Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves.
Melanie
Hello, and welcome back to It's a podcast. It's Monday morning and we're bright, fresh, and early. Well, I'm certainly bright, probably a little bit fresh, and it's still not quite that early, but it's early enough for us, isn't it, Esther?
Esther
Very early, yes.
Melanie
So we've got a bit of news, don't we?
Esther
We do. Very important news coming up.
Melanie
We have a sponsor, and we'd like to introduce you to Feedalpha. So let me tell you a little bit about them. They want you to get ready to be a social media superstar with Feedalpha. Their friendly AI and super simple tools make it a breeze to see what your followers are into. That means you can post the cool stuff they love right when they're most likely to see it. So check out feedalpha.com to find out more and take your social media to the next level.
Esther
I'm trying to think of a segue from that into our special guest today, but it's all to do with social media, so it's perfect.
Melanie
And it is actually a platform that can also be used on Feedalpha as well. So let me introduce Lucy McVey. Okay. Hi, Lucy.
Lucy
Hi.
Melanie
You're a Pinterest trainer and consultant at LNB Social. Welcome.
Lucy
Yeah. Thank you very much for having me.
Esther
Yeah. So Pinterest is one of those platforms that is probably the most underused, underutilised, underdeveloped in terms of people using it for personal use or business use or forgotten platforms. So Lucy is here to tell us exactly why we should be on it. And we will talk about the power of Pinterest.
Lucy
The power of Pinterest. Yeah, I mean, Pinterest, it's seen as a social media platform, but technically it's really a visual search engine. And it's the third biggest search engine after Google and YouTube. And any time I tell people that I work in Pinterest, they're like, oh, never actually thought about using that. It's ideal because you can't be too salesy, you can't be spammy. And Pinterest wants people to go off the site to visit your website, which other social media platforms don't. They'd rather keep you where you are.
Esther
Basically, it goes against social media platform rule 101 of stay on platform as long as possible.
Melanie
So that's interesting, actually, that Google comes up first, then YouTube, then Pinterest. Are you noticing people are using it more as a search engine these days, or is it still being used predominantly as a business platform for the people that you're working with?
Lucy
It's definitely being used as a search platform, I would say. It's like people are going there because they're looking for something specific. They're either trying to find an answer or they're trying to find inspiration for something. So you go in there and you put what you're looking for in the search bar, and then it obviously brings everything up.
Esther
I think people-.
Melanie
beat me to it.
Esther
Yeah, because I had my hand up first. She didn't notice it this time. So a lot of people, like you say, go and find inspiration there. But are there sales being made through Pinterest, or is it mostly pinning for inspiration and pin it all to your boards and then figure out how to do it later?
Lucy
There are lots of sales being made through Pinterest, and it's not just the big brands, because most of the searches are unbranded, so they're looking... People look for something specific. So we're not going there just to pin stuff and just look for ideas and things like that. People are looking because they want to find a certain product. I think it's about 60% of pinners, maybe. I might be a bit wrong in that stat, but 60% of pinners go there because they want to as part of the buyer journey, and then that will ultimately end up in then purchasing the product.
Melanie
Things have changed quite a bit, haven't they? From how people first came across Pinterest. I don't do Pinterest as part of my trainings because I can't do everything. But my earliest experience of Pinterest was very different to what it's capable of today. That I do know, because although I don't show people to use it myself. I actually have one because I know it's a fabulous SEO tool. So can you tell us a little bit about idea pins and also about the video pins, Lucy? Because I've heard of them, but I don't know how to use them and how they're useful for people in business.
Lucy
Idea pins and video pins are great if you want to show a tutorial of how to use a product or if a product has different aspects. So you can post, like an Instagram carousel, you can post multiple pins in one for people to scroll through or you'd have the video pin. So if you got maybe a recipe and you want to show people how to do it, then just record a video and upload it. So in the same way as Instagram reels, you can repurpose an Instagram reel as a video pin. So actually it helps with repurposing your content and making your content a lot further.
Melanie
So you can actually create it in reels, download it onto your phone, then upload it as a video pin on interest?
Lucy
Yeah.
Melanie
Okay, perfect.
Esther
And is there a time limit or ideal time of a video length?
Lucy
I think it might be, just trying to find the exact time, but I think it might be roughly a minute.
Melanie
Okay. And just like reels, they stay there forever, do they?
Lucy
Yeah.
Melanie
Okay.
Esther
Well, that's one of the things that I've noticed about Pinterest. So I am an avid pinner. I will go to Pinterest and pin all the inspiration. Oh, yeah. I have my whole house redesigned on Pinterest.
Lucy
So do I.
Esther
Yeah, right? And I had my wedding designed on it, and I had the kids bedrooms. I've been on Pinterest since it was invitation only. That's how long I've been on Pinterest.
Lucy
I didn't know that was ever a time.
Esther
Yeah, that was a great start. Maybe I should have developed my knowledge a bit more.
Lucy
Yeah.
Esther
But are there businesses that work better on Pinterest than other businesses, or is it any type of business can be on Pinterest, do well on Pinterest? What have you noticed with trends and stuff, what works and what doesn't?
Lucy
I think any type of business, if you got a website and a product or service, any type of business can work well on Pinterest. I mean, you go there and you think it's all about recipes and DIY and stuff. But I've done searches for health and safety, for financial advice, and it's all there. So as long as people are looking for it, then it's going to do well on there. And if you've got regular blogs, podcasts and videos and stuff, you can do well on there.
Esther
I can see Melanie's-.
Lucy
I work for her brain.
Esther
I can see her going, oh, that's where we need to hold off, Melanie. Hold off. So you were saying there, Lucy, having a website is mandatory for you to pin stuff. Is that correct? You want people to go back to your website. That's the main aim. What if you're selling stuff on, say, Etsy or Shopify or stuff like that? Is that still-.
Lucy
Yeah, that's absolutely fine because you'll connect it to your Pinterest account and then people can pull stuff from, say, your Etsy page to pin them. Or then obviously you will have the link from your Pinterest page to your Etsy account.
Esther
So they'll go straight there and not to somebody else's Etsy stuff.
Melanie
Okay, so we've got every other platform for MMM, but not Pinterest. We have Etsy as well.
Esther
We do. But do we need to have Pinterest?
Lucy
That's the age old question. It's like everybody thinks they have to be on-.
Esther
Use the marketing term. Use the marketing term.
Melanie
It depends.
Lucy
It depends. Because I mean, everybody wants to flock to every platform as soon as it opens thinking I need to be on there. But again, it's what works best for your business. And if you're doing well through other platforms, then...
Melanie
Well, we're not on TikTok yet, Esther.
Lucy
Do you want to be on TikTok?
Esther
And there's a reason for that, Melanie. No, I don't. No.
Lucy
Again, it's another platform that I can assume stuff on. Yeah. What, threaten my teenagers for opening up a TikTok account. They never speak to me again.
Esther
They might delete their TikTok, that would be.
Lucy
Yeah.
Esther
That would be fun. But in terms of... Okay, it's getting back to Pinterest. In terms of value for money. So obviously, Pinterest is still a free platform, free to use. There are ads on it. You can run ads on it.
Lucy
There are.
Esther
Correct? Okay. And are those ads, do you find that compared to, say, Google ads or Bing ads, just search engine ads, would they have the same power or would they be less effective than maybe other platforms?
Lucy
I think Pinterest ads tend to be a bit slower, more of a slow burn. I mean, the organic side of Pinterest works really, really well anyway. But their ads there, they are cheaper to run than, say, Facebook, but just have a bit more of a slower burn.
Melanie
Yeah, they need to be on for longer than Facebook. Because I have done Pinterest, because although MMM doesn't have one, like I said, my business does. And I've done ads on there just to see if it works. And it did annoyingly.
Esther
Why annoyingly? Okay, no, that's not my big.
Melanie
Well, it showed I'd say that it was an area where I should have developed more, and I didn't.
Esther
Okay, but that brings us back to, so Pinterest has been around for years and years and years. Is there any detriment to joining it now, years and years later? Or is it still seen as quite a new platform that isn't overly saturated?
Lucy
There's definitely no detriment to joining it now. And in terms of being saturated, I think people are now just discovering how powerful a tool it can be. Because, I mean, they get... When I tell people, they're so surprised. They never just don't think about using it. And as long as you get the right pins, have a decent pin image and the right keywords, then you can do really well on it.
Esther
Okay, so give us some help there with our decent pinned image. What do you like it?
Lucy
So with it a pin, you want to keep it in your brand colours, keep it as on brand as possible with your logo. Always have a call to action, like read now, or listen to this podcast. Have your website on there as well. So have as much detail focusing back to you as possible.
Esther
Even though the link would click through to the website?
Lucy
Yes.
Esther
Have the website. Oh, okay.
Lucy
And even if you don't have a product-based business, you can find just stock photos can help you create a visually striking image.
Melanie
Yeah, as long as they're copyright free, of course. Yeah, of course. Stock photos. So one thing I had an issue with, initially, which has now been resolved, was adding the RSS feed to Pinterest. So any new blogs or anything I put up. Is that something you help people with as well?
Lucy
It's something I can help people with.
Melanie
Because it can be a bit fiddly, can't it? Who is your ideal customer? Who do you normally deal with in Pinterest? Because obviously in my head, I think of food and crafts and obviously people like Esther who decorate their home. Is it used for stuff beyond that much?
Lucy
Yeah, I mean, The clients that I've worked with, I worked with somebody who designed and made jewellery, somebody who made wedding cakes and had online baking classes. So she had a lot of recipes to go out. But I also worked with an IT media company.
Melanie
Wow.
Lucy
Yeah, so you wouldn't think their keywords were a bit more niche, but it works in their favour because the more niche the keywords, the less competition there is in terms of pins appearing.
Melanie
And how often would you have to pin to make it an effective strategy?
Lucy
Again, there's no one size fits all because if you're a small business, you might not have time to do it. So time to do it that regularly. So I mean, with scheduling tools, it makes it a hell of a lot easier. But a small business might not be pushing up quite so much content. So it may be one pin a day, but then you can go up to 10 pins a day.
Melanie
So I was going to ask, is it as hungry as Twitter, or as hungry as Instagram, or as hungry as Facebook, or as hungry as LinkedIn? Because in my head, X Twitter is still the hungriest of all the platforms. You need to feed that constantly, followed by Instagram, which then has three different ways, which Pinterest does now. It has three different ways to post, doesn't it? And so in my head, you only need to feed Facebook three to five times a week, as long as you put it up at the right time. So would you say it's more like Instagram in that you need to feed it that often, but not as often as X?
Lucy
They recommend to be consistent with at least one pin a day. So that's over... You can actually, this is one of my favourite points about Pinterest is that you can post to the same piece of content every single day for a week, as long as you have a slightly different pin. So changing the pin, changing the pin image, changing the wording slightly will make it a different pin and Pinterest will see it as fresh, but it can be leading to the same piece of content.
Esther
That's good, because that was going to be my question. What if you don't have a lot of content to be able to pin something every day or 10 times a day? But if you can pin the same, so say it's a blog, if you have five or six different images for that same blog and you're just highlighting different sections of the blog, would that then work?
Lucy
That will work. So you can get one blog, create seven pins, and then have them go out every day for a week.
Melanie
Now, there are some boards that I join as a collaboration with others, so other digital marketers or other content creators or something like that. How do those work? How are they useful for other people to work from? Or is it really only useful for the people that are collaborating within that? Is it open to the public or are they just kept private, those collaborations?
Lucy
They'd only be private if they were set as private.
Melanie
Okay. So you're just pinning to each other. I'm going to have to rethink this.
Esther
Well, the way I always thought of boards was it was that board was like your vision board or your you know, design board and only you could see it. That's the way I always heard of boards.
Lucy
So I have a... I actually have two Pinterest accounts. One is my personal one, which is full of DIY and recipes. And then when I started providing it as a service, I set up my own business one, which is just my pins, really. But then I was doing a photoshoot. We were collaborating together on ideas for the photoshoot, so I was invited as a collaborator, but we kept the board private so nobody else could see it because the idea is that you want people to... You only want to show people your pins. You don't want to... You can re-pin other stuff as much as you want, but it's, I'd say it's better to keep that stuff private. So you're not encouraging people to go to someone else's website.
Melanie
That's true.
Esther
But inside your business board or your business, Pinterest, can you have separate boards to say, split off, let's say we're talking jewellery. You got rings in one board, necklaces in another. And can those be open? But people won't really necessarily see the board, but they'll see in their feed, they'll see your pin.
Lucy
Yeah, they'll see all the most recent will come up first.
Melanie
It's quite a niche product at the end of the day. And because it's not so well known, I do think that people need to be educated better. It's like master classes or downloads downloads or books or something like that. So as an offering for LNB Social, what do you do to educate your customers about Pinterest?
Lucy
I have a couple of free downloads.
Melanie
Cool.
Lucy
Yeah, there's one which is basically how to create the perfect pin, telling you where to put your keywords and how you should design the actual pin trip, the pin. And I have a Pinterest checklist as well. So just a checklist, make sure you've this, this, this, this, this, before you start pinning.
Melanie
And these are available on your website?
Lucy
They're available on my website and through my Instagram profile.
Melanie
Cool and I see them on your email list?
Lucy
Yes. My email list, I certainly need to get better at.
Esther
Don't we all?
Melanie
So Lucy, how do people learn about your business? And how do we find out more about you?
Lucy
You can follow me on Instagram, on Twitter, although that's becoming less about, that's becoming less about work and more about just the fun stuff these days. LinkedIn and Facebook. So I'm in the usual places.
Esther
And your website is lmvsocial.co.uk?
Lucy
Yes.
Melanie
Lema Mike Victor.
Lucy
Yes.
Esther
Oh, okay. Yeah. I would have given those totally different names. But anyway, thank you so much for joining us today, Lucy. It has been It's an absolute pleasure. And we really need to learn more about Pinterest. So we will be going and getting your downloads. And we hope that our audience will as well.
Melanie
We'll share it in our show notes as well, the links.
Esther
We will. So that's it for today, guys. We're back next week with another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Until then. Bye bye.
Melanie
Bye.
Lucy
Bye, thank you very much for having me.
