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First we tweeted, then we tumbled; now we pin ourinterests and desires into digital collections. When itcomes to fashion, there is no social technology based onimagery that brands do not utilize to delight theiraudiences.

In recent years, Pinterest, alongside Facebook, Twitterand Instagram, has become a staple in a retail brand'ssocial media and e-commerce strategies. Pinterestcontinues its rapid growth and maturation. In its currentstate, Pinterest is a platform retail brands should beexploring.

FOR RETAIL,PINTEREST ISPOWERFUL

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ONE: Fashion is the third most popular category. Itaccounts (2) for 45% of the activity (search,favorites and pins) on Pinterest.

TWO: There are 30 billion pins in the systemacross 750 million boards, 4.5 billion are fashionrelated, it'sa number that grows (3) by 25% every quarter.75% of traffic comes from mobile. Of those pins.

THREE: Users spend (4) an average of 15.8minutes on the site, compared to the 15 second

average that 55% of the global population spendson most sites (5).

FOUR: The average order value (6) per session fora Pinterest user is $199.16, far outstrippingFacebook's $92.27 and Twitter's $58.02.

Pinterest users are 10% more likely to purchasethan others that come to e-commerce sites fromsocial networks.

FIVE: Pinterest accounted (7) for 23% of global

PINTEREST BY THE NUMBERSPinterest is growing up and positioning itself as a major player in search, social and e-commerce.In four short years, Pinterest has grown to 70+ million users (one third of which aremale)(1). Pinterest is a powerful force in fashion. In fact:

↪ Simply put, Pinterest members use the platform to make visually-motivated purchasing decisions.

↪ Once users land on Pinterest, they stay there looking for inspiration onwhat to buy. This is actually the second reason users say they use the site

Before opening a Pinterest account for your brand, youshould:

1. Define your goals.2. Align your goals to your social media strategy.3. Align your goals to your SEO and sales goals.4. Organize assets (images, gifs, videos).5. Construct a platform-specific plan.

Due to the visual and mobile natural of the platform, abrand's Pinterest strategy is a specific part of theiroverall social media strategy that connects to manyother areas of its marketing.

HOW TO CREATE +ESTABLISH YOURSTRATEGY

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After goals are established, the first component tosuccess on Pinterest is BOARD STRATEGY.

Brands need to consider reasons people pin thingsbefore they launch their initial boards and then continueto build them out.

THINK ABOUT IT: When a pinner addssomething to one of their boards, it isgrouped into things like activities,projects, interests and inspiration.

This will have an immediate impact on your pin boardstrategy since organization is key. Once your brand hasdecided on a board structure, it is time to get creative.

Pinterest's platform offers the chance to extend yourreach through promotions, collaborations and calls toaction. You will even want to include pins from otheruses that do not depict your products, as this helps withreach and engagement.

HOW TO BUILD PINTERESTBOARDS

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↪ The best way to think about Pinterest pins are as inbound links (to you product ore-commerce site) and outbound links (to Pinterest in the interest of gaining morefollowers and telling your brand's story).

↪ When you post a pin that does not link directly to your product the goal is to convertrepins and favorites into new followers; and to tell the brand story, of course.

Because Pinterest is still in its development phase and theirpaid placements have not become the central businessmodel, brands and marketers are not facing "pay for play"yet.

Joan Bradford, Pinterest's head of partnerships, reminds (9)brands:

"There's intent in a pin. It says, I'morganizing this into a place in my life."

So if a brand has developed an excellent board strategy, theability to develop followers organically is still a brand's bestrecipe for success. It is how they leverage the intent that willdrive growth that can eventually lead to the sales many arecurrently seeing.

For example, Michael Kors (152,360 followers across 14boards) posts travel boards while Tory Burch (139,971followers across 34 boards) posts boards dedicated (10) tomoms. Kate Spade (223,000) focuses on color and a vibrantliving. These are must follows.

HOW TO LEVERAGEORGANIC PLATFORMGROWTH

Kate Spade on Pinterest

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As brands and marketers, we are becoming familiar withthe shifts in consumer behavior related to the sharingeconomy. We are also beginning to understand morethan ever that community collaboration and givingcustomers value are critical to the future success of anycompany.

These things trickle over into Pinterest in the form ofgroup board collaborations based on certaininterests. Group boards and guest pinners offeradditional ways to create engagement, increase followerbase and repins.

Group boards are created by inviting selected pinners topin to the board. Inviting pinners to collaborate with yourbrand leads to them repinning and exposing yourcontent to their followers while giving them a feeling ofcontent ownership. It will also elevate them to the role ofbrand ambassadors (11).

COMMUNITYCOLLABORATIONWITH GROUP BOARDS

Apartment Therapy on Pinterest

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Brands have always leveraged contests as a way to boostawareness, drive follower acquisition and boost engagementon any social network. Pinterest is no exception.

The most popular contest on Pinterest is the "Pin to Win"approach. A pin to win can involve entrants repinning animage from your website or social channel.

A common approach is to post an image on a social platformthat can be repinned to Pinterest. This route may require athird-party administrator, such as Woobox. Another approachis to ask pinners to pin a certain theme and tag youraccount.

Pinterest recently published guidelines for brands (12)running contests on the site. Important takeaways include:not running contests where a pin counts as an entry, makethe contest easy and the rules clear and don't overdo it.

PROMOTIONS ANDPINTEREST CONTESTS

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The value of social media influencers across all channels,and particularly Pinterest, cannot be overstated. According toTapInfluence, "Influencers have some distinct advantagesthat brands do not, including large communities of followers,trust from consumers, authentic personal experience, andexpertise on a variety of social networks."

The definition of influence and who brands considerinfluencers is rapidly shifting. Pinterest has many influentialpinners that a brand can leverage in their marketing efforts.Relying on an influencer to speak for your brand is like atrusted friend recommending your brand, an incrediblyvaluable asset when you consider that 70% of consumerstrust recommendations (13) from friends.

Services like Piqora have made the task of finding influencerseasy and intuitive. Piqora offers clients a dashboard that liststop users across categories. They can also show you whorepins your content most, making the conversion (14) fromfan and influencer into brand ambassador seamless. BothRewardStyle and Hello Society offer influencer programsthrough Pinterest, but it's important to note Pinterest's2012 ban on affiliate links and review its current terms ofservice (15).

PINTEREST AUDIENCESARE VALUABLE

Apartment Therapy on Pinterest

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Pinterest is still growing and developing beneficial tools forbrands. Pinterest launched an analytics platform in August of2014. Metrics like top pins (repins and favorites) will helpyou understand what content is connecting with youraudience.

Analytics also illustrate which boards are most effective andthose that could use some retooling. The system providesaudience insight as well, with demographic and activity data.Outside of Pinterest's business analytics, both Curalate andTailWind offer products to help retail brands optimize theirPinterest strategy via image data.

Promoted pins are still in beta testing that rolled out in Mayof 2014. Advertisers who take advantage of promoted pinswill be charged on a cost per click basis without having to layout a minimum bid ahead of time. Criteria such as keyword,gender, language and location can be used to target the pins.Pinterest has not released a firm timeline on a full rollout ofpromoted pins, but brands and businesses can apply now tobe included in the beta test.

ESTABLISH PINTEREST'SMARKETING VALUE

Benefit Cosmetics on Pinterest

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WHAT THE FUTUREOF PINTEREST LOOKSLIKE FOR RETAIL

Pinterest is a rich platform with anengaged user base that is growingdaily. Brands that are not takingadvantage of this image-drivenformat to drive traffic and saleswhile the site continues to grow andexpand tools for business users willbe playing catch up.

With dynamic images, discovery andleveraging the intent in a follower,brands may have an unprecedentedopportunity to connect withconsumers early on in the productpurchase journey and convert themto sale.

How do visually drivendollars and revenue soundto you?

RESOURCES1. GigaOm: https://gigaom.com/2014/11/12/pinterest-says-it-has-doubled-its-male-user-base-yet-men-are-still-just-one-third-of-new-signups/

2. Business To Community: http://www.business2community.com/infographics/30-reasons-market-business-pinterest-2014-infographic-076372

3. BusinessInsider: http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-grand-plan-discovery-problem-2014-1

4. BusinessInsider: http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-and-pinterest-in-social-commerce-2013-9#ixzz3J3dzzb48

5. Business2 Community: http://www.business2community.com/infographics/30-reasons-market-business-pinterest-2014-infographic-076372

6. Time:http://time.com/12933/what-you-think-you-know-about-the-web-is-wrong/

7. RichRelevance: http://www.richrelevance.com/insights/shopping-insights-social-shopping-112013/

8. Business2 Community:http://www.business2community.com/infographics/30-reasons-market-business-pinterest-2014-infographic-0763727

9. Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2014/10/15/inside-pinterest-the-coming-ad-colossus-that-could-dwarf-twitter-and-facebook/

10. UMetric: http://blog.unmetric.com/2013/10/time-for-a-content-makeover-3-lessons-from-top-fashion-brands-on-pinterest

11. Jeff Bullas: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/03/04/how-to-use-pinterests-group-boards-to-get-more-exposure-for-your-business/

12. Pinterest: https://business.pinterest.com/en/brand-guidelines

13. Mashable:http://mashable.com/2013/03/21/70-percent-brand-recommendations-friends/

14. Piquora:http://blog.piqora.com/pinterest-marketing-how-to-engage-influencers-just-like-target-does/

15. Pinterest:https://business.pinterest.com/en/promoted-pins