Beth Daniel at Sookio writes:

Its no newbie in the social media sphere, but amidst the flurry of new features on Facebook and Instagram and the dominance of Twitter and LinkedIn when it comes to business, Pinterest often gets overlooked or forgotten altogether.

First hitting our PC screens back in 2010, Pinterest was warmly welcomed by fashionistas, bakers and interior design enthusiasts alike. But since then, the platform has come a long way, with a mobile app and a reported150 million users on the platform in 2017.

While it may not be the first platform to spring to mind when thinking about your companys social media presence, just this weekPinterest raised $150m at a $12.3bn valuation,showing that the image-based social site is as popular as ever.

With a whole network of ideas, creative inspiration and, most importantly, potential customers on offer, Pinterest can support many segments of your business, from the initial product inspiration and creativity to marketing and sales.

So what else does Pinterest have to offer your business?

Because of how Pinterest operates as a social media platform, your content can reach a really broad spectrum of users. It works by enabling users to pin images that they like into various boards set up by themselves.

Other people can then see these pinned images, either on their own timeline, in Pinterest search bar results, or directly on the profiles of whoever they follow. Should you wish to, you can then follow other peoples boards and re-pin things to your own profile, meaning your followers will also be able to see them.

Creating boards based on your companys interests, products or services can also help to generate awareness. Placing your images in front of the people who are actively searching related content will ensure that your brands blog or website is easily accessible to your followers and other Pinterest users. Longer term, this could help keep your product or service at the forefront of potential customers minds.

Take a look at howHunteruses Pinterest to raise awareness and generate interest in its range of boots. The firm creates boards which place the boots in all kinds of scenarios, appealing to a broad spectrum of potential customers and the things they might be searching for, such as festival attire.

When uploading your own content, you can link each pin to the relevant section on your blog or website.

So, for example, if youve pinned a new product which your business is offering, or an image from your latest blog post, you can easily link to it. This means if anyone clicks on the image, they will be taken directly to the product on your website or the content on your blog.

As each pin can include a link, this also means that whenever someone else shares or pins your content on Pinterest, the link to the original source remains on the post. And lets face it, us marketers love a backlink, dont we?

To measure your success, Pinterest also have a handy built-in Analytics function. This allows you to track all activity on your page, such as daily impressions and viewers, average monthly viewers and how much your posts are being engaged with on a monthly basis. With such a broad outreach, the results are often surprising too!

Analytics also usefully breaks down user activity further, showing you how many impressions and viewers your website or blog has received from your Pinterest profile.

Like other social media platforms, Pinterest also has an Ads function, meaning you can promote your pins to reach more people.

Pinterest ads work by promoting your pins across the platforms feeds, charging you per 1,000 impressions on your pins. Various Ads campaigns are available, such as campaigns to boost Awareness, Engagement or Traffic, meaning you can tailor advertising to meet the needs of your business. It lets you track the results too!

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Just keep pinning: why your business should be on Pinterest - Cambridge Network