In social media, trends come and go; however, social media is here to stay. Pinterest, the new kid on the block, in particular is likely to become a major player in the social media world, with its visual focus and unique style.

The goal of any B2B’s marketing strategy is to grow brand awareness, build relationships, and educate potential customers, eventually leading to a sale. Social media are uniquely positioned to build on these goals, as its three primary benefits include:

• Generating exposure
• Increasing traffic
• Improving search rankings

And over a short amount of time, Pinterest has proven to be a valuable commodity in these endeavors.

Pinterest’s main advantages include:

Generating Exposure And Educating

As a social media tool, Pinterest offers a B2B company a uniquely visual way to educate buyer’s during the purchasing process. In B2B, it’s important that you focus on building relationships, and then optimize the value of that relationship.

Throughout the naturally longer sales cycle of a B2B sale, where you need to educate potential buyers about the benefits and features of your products and services, you can take advantage of Pinterest’s visual appeal, and use it much like a slide show, demo or webinar.

While each “pin” can stand alone, you can create a message with a group of pins, keeping in mind that people will generally “read” pins from left to right, much like a book.

Increasing Traffic

One of the primary benefits company’s can gain from using Pinterest involves linking. Every pin is indexed, and the link goes directly back to your main website, or through a direct link.

Google reads keywords for pinboards, too, so maintaining SEO strategies are a must. There are several opportunities, just like any other web page, to increase traffic, using a keyword in your initial pin, its caption, its meta description and so forth.

Improving Search Rankings

Pinterest is an active community, and it’s quickly edging out some of the competition. In a little more than two years, Pinterest has quickly grown an enthusiastic and loyal audience. It outranks other social media tools, coming in right behind Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

In 2012 alone, Pinterest has gained 11 million unique visitors. And with its valuable links, the potential for pins to go viral increases significantly, with 80 percent of activity on its boards “repins.

B2B marketers are wise to employ Pinterest as part of their social media marketing strategy. At Social Strategy1, we stand ready to assist businesses with our long-standing social media expertise. Call us today to find out more about our social media services.