Pinterest: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Thanks to Pinterest, anyone can be a content aggregator. But if you’ve ever spent time on Pinterest, it doesn’t take long to figure out that some people are better at it than others. The same goes for brands. It takes a careful amount of cultivation to grow a variegated and fruitful Pinterest board. Too much of one thing? Boring. Sourcing all of your content internally? Unimaginative. Pinterest gives brands creative freedom to showcase what really makes them tick, giving the consumers a connection they can remember and look forward to. This week, I found that creating a Pinterest board for a brand is easier said than done. But I did outline what I consider to be a base for a brand’s successful presence online.

From Reformation’s Pinterest; dress available on their website.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Yes, you do need to showcase your product. Because duh, this is a great way to capture new fans of your products and have them organically share them with others. It also lets all of your current adoring fans know what awesome stuff you have just put out, without them having to check your website everyday. There is a very important element to this; it needs to be linked to your website so shoppers can quickly and cleanly be on their way to purchasing with a few finger taps. The next key point is not to overdo this content alone. It gets boring! Totally extra points if you can get a non internally sourced photo of someone wearing an item you currently stock and post it. That is SO much more exciting!! Extra points if they are famous and have a staunch bevy of loyal followers ready to purchase anything they put their stamp of approval on.

From Reformation’s Pinterest; Henri Cartier-Bresson. Paris, 1960s.

Second, show us what inspires you. Help us to understand why we need to wear what you are creating. It makes for an extreme dose of brand loyalty to feel connected with your favorite brand because they like the same things you do. Or maybe you didn’t even know you liked these things yet! But now you do, thanks to your favorite brand. You should probably buy something from them to say thank you. So scroll back up to that dress you loved, because now that you know that it will make you look like a French literate beauty circa 1960's; you seriously have to have it.

From Reformation’s Pinterest; Pinned from their blog on their website.

Lastly, just because you are a clothing brand, does not mean you need to only pin clothes. We want to dig your vibe all around. We want to know what music you’re listening to and what interior spaces make you drool and what architecture matches your new collection. We love your creativity and we want to see multiple forms of it. The picture on the left highlights the Reformation’s focus on sustainability. This is such a cool way to highlight it! If even a follower has no idea that your clothing is sustainably sourced, they will know that you’re into nature and they will probably dig it.

Pinterest should be fun! It should be who your brand is and what it dreams about at night. Gather content from all over, not just your website. This allows it to maintain authentic. But don’t forget to pin things directly from your website too! Driving traffic back is important! Pin from your blog, website, other social media sites, other blogs that write content on you. Wherever! There’s no rules here! Well except don’t be boring, of course.

xx

This post was created as part of the Global Luxury Management Program at NC State Poole College of Management. All thoughts and opinions are my own.