The three most common things people seem to look to Pinterest for are 1. Fashion 2. Home Decor and 3. Recipes. While the first one has little to do with Craft Beverages (unless your company logo t-shirts qualify as fashion…) the other two are definite avenues that can be exploited to help increase interest in your product.
Home Decor
At first glance, decorating may not seem like an obvious match for your business, but don’t overlook it too quickly. Pinterest is all about creativity, so be sure and think about your business in a creative way, as well. Foodie designs for kitchens that feature photos of your product? Garages and workshops decorated with your company’s logo and/or colors? The idea isn’t that people will directly replicate such a thing, but that it may generate ideas of something similar they could do or be something that brings out the brand loyalty (for you) in them.
Recipes
Recipes are the most obvious fit for the Craft industry. Is your dark beer a “secret” ingredient to a mean beef stew? Take that recipe and add it to the digital world! You could also create articles on wine pairings or suggestions on seasonal recipes that go well with your product.
How: the Basics
The hard part: In order to create original content for Pinterest, you have to actually create original content. This means you need to literally make the ideas you’re pinning — the room decorations and the delicious recipes — on your own first, either at home or at work.
For example, after creating a recipe, record it and any tips regarding it in an article posted to your website. This is important: you don’t put all the content on Pinterest, but rather use Pinterest to link to your website. Pinterest itself doesn’t generate income for you, but using it to spread brand recognition and drive traffic to your website could help you generate online ad revenue. You certainly don’t need to post this information on the homepage of your website, but it is important to have a secondary page that is a type of blog with content continually added. (Having such posts on your website will also increase your site’s search engine optimization, making your page pop up at the top of Google or other search sites when customers are looking for a business similar to yours.)
After creating the post on your website, be sure to add great pictures — good images are key on Pinterest. Then use a photo-editing program to add your company logo to each picture. This is necessary because as people share your pin on Pinterest, they may edit or rewrite the caption; the only permanent identifier that will link back to you is what you put directly on the .jpg!
What about pinning other people’s content and sharing non-original content on your Pinterest page? That would certainly be easier! It’s not bad to pin other people’s work, but that won’t drive people to your website or spread your brand. Feel free to include other people’s ideas as filler, but don’t neglect making original content.
The Purpose
This seems like a lot of work. Is it worth it? Visual marketing is very hot right now and so social sites like Pinterest and Instagram are netting the next generation even more than Facebook seems to be — in fact, Facebook is starting to see an out-migration of some Millennials.
Do not think of Pinterest as advertising: you won’t generate immediate business because you start a Pinterest page. Think of it as a way to spread your brand. It will also drive traffic to your website. Big businesses, such as Lowe’s, Case IH, Target and General Mills, are all using Pinterest as a marketing tool. They wouldn’t be using it if they didn’t see value. You may not have the resources that they do, but you can certainly still join the community in whatever way you are able. Like most things, you will get out of Pinterest what you put in it.
Content is King
In order for Pinterest to be useful, you have to have pins that people share often. How do you entice people to spread your message? By having unique, quality ideas. Pinterest is not a place for simply throwing up the bare minimum. Share modern, cutting edge ideas.
Humor helps, as well. Are people really going to fill the walls of their baby’s nursery with giant pictures of your hop fields? Probably not. But if you portray it in a way that is humorous, they will probably pin it just to be funny or share their farmer pride. And hey — if you’re going for humor, maybe a fashion board wouldn’t be a bad idea, after all!
Emily Enger is a Millennial farm kid turned farm journalist. She also works in marketing, serving as communications director for a nonprofit that covers nine rural counties in northern Minnesota. These opinions are her own and should not take the place of legal or professional advice. To comment or pitch future topics, email her at emilygraceenger@gmail.com . For reprint permission, email editor Joan Kark-Wren at jkarkwren@leepub.com.