I am excited to have my friend and fellow podcaster, Jeff Sieh, on the show again this week. Jeff was my guest back on episode 11, where we talked about marketing to men on Pinterest.
Jeff and I are going to be discussing some of our predictions for Pinterest in 2017 today, but we are also experimenting a little bit with this episode. Jeff actually recorded this episode LIVE, so here is a link to that live recording in case you want to go watch and not just listen!
I just want to mention that this episode is extremely content rich; so if there is an episode that you need to listen to and not just read the show notes, this is the one.
Jeff has his hands deep in the Pinterest pie, working for Social Media Examiner (both Pinterest and Instagram). His podcast, Manly Pinterest Tips, teaches men how to market their blogs on Pinterest, while encountering as few smoky eye tutorials as possible and adding testosterone to Pinterest, one pin at a time.
New Pinterest Features
Before starting on our predictions for 2017, let’s talk about some changes that Pinterest has already made that are huge for the upcoming year. They have released 3 new features:
- Pinterest Lens – allows you to take photos of items you want to purchase and save them to research later.
- Instant Ideas – hitting the “More”button gives you pins related to the pin you are currently looking at.
- Shop the Look – click on the blue dot on an image and pull up the image for purchase.
Pinterest Predictions for 2017
Video – Pinterest’s founders have stated that they want their platform to be used for long video. Food videos are already doing well on Pinterest. If you search for specific recipes in the Search bar, notice how many videos are in your results. Will live video become a thing on the platform? Maybe, maybe not. But for now, long form video is what they are promoting.
Instapaper – In 2016, Pinterest acquired Instapaper. If you aren’t familiar with it, it is similar to Evernote. It’s essentially a place to store things for later reference. This acquisition gives hope to bloggers and other content creators that Pinterest is not abandoning the written word, even as they move toward video.
Pin Descriptions – In some accounts, pin descriptions have either been significantly truncated or have gone away entirely. Jeff encourages you to continue to write keyword rich pin descriptions because you still need them for the search feature, even if they aren’t showing in your feed.
Learn more about keywording on Pinterest for pin descriptions.
Promoted Pin Ads – In 2016, Pinterest added “Awareness” to the ad campaign options; will 2017 bring even more options? What about the 1 tap ads? Do you like those, or do they feel invasive to you? With Facebook upping their ads game and making targeting so easy and specific, Pinterest is going to have to increase their targeting abilities as well.
The complete guide to Promoted Pins.
E-commerce plug-in – Jeff would love to see a WordPress plug-in for sites that have an e-commerce store. This would enable buyable pins to be so much more accessible.
Pinterest Marketing for Beginners
If you are just beginning to build your business and all of this Pinterest marketing talk is Greek, then let me encourage you to just get started. Use the platform. Your audience is most likely already there; you just need to find them. Decide who your target is and go after them.
And remember, like I have said on nearly every single episode of this podcast, Pinterest is a long-term game; you can’t give up after a week or two. Give it at least few months, then reassess your progress and go from there.
Connect with Jeff online:
See both of us speak live at Social Media Marketing World
Time Stamp
Intro
4:00 3 New Features on Pinterest
20:25 Predictions for 2017-
20:35 Video
27:09 Instapaper
28:45 Pin descriptions
32:30 Ads
37:00 Ecommerce plug-in
40:00 Marketing for Beginners
Hey Kate,
Lens offers a new way to search using your cell phone camera. The Instant Ideas product allows users to browse through their home feed, find something interesting, and update their home feeds with similar ideas.
It makes the home feed more personalized and recommendations more relevant to your tastes and interests. Pinterest is full of amazing ideas, and you want to contribute to those ideas. With Pinterest we can easily share our content and others will share it with us. Eventually, thanks for sharing your experience with us.
With best wishes,
Amar kumar