@AshleyKaia
We all know that Pinterest has hit the social media scene with a boom. It's only been a couple months into 2012 and already marketers are claiming it as the next big tool in their arsenal of branding tools for this year. However, there is a step yet to be taken with much of Pinterest. Not many have tapped into the insights of using Pinterest for market research. Here, I will show you some tips to utilize the site for a better understanding of your market.
1. See what's pinning. A cool trick I learned from Adam Helweh at socialmediaexplorer.com is to enter your website URL into the Pinterest URL tag. Type the following into your browser and replace “yourdomain.com” with your own web site: http://pinterest.com/source/”yourdomain.com”. For example, try www.pinterest.com/source/nytimes.com. Here you will find all of the images that Pinterest users have taken from nytimes.org. This gives a nice display of what users find visually appealing/interesting on your site. Pretty cool huh? Have you tried it with your URL yet?
2. Look for themes. Is there a certain image that shows up consistently? That means Pinterest users have found that image to be very appealing and/or interesting, and have re-pinned it to the site. Look for any patterns or themes within your search. Popular images will tell you the type of article or product that is resonating with viewers.
3. Get a little closer. Is there an "image ambassador" among your pinners? By that I mean, are there one or two people that have consistently re-pinned your images, or keep showing up? Click on their profile and check them out. See what boards they are pinning to, how many followers they have and what other products they seem to like. If they've added links to other social media profiles, you may even want to connect with them further.
I'm excited to see how Pinterest will continue to expand, both as a fellow pinner and as a marketer. One thing is for sure, it's not leaving our radar anytime soon. What do you think? Have you been using Pinterest? Do you follow any brands? Contribute to the conversation below in the comment section!