We figured it was our turn to write a post about the most talked about social media platform this year: Pinterest. Because VisionWeb doesn’t have a Pinterest, but some of our employees do (yes, the women of course), we see the positives and negatives in the hype of pinning.
Pinterest is basically a virtual pinboard; do you remember those things we use to have in our actual homes to tack up pictures and to-do lists? Well now, since everything is virtual these days, your home’s pinboard is too! And the wonderful thing about Pinterest is its ease of use.
Pinterest is designed to be mainly visual, and because most people are visual learners, you could easily log onto Pinterest and spend several hourse looking around before you log off; is this a good thing for your eyecare practice? We are not going to take sides, so we will just let you in on a few aspects of Pinterest you should consider before taking the plunge in to yet another social media platform.
Attention Retaining
Pinterest has the ability to retain its users’ attention to the next level. It's users reach out for more and more information and expect a never ending source of pins, so updating and pinning consistenly is a must! But because at an eyecare practice, you only sell a few distinct products, it may be difficult to find a way to keep your boards interesting. But on the positive side, this complete attention could potentially make for a higher purchase intent than you would see on Twitter.
Image Driven
People LOVE images and visuals, which is great for an eyecare practice right?! But because mostly women are on Pinterest, you might be down to half of the frames you can post that will receive any attention. Yes, women buy for their husbands, but you have to remember what women on Pinterest are actually doing – it’s all about the individual on Pinterest!
Practice Personability
Giving your office a sense of personability can be a great asset to your eyecare practice. It’s kind of like ‘putting a face behind the name,’ so be sure the person monitoring and updating Pinterest has the ability to maintain consistency of your brand. If your eyecare practice has the ability to do this, the extra personability that can be seen through Pinterest can possibly grab the attention of new, potential customers.
Visual Only
Branding all over Pinterest is a NO-NO. Although Pinterest provides a higher purchase intent than websites like Facebook, people come to Pinterest for the VISUALS! You don’t want to give your customers the sense that they are being sold to on Pinterst. So the challenge faced is how to market without seeming like you’re marketing, and without the proper brand image layout that Pinterest lacks in comparison to other social media platforms, this may be a daunting task for one of your employees that is monitoring and updating social media.
Time Consuming
The term addictive is definitely not an embellishment when speaking about Pinterest. So if you decide to keep up with the pinning craze, be aware that it could take away some valuable time and interest from the employees that are taking the social media reigns. Make sure the additional time spent on social media platforms through Pinterest can’t be used elsewhere around the office to make things more efficient and effective. Basically, analyze the time you have and see where it can be best utilized.
Small Budget
With a small budget at your eyecare practice, time is money. So the time consuming aspect of Pinterest might have a negative impact on other things around the office that might be more important to focus on. Giving your patients attention online is great if you are also sure your patients are still getting the attention they need IN the office, make sure one-on-one time in the office is maintained.
Prioritize
Your interest in Pinterest has the ability to be implemented well into your eyecare practice. You can keep things fun and interesting by showing off your creative side. Just make sure you keep your priorities straight and there isn't something better you could be doing with the extra time on your hands.
If you do decide Pinterest is for your practice, just make sure you have the time and you do it right! We came across this Pinterest analytics tool, Pinerly, that we would recommend if you do make the plunge into Pinterest, just to make sure your effort is worth your time!
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