You’ll be building your audience of engaged, warm leads who want to hear from you and are ready to buy from you. Rather than grabbing followers who just happen to like that one picture you posted once.

So what are you waiting for? Grab your Pinterest checklist below and get started!