Pinterest arrived with a bang this year, and has fast become on of the most popular social platform around, and certainly the most addictive. Although it has been a slower start for South Africans, we are becoming increasingly intrigued by Pinterest, with over 11 million views per week in South Africa alone. When considering brands that are using Pinterest well in South Africa, the one that comes to mind for many of us is definitely Yuppiechef. We chatted to Marina Pape who runs their Pinterest account to find out what strategy they follow and how it is working for them.
When starting the Pinterest account for Yuppiechef, what factors did you consider for the content strategy?
We decided to pin what we do and who we are. Pinterest is not the right space to be selling and so we focussed on strengthening our position as the authority on kitchen tools and building brand affinity. As with any social platform, sharing things with a selfish or self-promoting agenda fulfills only a very short-sighted objective and usually doesn’t work too well. If we could, we would make retweet and win competitions walk the plank. People engage genuinely with content they identify with, aspire towards or that makes them smile. Successful content rises above the buzz to win genuine heart space and create connections.
Individuals use Pinterest to build a visual representation of their interests and on reflection, our strategy has been to do much the same – pinning as if Yuppiechef were a person with interests, likes and so on. Our brand has a strong personality and healthy sense of humour, which helps.
How did you decide on the specific boards that you chose? Was there any research done for this?
We did a bit of research, but mostly went with our gut. Some of the international brands we keep an eye on for good social media stuff don’t seem to be using Pinterest all that much and it definitely lends itself to some companies more than others. Foodie content is already prolifically pinned and we are fortunate that much of our content – kitchen tools and related foodie content, like recipes – is intrinsically suited to Pinterest. Depending on your offering, it might be challenging to be active on Pinterest without seeming contrived. How would one pin as in investment bank or insurance company, for instance?
The first and most obvious boards we made were for ‘kitchen tools’ and ‘beautiful food’ followed by boards for some of the subgroups we wanted to connect with including ‘baked inspiration’ for the bakers, ‘beautiful kitchens’ for people dreaming of new kitchens etc. We also created boards to capture the quirkiness of the Yuppiechef brand, including ‘pink things’ and ‘we laughed’.
We avoided boards that would date quickly and have made adjustments to titles along the way. It is good to stay flexible and be willing to kill boards that are not lively.
How much traffic does Pinterest drive to your Yuppiechef website?
Even before we were active on Pinterest, and added the pin button to our pages, we had a steady stream of traffic from Pinterest thanks to our pin-hungry products. Our KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer has been pinned 177 times. At the moment, Pinterest is contributing about 6% of the total referral traffic from our social media channels. About 80% of visitors from Pinterest are new to Yuppiechef.
What are the demographics of the people that are driven to your site?
The majority of traffic is international but this is probably because the local adoption of Pinterest is still relatively small. South Africans still need to learn to pin all the things.
What would you recommend to other brands that want to make Pinterest a success for them?
For starters, work out what kind of voice your brand can have on Pinterest and then spend some time creating boards that feel right. If you are already active on Facebook and Twitter, be guided by content that has been popular with your community in the past.
Pin daily, long gaps are like awkward silences in conversations. Scheduled splurges can seem artificial, so aim to pin consistently a few times a day and make it a habit to be constantly on the lookout for great content. As long as it won’t be yesterday’s news, there’s no harm in storing up content for rainy days.
Integrate the Pinterest share button onto your pages and optimise your content with single frame, high-resolution images as opposed to cluttered collages (detail is often lost when the pins are tiled). We’ve found lifestyle pictures beat clinical product shots any day.
If you’re a boss, give someone in your team the responsibility and permission to spend time making magic on Pinterest and ascribe value to it as part of your social media mix.
Pinning is often spontaneous, make sure whoever pins has an intuitive understanding of the brand and doesn’t end up pinning a whole lot of kittens in the bath and comic sans memes.
Thanks for your Pinteresting insight, Marina. View Yuppiechef on Pinterest here.
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Great article. I also found that the actual description and phrasing of each individual pin is important in terms determining if that image will be repinned by others, especially when it comes to fashion and style.
I just love the Yuppiechef Pinterest account. It offers gorgeous imagery as well as valuable content once you click through. Yuppiechef is one of the only South African brands that relate each pin back to their products.