Social media marketing is one of the newest forms of business communication between consumers and other businesses. This form of marketing involves increasing web traffic to a business through the use of social media like Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. A common social media networks allow people to create profiles of themselves online so that they can interact with friends, followers, or fans. So how can your business take advantage of these interactions?

Relationships Aren’t That Scary

The key to social media marketing is building relationships. Businesses have begun to realize how the use of social media can improve public relations and help build brand loyalty. This new form of relationship between consumers and businesses strengthened when social media networks allowed private entities to have social media accounts. Now, a business can have their own brand account and, through a social media director or team, interact with consumers.

Social media marketing can come in the form of a business sharing a news story or blog post, replying to comments or direct messages to them, or posting major public relations campaigns, sales, brand information, and more to their accounts. Such interactions personalize the business and help consumers get to know the brand beyond conventional marketing means like television ads or internet-based advertisements. Got it? Ok, let’s say you want to build a relationship and you want to use Pinterest. What happens now?

Pinterest: The Basics

Pinterest is one of the newest social media platforms. User profiles can share, or pin, pictures to a profile pinboard. The photos can be organized under any interest the user might have, such as interior design layouts, food, travel locations, or

entertainment the user enjoys. In addition, when a person clicks on a photo that is pinned on a person’s Pinterest board, it sends the user to the original link for the photo. Also, like other forms of social media, users will have friends and businesses can also have Pinterest accounts. This is where social media marketing comes in.

Social Media Marketing and Pinterest

According to recent studies, Pinterest has become one of the most popular social media networks today and social media marketing experts are taking note. There are now 48 million users on Pinterest, as many as Twitter. But, the network drives more Internet traffic to other websites than Google Plus. How does it do that? For starters, Pinterest is a fun, visual network. Users enjoy seeing pictures of items, events, places, brands, actions, and just about anything else the Internet has a picture for. In addition, it helps users show a user’s personal side, along with their insight on how the content means something to them personally. In the marketing world, this is prime data to help drive traffic back to a business website.

A social media marketer can easily see why Pinterest is successful and how a business can really benefit from it. For example, a business can have all their content posted as photos on their board. These photos can be of items or services the company sells. Interested consumers can click the photos and visit the business website. Consumers can also see a much more personal side from the business For example, a coffee business may dedicate a board to all things coffee and none of the links will exclusively drive traffic back to the business website. The board will show how dedicated and passionate the business is to coffee and win the hearts and minds of consumers.