August 2016 of this year saw Pinterest joining the ranks of fellow social media superstars Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as yet another platform that allowed full video advertisements for brand awareness, marketing, advertising, and other products of corporate video production.
It’s safe to say that videos and social media platforms are one of the best marketing mixes of this generation. As of the year 2016, the average person has around five social media accounts, and they spend 118 minutes a day on all of them. That’s roughly two hours, give or take a few minutes. Meanwhile, an average YouTube session per person lasts 40 minutes minimum. Furthermore, around a third of all online activity is spent watching videos.
Even if you haven’t noticed a trend by now, Pinterest certainly did. Adding to its repertoire of “pins”, it now offers promoted videos by way of Cinematic Pins – animated GIFs that play when the user scrolls past them. In the best case scenario (the user’s attention is caught), all one has to do to watch the whole video is tap on the teaser.
Now considered the fourth largest online source of traffic, Pinterest has grown from a cutesy website of wedding ideas, cupcake designs, and nail art photos to a serious powerhouse that can drive more referral traffic than YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+ combined. It is that influential. Ergo, it’s worth looking into its marketing value as platform for video advertisement and marketing strategy.
Here are three features of Pinterest that – combined with its newest promoted video feature – may prove beneficial in the long run.
REPINNING
Part of what makes sites like Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest so successful is the simplicity of their sharing feature. For Tumblr, reposting a photoset, text post, or picture that catches your eye is as simple as hitting the reblog button. The same rings true for Twitter, only it comes in the form “retweeting” witty/relevant/interesting posts.
For Pinterest, filling up your boards is as easy as “collecting” pins – both from Pinterest and all over the internet. With their handy Pin It! browser extension, any picture you find on the web can be reposted to your Pinterest with the simple click of a button. Gone are the days of downloading, uploading, and hyperlinking the source website.
If you’ve got explainer videos that are doing well on, say, YouTube or Facebook, repining it to Pinterest would make it easier to share under relevant tags, raise brand awareness (if nothing else, they’ll see your name), and – in the best case scenario – drive traffic.
BACKLINKING VIA DESCRIPTION FIELD
Another great feature of Pinterest is that it adamantly refuses to let you leave the description field empty. When repining or reuploading your video to Pinterest, it would be in your best interest to place a couple helpful backlinks as a “caption” to your video.
Placing your company’s official website would make it easier for people to learn more about you without having to Google your brand. Placing links to your company’s other social media accounts (the top 3: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) is also a good way to raise engagement and build followers.
CTA VIA “PINNABLE” VIDEOS
Making your video landing page or the video itself “pinnable” means other people can share it to their Pinterest – essentially doing the advertising for you. As mentioned earlier, people with the Pin It! extension installed in their browser (and make no mistake – a lot of people have it installed) can easily grab pictures, posts, and videos from everywhere else on the internet and repin it to their boards.
Adding a Call To Action on your video landing page in the form of a Pinterest Pin It! code or a Follow Me Pinterest button is a great way to get other users to spread your brand around.
