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Pinterest for your Solar Company's Social Media

DATE PUBLISHED: December 17, 2012
 
With a 4,000 percent jump in visitors in the past six months, there is little doubt that Pinterest is the hottest social media site around.  This year it crossed the ten million-user mark in record time, and it promotes more referrals than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.

It is now ranked third among social media sites, behind only Facebook and Twitter.  More importantly, Pinterest has become a platform for companies who wish to reach consumers through a rich, visual medium. Companies like Etsy have more than 77,000 followers on the site.

Pinterest has enormous potential for almost any business to reach a rapidly growing audience, and solar power companies are no exception.  Many of the Pinterest’s key demographics are ideal for solar power.  With almost 60 percent of users being female and 80 percent of users between 25 and 54 years of age, Pinterest offers a huge market of consumers that are environmentally conscious and eager to improve the world their children will grow up in.

Pinterest is not YouTube or Facebook, so you won’t be able to transfer your social media strategy wholly from those platforms.  In order to find success on Pinterest you should capitalize on the following:

Produce appealing images

Pinterest is predicated on the intrinsic human desire for attractive visuals.  It encourages users to pin highly appealing images and share them.  In order for your business to utilize this platform effectively, you need to begin by creating a portfolio of stunning photos.  For the solar industry, there is a wealth of attractive images potentially available.  Many of the products the industry utilizes like solar panels are sleek, beautiful and set in sunny, pastoral settings.  Asking consumers to contribute images of their solar products should easily provide numerous images that would stir enthusiasm on Pinterest. Furthermore, your Pinterest platform can act like a portfolio of sorts to showcase all the different panel installations a company is responsible for.

Develop relationships on Pinterest

Like all social media sites, it is essential that your presence on the site includes some give, as well as take.  This means more than placing your product images and info up; you need to follow other users who will help you attract followers.  Along with following users, it’s a good idea to “re-pin” others work as well.  Why not kill two birds with one stone? Try developing a Pinterest board dedicated to things that inspire your company by re-pinning others’ images that have to do with solar power and/or renewable energy.  

This promotes company transparency as well as potentially gains you followers. Developing these key relationships draws you into a community and helps other users gain a fuller understanding of your interests.  As other users identify with you, the relationships they establish with you will solidify and help encourage others to become followers.  One of the most popular categories on Pinterest is home décor, which dovetails easily with solar power and may inspire some of your production teams.

Cross-platform networking

Any comprehensive social media strategy will allow your followers to find you on other sites like Facebook or Twitter.  This is extremely important on Pinterest, because each “re-pinned” image will establish a new link with the origin of the image, which should be your home page.  Having Facebook or Twitter users find shareable images on Pinterest will help optimize your business site for search engines as well as funnel traffic to your site.

Pinterest has overtaken many of the more established social media sites because it appeals to users at a basic level.  Many of the concepts that make Pinterest so fun and exciting, like its simplicity and visual diversity, can help your solar company reach a larger audience and nurture enduring relationships.

Absolute Solar and Wind does an excellent job utilizing Pinterest:

Absolute Solar