The value of using Pinterest and Instagram for your business
The importance of visual content marketing continues to rise as we gather more information on human behavior, particularly when considering which social media platforms are most pertinent for businesses. In the online marketing world, a business has approximately 10 seconds, the length of an average person’s attention span, to capture the reader and prompt a few more minutes of the reader’s time. The good news? It only takes an individual one-tenth of a second to process an image, versus 60 seconds to read 200-250 words, according to NeoMam Studios.
Without a doubt, visual images are the number one way to quickly captivate your audience, but what platforms support this form of marketing? We’ve pulled together the most relevant stats, tips, and tricks to understand the value of using the top visual social media platforms, Pinterest and Instagram.
Both Pinterest and Instagram have the capability of creating a “brand story” for your business. Stick to the specific colors, fonts, filters, image styles, and messages you’re trying to get across, and users will be able to easily identify your “look” which is vitally beneficial. With the enormous amount of information on social sites, your posts will stand out given the branding you’re able to exude visually on these platforms.
Instagram has over 300 million users with a majority demographic of Millennials and GenXers. As a top mobile app, Instagram can be used to promote your business and products in a soft, less salesy way. Using the app to offer promotions and make announcements is an easy method to bring followers to your website and create customers for your business. Remember that the culture for Instagram is to build brand awareness over making direct sales and advertising.
Pinterest is also in the market to build brand awareness, but provides the capabilities to click-through to specific blog posts, product pages, and referral sites on each pin. With this power, businesses can get away with more direct advertisements and have goals to make sales straight off the platform. The site even provides a place to display the price of your product directly on the pin. Marketers are able to get creative with Pinterest by promoting products in a real life context within a window shopping environment done straight from the user’s couch. This article supports the claims that Pinterest is one of the most effective tools to generate traffic to your website.
The use of professional photos, quotes, infographics and short videos are among the best ways to engage your audience through Pinterest and Instagram. Infographics perform particularly well on Pinterest with their “how-to” nature, while professional photos and quotes are notably successful on Instagram. Create visually appealing posts using resources like Canva or PicMonkey for photo editing. Use Piktochart or Venngage for creating easy infographics, and play around with different quote maker apps like Recite to place quotes on graphics when you’re on-the-go.
Finally, don’t forget to include social sharing buttons for Pinterest and Instagram on your website and newsletters. Offering your audience the ease and accessibility to quickly follow you and share your information via these social platforms will benefit your business greatly. To get more acquainted with these platforms, check out previous Yakkety Yak blog posts on Instagram and Pinterest, or Contact Us for more information.
