Using Pinterest For Your Business

What to Consider When Creating Pinterest Boards for Your Business

Karen Leland, author of Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business, suggests looking into the following things when deciding to create a Pinterest account for your business:

Choose topics that interest your target market

• Create boards and re-pin pins that your target market wants to see
• Make connections between your product and the consumer:
• Example: If you sell high quality art supplies, chances are your consumers are artists, art students, or seriously enjoy painting as a hobby. You could then create a board with different famous artists' paintings, art shows, murals around the world, etc.

What is the educational value of the 'pins' or 'boards'?

• The best kinds of pins are "How To" and informational pins.
• Be sure to credit any videos that are not your own.
• Educating your audience will draw followers to you.

Have you gotten any feedback about your business?

• Similar to a virtual focus group, testing the waters on Pinterest with new products/services or new ideas is a great way to see how your target market will respond to it if/when released.

Think of your upcoming events.

• Create boards for information about your upcoming events like speakers and workshops.
• Re-pin pins about the speaker, sponsors, location, and other information that may interest your followers about these events.

Do you have new products/services being released soon or recently released?

• Pin things about the product/service like features, uses, and testimonials.
• Promote your new product/service with special deals.

Show your followers your company culture & employees.

• Giving your followers a peek inside your work area forms trust and a more personal bond.
• Pin pictures of the office and employees.
• Pin fan photos (be sure to get permission first).

Provide your followers with "social proof".

• Create a board of pictures or videos of testimonials and and your customers using your product/service.
• If people see other's using and enjoying your product/service, they will assume they will also have a good experience with it.

Encourage group discussion.

• If you give a brief description of the pin and also a question, this will help generate discussion and spread awareness of your company.
• Similar to an online forum or blog.

What kinds of businesses would Pinterest be perfect for? To what type businesses would Pinterest be of little to no help?

Response to Jade Brulotte

Johnson & Johnson's Reaching Out to Consumers' Emotions

Do you think that consumers will change their mind and trust after all of the recalls and lawsuits Johnson and Johnson has faced?

Johnson and Johnson is attempting to recover from all the recalls and lawsuits they have faced in the past few years. Their latest action is their new campaign, "For All You Love". The ads will be aimed towards consumers' emotions.

I'm not sure if these ads will entirely change consumers' views but I do believe that the ads will help. It is very hard for companies to recover from bad reputations resulting from recalls and lawsuits. Most people find it hard to see the company as trustworthy or reliable afterwards. In my opinion, I respect the companies that recall their products because some companies do not recall anything in fear of receiving the bad reputation and to avoid the cost of recalling the product(s), refunding consumers, and replacing/fixing the product(s).

I hope that Johnson & Johnson will be successful in gaining their good reputation back and earn back the respect of their current and former consumers.

Why do you think Johnson & Johnson decided to focus on consumers' emotions for their campaign? What kind of strategies are they using? What else could they focus on to achieve their goal?

Jade's post can be found here.

Response to Katie O'Hurley

Alex and Ani Bracelets

I think people are still buying Alex and Ani bracelets because they are cute and have "meaning" to them. Each bangle bracelet has a cute charm on it and the bracelets come with cards that explain the meaning of the bracelet. For example, the hummingbird bangle bracelet means "Awakening, Healing, Eternity". How they determined that? I have no idea. Below is a screen shot of the hummingbird bracelet on AlexAndAni.com

These bracelets are the biggest trend right now and have taken the place of Pandora charm bracelets (though I'm still a Pandora girl - I don't own any Alex & Ani products). As I've read in Katie's post, as well as hearing from friends with Alex & Ani bracelets, the bracelets aren't even good quality and rust very quickly. The also cost $3 to make and are sold for prices ranging from $28-$54. Some people think they are worth buying because the bracelets are made in the US, compared to Pandora charms that are made in China... I support companies that keep outsourcing to a minimum but they should be producing great quality products if they say "Made in the USA" on them.

Also, as you can see below... the trend isn't just wearing ONE Alex and Ani bangle. Most customers wear dozens of bangles. One of my roommates has about 8 Alex and Ani bangles that she wears everyday and I know it's her when she walks in the front door downstairs because she jingles when she walks.

How much effort do you think it would take for Alex & Ani to make better quality products that didn't rust? Would it be worth it? How would this effect sales?

Katie's post can be found here.

Response to Blackboard Question - John Smith

To Sell or Not to Sell

John Smith should not sell the names and phone numbers of the people that are "likely" or "very likely" to buy a new car in the next 12 months. Though he will need to lay some people off, it is more ethical to do that than go against the AMA's Statement of Ethics. If he were to sell the contact information to the car dealership, John Smith would break the Honesty part of the Statement of Ethics. More than likely, the survey said that no information will be shared or sold. The Fairness part of the Statement also states "seek to protect the private information of customers, employees, and partners". I believe the people that responded to the survey could be considered customers or even employees and their names and phone numbers could be considered "private information". John Smith should definitely not sell the information to the car dealer.

How could John Smith remain ethical AND not lay off any of his employees?

Professor Johnson's post can be found here.

Response to Jade Brulotte

Would you invest your life savings in an idea you were fairly confident in?  Or would you have to be completely confident?

Though Michael Dubin's Dollar Shave Club has been successful, I don't think that I could invest my entire life savings in an idea that I was only fairly confident in. I am a creative person, but I don't like to take big risks. If Dubin's idea had been a bust, what would he have done after his life savings disappeared? There would be a significant lifestyle change and a long struggle.

If, for some reason, I had a great sum of money in my savings account right now at age 20, had a stable, well-paying career-job, and came up with an idea that I thought would take off quickly, I would definitely pursue it because I'm young and have a great job so I could bounce back easily. If I were older and closer to retirement, I wouldn't be as likely because that's chancing losing so much money that I wouldn't have time to save up again and live off it after retirement.

Do you think that your age determines what you invest your money in? What would some examples be?