The growth of the Pinterest community shows no signs of slowing down. According to Nielsen, in 2012 the curated social pinboard site showed the largest year-over-year increase of all the social networks in terms of both unique audience and time spent on the site. No doubt you’ve already seen the value of Pinterest in your online marketing efforts – but have you explored adding product videos to your pinboard, in addition to images?
Pinboard users are increasingly adding videos along with pictures to their pinboards, and their love for video gives merchants a new way to feed their need for new items to pin. Videos can convey much more about products than static images can, so it’s a logical move to make your videos accessible to Pinterest members by placing them on your own pinboards. Your videos will get even greater reach via the large and growing audience on the site, and your Pinterest-posted videos will be indexed by the major search engines, giving them even more exposure.
Videos get a separate category tab on Pinterest, so they’re easy for your followers to find in the midst of all the images. It’s also very easy to make your videos shareable on Pinterest, just as you likely do now with Facebook and Twitter, simply by placing a “pin it” button on your website, blog, and so on. Here’s how to get the most out of video pinning on Pinterest:
Add pricing information: Pinterest lets you place “price tags” for products on videos, and they will be visible in the video’s thumbnail image. Pinterest users find prices appealing – according to Digital Journal, pins with a price get 1.5 likes on average, while pins without a price get only 1.1 likes on average.
Add full descriptions: Take advantage of the space that Pinterest gives you to add descriptions to your videos, so that users know what they’ll be watching. Pay special attention to adding keywords that are important to your SEO campaigns.
Choose the best thumbnail: Just as you do on YouTube, select a thumbnail that sells your video effectively. Pinterest users will make quick decisions on whether or not to watch your video, so an eye-catching still image can help tilt the scales in your video’s favor.
Include a call to action and URL: This is always a good practice for videos, but it makes perfect sense on Pinterest. A 2012 poll from marketing firm Steelhouse found that Pinterest users were twice as likely as Facebook users to buy products they see on the site. Feed this desire to shop with a callout to buy a product, check out your customer forums, or take advantage of sales or shipping deals. And adding a URL ensures that as your video gets passed around among Pinterest users, they’ll know where to go to get the product.
Keep them short: Pinterest appeals to users precisely because it doesn’t carry lots of text – users like to quickly scan images. Your videos should be short and easy to understand in order to encourage viewing and sharing.
Before you start adding videos to Pinterest, take a look at how some popular Pinterest merchants, such as Daily Grommet, an e-commerce site that uncovers artisan-made or innovative new products, are using video in tandem with images to create lively and viewer-friendly pinboards. You’ll come away with a good feel for the Pinterest community, and how your videos can work together with other pinned materials to build out your brand image.
Dr. Melody King is vice president of marketing at Treepodia.