By Alison Brown & Janette Speyer, Web Success Team

Pinterest is quickly becoming a main component of social media marketing strategy. Its been slowly evolving, but recently there has been an introduction of something called a “group board.” Pinterest has enabled the addition of other “pinners,” which allow other people add pins so it’s more of a shared effort and not limited to one person. It’s a really ingenious way to get people involved in your brand while also allowing them to contribute ideas. People can engage with your company while also providing some insight into what their passionate about, and what they would like to share with you.

How to Create a Group Board

Creating a group board is a pretty simple process. To activate this option, all you have to do is go to the “boards” preview page, which shows you all of your boards together. Then you click on “edit” below a board and select “Contributors” to allow others to pin. You have to be following a given person in order to allow them to pin on your board, but once you allow more people the option to pin, the more ideas your brand can share with your followers, or potential clients. Once you successfully activated the “group” option, a small icon will appear next to the group name so that you and others can see that there are multiple contributors.

Great Tool for Collaboration and Staying Connected

Inviting people to contribute to your board can almost be seen as a compliment in the social media world. You’re inviting someone to share something that they view as important, or share worthy with you and the rest of your “board community.” People can share photos and relevant information with each other and really have an open dialogue about a given topic. It can be anything from social media, to photography, food or interior design. The more social media platforms that allow open dialogues between people and your brand, regardless of the topic, the stronger your online brand will become overtime.

Connecting Social Media Platforms

For someone in the photography business, Pinterest can be a great tool for collaboration and brand engagement. This photography board highlights some great photos, with each photo linking to a Facebook fan page. Having all of your social media pages connected is very important for branding and Pinterest allows you to connect them all. Photography is one industry where group boards would be very handy. Pinterest is full of amazing photographs, and getting people involved with your brand by inviting them to pin some of their favorite photographs is a way for them to engage with your brand while sharing in your love for photography.

Promoting Your Brand

Need another example? One brand that really gets how to use Pinterest to their advantage is the Whole Foods brand. It was once a small grocery store in 1980, but now it’s one of the largest grocery store chains in the United States. For this type of company, Pinterest is ideal since they can share everything from recipe ideas to gardening tips, among other things that appeal to the average Whole Foods brand consumer. Since it is pretty health conscious, offering a multitude of organic products, some boards include vegan recipes, recycling ideas and earth day tips to appeal to the “wholesome” ideal.

Pinterest Appeals to Everyone

Whether your company is in the technology industry or food industry, Pinterest has its way of appealing to everyone. People are visual, and Pinterest is visual marketing at its finest. Getting people involved with your brand is a necessary factor in the success of any company, so the more avenues in which you foster this two-way relationship, the more willing people will be to support your company or hire you versus your competitors. Even if you don’t have a Pinterest account right now, you can get one up and running in just a few hours time. Soon enough people will be following you left and right, and you can start collaborating with potential business connections.

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