Many business owners delve into Facebook and Twitter to handle the “social media aspect” of their marketing. Obviously those two options are great, but for businesses, other platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest can help immensely when it comes to connecting with customers.
Instagram and Pinterest both appeal to distinct audiences. Instagram attracts younger users while Pinterest attracts mostly women. If your business appeals to either of those audiences, it’s worth a shot to give these social networks a try.
1) Research how your customers relate to your brand.
This will help you figure out what appeals to your audience. One of my favorite examples is Quest Nutrition. A quick search for #questnutrition or #questbars populates tons of pictures dedicated to Quest’s low-carb protein bars, and plenty of interesting recipes that involve the bars. Fans form the bars into cookies, cones, pizzas, basically anything that seems more appealing than a straight-up protein bar.
Quest Nutrition uses this to their advantage, and they feature the best creations on their own Instagram account. They also feature fan photos on their Pinterest account. While Quest could have just pushed out pictures and their own ideas for recipes, they were able to find many more uses and encourage fans to show their love for the products.
2) Show your culture.
Instagram and Pinterest are great for showing behind-the-scenes footage and letting your fans see more of your brand. Connect on a personal level with fans by showing your new hires, or featuring videos of some of your employees in action.
Threadless has a fun Instagram account that captures their fun work culture perfectly.
Not only does this picture make you instantly desire to be best friends with this person, it shows that Threadless employees are having fun. And who doesn’t love fun?!
The brand also has a whole Pinterest board dedicated to work fun. Not only does it show people having fun which is great, but fans can look at the Pinterest board and connect with the brand based on similarities or just a love for the culture.
3) Collaborate with your fans for more content.
After you research what your customers are already talking about online, don’t be afraid to ask them for more of their ideas and content. At events, offer up a prize or discount to be emailed to the customer who takes the most creative pictures. Ask your fans to tag their pictures with your brand and/or appropriate hashtag to make it easy for them to track.
You can even collaborate with fans on Pinterest’s group boards. Set a board topic and ask them to pin specific items. You can use group boards to gain advice from influencers, or give some of your fans the chance to become brand ambassadors. Take Food Network for example:
By working with others on their game day board, Food Network gets a variety of content, aligns themselves with other food brands, and provides all new ideas for their fans.
Looking for more ideas to engage fans on Instagram and Pinterest? Find out how to utilize Instagram tagging and take advantage of Pinterest place pins. Happy pinning and ‘gramming!
