My wife loves Pinterest and at first I didn’t understand why. I mean, really, it’s just a bunch of pictures, right?
It is. And that’s why your green industry business needs to be on Pinterest. At your core, what you do is beautify the world. Green industry businesses install irrigation systems and fertilize lawns to create green, lush landscapes. They mow and blow so that properties look neat and tidy. They trim trees and bushes so the plants look great and continue to thrive. They design picturesque landscapes. Green industry businesses make things beautiful.
Which is why I was surprised to see that in our recent Green Industry Benchmark Report, only 7% of respondents indicated they use Pinterest, lagging behind social media sites like LinkedIn (39.2%), Twitter (19.6%) and Google+ (18%).
Pinterest offers a great opportunity for your business to visually display your work. Green industry businesses are selling beauty, and Pinterest is the perfect social media platform to display beautiful work.
And there are benefits to having a presence on Pinterest:
- More traffic to your website - Each pin you post includes a link, which can drive considerable traffic back to your website. So my advice: Take great, high-quality pictures of your best work, pin it to Pinterest and link the pin back to your website.
- More awareness of your work – Like I said earlier, the end result of your services is a visual product. Pinterest gives you a platform that makes it easy for you to display that product. If just one of your pictures goes viral, you’ll have generated more awareness than you could from any kind of paid advertising. Think of Pinterest as a visual resume of your work.
- Better customer interactions – Pinterest offers another platform that you can leverage to interact with your customers. When they re-pin your posts, comment and thank them. Interact on their pins. Re-pin what they pin. These are all ways to gain more visibility with your customers.
- Display your company’s unique personality - The mistake many businesses make on social media, is making it all about them. Don’t fall into that trap. Share books you love, food you love, clothing you love, fun projects, whatever. You’ll eventually build a visual personality of your business, a personality that customers and prospects can see and appreciate quickly and easily. The old adage is true – people buy from people. By creating your own unique personality, you make it easier for potential customers to get to know you.
But Pinterest takes some work. Here are some tips to get started:
- Follow people that interest you. Think of Pinterest like networking. If you have a small business network, you’re not going to hear about job opportunities, tips to improve your business, or of upcoming legislation that might affect you. Likewise, if you’re not connected to anyone on Pinterest, you’re not going to get any new cool ideas. So get connected with people who share your interests.
- Re-pin other posts. Once you’re connected, re-pin the work of other people. The more times you re-pin, the more likely your connections will re-pin your posts. Plus, the more you re-pin, the more you’ll be showing your unique personality.
- Create boards for your interests, your work, and other work you love. Think of boards as ways of categorizing your pins. You want a board (or boards) dedicated to the work you’ve done. That’s a must. But like I said earlier, it’s vitally important for your credibility that you pin more than just your work. So create boards for other things you like. Things that inspire you. Movies you love. Funny pictures. Whatever you like, try to categorize it into boards so it’s easier to view your pins.
Want some inspiration? Here are some links showing how other green industry businesses are using Pinterest:
- Diane Grundeen, Owner of Trio Landscaping – Diane does a great job of featuring her landscape design work. But she also does a great job of organizing things into boards like landscape inspiration, perennials to keep in Minnesota (her home state), shrubs for Minnesota, inspiring outdoor spaces, and a whole lot more.
- Horizon Landscape – This green business in New Jersey features their work and has a nice board of Tips and Tricks with pictures that link back to their blog. With almost 200 followers, my guess is they’re driving a lot of traffic to their website and blog.
- Chad’s Landscape – Again, like the previous two users, Chad’s Landscape in Mobile, Alabama does a great job incorporating their work plus other great inspirational photos of landscaping, plants, and other interests like camping and running.
As a small business owner, I understand that keeping up with the latest social media platform can be difficult. But Pinterest is here to stay. I’d argue that, outside of Facebook, Pinterest is the most important social media platform to the green industry business because it’s such a visual platform. Plus, judging by the Green Industry Benchmark Report, it’s a platform your competitors aren’t using. The sooner you start, the further ahead of the competition you’ll be.