The Image-Driven Social Network
Since arriving on the scene in 2010, Pinterest has grown tremendously, becoming one of the leading social media platforms and, according to one study, the fourth largest driver of worldwide Internet traffic.
While other social networks allow users to exchange all kinds of content, including articles, blog posts, and links, Pinterest is exclusively for sharing or “pinning” visual content: photos, illustrations, videos, etc. This is by no means a restriction: in fact, visuals drive far more engagement than text. On Facebook, for instance, people like twice as many photos as text posts, and share videos twelve times more often than links and text posts combined.
Just like other social media platforms, Pinterest can be a valuable tool in your real estate marketing strategy. Here’s how you can use Pinterest to leverage photos, videos, and other visual real estate content online.
Complete Your Pinterest Profile
As with other social networks, when you create a Pinterest account, you’ll want to fill out your profile as thoroughly as possible. Start by choosing a high quality profile picture, then add your location and complete your “About You” section.
Be sure to include service and local search keywords in your about section: this will make it easier for users searching Pinterest to find your profile, pins, and boards. Finally, add your real estate marketing website to your profile to funnel visitors to your listings. (You’ll need to verify your site by uploading a Pinterest-provided image to it.)
Start Pinning
Once your profile is complete, it’s time to pin. Start by adding a “Pin It” button to every page of your website with sharable visual content. This gives your site visitors an easy way to save and share your photos and videos as pins. The “Pin It” button also makes it simple for you to funnel your own content to your Pinterest page as you create it.
Don’t send all of your listing photos and videos to Pinterest–you’ll only inundate your fellow pinners with lots of unexceptional content. Instead, pin your absolute best property visuals. You can also use Photoshop or another image editing application to create simple text posts with quick tips on real estate topics. Finally, Pinterest recently added rich pinning, which allows you to share blog posts, articles, and other text-based pins.
In addition to original content, you should also be pinning or repinning any other content you think real estate customers might find useful or interesting, such as photos of unique homes or beautiful landscaping ideas. Be sure to use relevant keywords and hashtags to make your pins more easily searchable. If it’s original content, you should always include a link in the pin description that leads back to the source page on your website.
Create Boards
Boards are a way of organizing your pins into albums according to type or topic. Boards can be used in a variety of ways to make your content more accessible, valuable, and sharable for other pinners. You could, for instance, create separate boards for different property types: luxury homes, townhouses, condos, etc.
You can also use boards to illustrate your expertise about your local area and real estate in general. For example, you can create a board for each of the neighborhoods you cover, with pins on local attractions, favorite restaurants and shops, and fun events taking place in the area. Finally, you can create educational boards for real estate consumers, with topics like “for new homebuyers” and “home staging tips.”
Ready to take your visual content marketing to the next level? Sign up for a Pinterest account today!
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