More tips on using Pinterest for market research

Back in February, Quirk’s Editor Joe Rydholm posted a blog that featured links to articles about Pinterest and best practices for using Pinterest as part of a marketing program.

The social media site’s 15 minutes seem to keep stretching on so we’d like to go a step further and share a May 10 blog post by Kaila Strong of Vertical Measures, a Phoenix Internet marketing company, that details four ways Pinterest can be used for market research.

Pinterest organizes pins into categories ranging from architecture to weddings. The categories themselves lend to social listening, in that they are a quick and easy way to see what content is popular in a given niche. Additionally, the general Popular category is available for users to see the most popular of all pins on Pinterest.

If you’re looking to expand into a new market, try using Pinterest to search for content related to that new industry. The Popular section on Pinterest features pins that may help you identify a type of product or item to feature on your site. There are thousands of these types of pins on Pinterest for inspiration to expand your product offerings and sell more products.

The gifts section on Pinterest is like a storefront open to the entire world. Do your research and see if competitors are starting to use it to sell products. Even smaller mom-and-pop-type shops can show you a thing or two about running your business. Do some competitive research by using the gifts section on Pinterest.

Product research can also be done by examining the products in this area. Are there products that seem to get more repins and likes than others? This very well could be a product your site should carry.

If you haven’t done so already, look up the pins users are pinning from your site by going to: pinterest.com/source/insertyourdomain.com. The descriptions that users submit for your images and products can provide great insight.

In the description you can easily see how they describe your products and images to their friends. Try using this information in future marketing campaigns as inspiration and to connect with customers more effectively by speaking to them in their own terms.

Examining descriptions can also work to help improve your products. Users who pin your images might describe a product and say, “wish it had this” or “would love to see this paired with something else.” You can use this information to improve products or create pairings of products for improved usability on your site.

I love looking at the names of Pinterest users’ boards and how creative users can get with their organization. Use the way your customers organize their boards and industry related topics to help you with your own site navigation and improve Web site usability.

Do the above exercise, looking up the pins of images on your domain, and see what boards users place your images on. See a pattern? Glean ideas from the naming conventions of Pinterest boards. It may inspire keyword research to develop new content pieces or even inspire changes to your site navigation to group more content together.