A lot of people believe that Pinterest is ruled by fashionistas and brides-to-be, and while this may have been the case during the early days of the social network, the fact is, Pinterest’s user base has grown to become more and more diverse over the past few months, that business from just about any industry can find success on the site.
Consider the account of The Weather Channel. It isn’t really the type of brand that you’d expect to thrive in Pinterest, but thanks to several great pins and a whole lot of social media savvy-ness, TWC has managed to garner a huge following on Pinterest.
Read on below to see how The Weather Channel did it.
Pin Images of Animals – It’s no question that cute and cuddly animals are the darling of the World Wide Web. People just can’t get enough of furry creatures doing funny things. The Weather Channel, despite not being in the pet businesses, used the Internet’s love for animals to their advantage by adding a board filled with pet photos taken throughout Winter, Spring, Summer, & Fall. From sled dogs to pets wearing sunglasses, almost every image on the board was repined and liked.
The bottom line here is that you shouldn’t let industry barriers and differences stop you from pinning great or funny content. So what if you aren’t in the pet business? Take a photo of that cat in your office anyway. Or snap a picture of your product beside a pet (as long as it’s in good taste). It wouldn’t hurt to lighten up your content a bit, and using animals is often the best way to do this.
Have Diverse Pins from All Over the World (Travel Board) – Pinterest, like every other social media site out there, is used by a lot of people as means to escape, which is why photos from faraway places are so re-pinnable. The Weather Channel has a whole board dedicated to climates and cultures from all over the world, and it has received positive response from the community.
Take a leaf out of TWC’s book and see if you can diversify your pins. Does your business cater to other cities? Do you have international customers? If so, then brag about them by adding pins about their countries and cultures.
Have a Sense of Humor
The Weather Channel also has a board filled with humorous memes and funny pictures from their headquarters. It’s a great way to keep things interesting and put a smile on people’s faces. There isn’t (and there will never be) a shortage of hilarious photos on the Internet, so if come across funny images while you’re surfing the web, be sure to share the laughs and pin it on your account. Or better yet, always have camera handy, so that you can capture any funny moments that take place in your business’s headquarters.
Link Up With Facebook and Other Social Networks
A few weeks ago, TWC held a Facebook contest where users were asked to submit their best weather photos. The winning pictures were then featured as The Weather Channel’s cover images. The great thing about this is that TWC didn’t stop with Facebook. Instead, they made a special Pinterest board to feature the winning images as well. This is a very smart move by TWC because it drives traffic from Pinterest to Facebook and vice versa. The next time you post something on Pinterest, be sure to cross-post it to Facebook and Twitter as well. Letting your social network accounts work together is a sure fire way to increase your social media presence.
Image credit: rasamalai on Flickr
