Pinterest For Business Executives
If you want to get recognition and a strong personal brand in the twenty-first century business world, you need to know your way around social media, the latest and greatest way to see and be seen. Of course, there are also numerous social media networks out there to choose from, an absolute embarrassment of riches.
Fortunately, most of the networks out there have their own particular niche or medium that they excel in. For instance, LinkedIn is more oriented towards professional networking, career-oriented matters, and business/employment connections. Facebook is the big social mixer where everyone seems to eventually drop by. But Pinterest, on the other hand, is more of a visual-oriented medium, specializing in images and video that members “pin” on the site, and it’s a good place to build a personal brand. Here’s how to do it.
Have Multiple Boards
With Pinterest, you can create a number of different boards, each one dedicated to a particular idea, theme, or topic. Take a look, for instance, at the main page for law firm DLA Piper’s COO Bob Bratt. He has four boards set up: Business Interests, his alma mater, his hometown, and his interests in the area of sports.
By creating a boards that cover a range of interests, biographical data, and business-related matters, any executive can lay out very plainly what they are all about, including their accomplishments. Consider the issue of resumes. There are as many different “correct ways” to write up a resume as there are people recommending them. Some people suggest leaving out personal things like interests. Others say it shows that you’re a well-rounded person, so yes, you MUST put them in! It’s enough to drive you insane.
But with Pinterest’s format, that executive can pin stuff about every aspect of their public and personal lives that they want out there, and visitors can pick and choose what to check out. The resume pitfall is avoided; people who don’t care about personal matters can avoid those boards; those who want to get a better measure of the subject at hand can delve as deep as they want.
That’s one of the problems with building up a good personal brand; it’s hard to tell what information will be essential to what portion of your audience you’re reaching, so instead of having to decide what to put up, you can put it all out there and let the users choose for themselves.
Make A Business Page
An executive trying to build a personal brand needs to also pay attention to the company he or she is involved in. Fortunately, Pinterest gives you the capability of creating a business page. This page can even end up supplanting the business’ own website (though that website should never be allowed die off; there’s no such thing as too much exposure), to the point where a business owner can post information about goods and services, such as pricing or product descriptions, effectively conducting business via Pinterest.
But Pinterest can be another way to drive traffic to your business’ website. A smart professional uses whatever tools are at hand in order to get those all-important clicks. The business page and the personal profile can reference back to each other, effectively tying the professional to their business.
It Takes Some Getting Used To
Unlike sites like Facebook or Google Plus, Pinterest’s format takes a little getting used to, as its emphasis on the visual medium requires different rules of engagement. Fortunately, you can check out topics like Corporate Identity and Identity Branding for some ideas. The best thing you can do is get an account set up as soon as possible and begin exploring. Once you’re comfortable, take the steps needed to build up your and your business’ marketability.
People’s ability to adjust with the times and take advantage of new innovations is a key component in success today. Building a strong brand on Pinterest is a good start.
