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Summer hasn’t even officially begun, but as marketers, we’re already thinking about going back-to-school. This summer your time could be well spent perusing Pinterest – and not just for creative cocktail and grilling recipes. According to Experian’s 2014 Back to School webinar, searches with “Pinterest” as a keyword have increased 377% YoY. Teachers, parents and students alike are taking to Pinterest to find inspiration for everything from lesson plans and classroom décor, to after-school snacks and first day outfits. This means that brands of all stripes could benefit from leveraging the platform. It also points to how important visually compelling content has become as an integral part of a digital strategy. Why Pinterest Is a Valuable Marketing Channel? Consumers are increasingly engaging in visual social media platforms and marketers are taking notice. Pinterest, for example, is incredibly visual and since its launch, the other platforms are making enhancements to their platforms – and their ad offerings – to make them more visual, too. Google+ adopted a very Pinterest-esque look-and-feel, Twitter now previews photos in timeline and recently started to allow for 4 photos per tweet. Facebook has given page posts (paid and organic) more real estate with larger photos, and the list goes on. It’s no wonder, then, that Pinterest is becoming so popular. Paid Advertising on Pinterest Pinterest also recently rolled out the next phase of their paid advertising offering: promoted pins. However, it is still only available to a select set of advertisers for the time; however those marketers not included in the original roll out can still leverage the platform. We’ve seen brands leverage the sophisticated targeting made available by Facebook to engage in direct-response marketing by featuring “top pinned” products. The Benefits of Using Pinterest for Business There are 3 additional benefits to using Pinterest that extend beyond a brand’s social strategy. Linking: Pins can include links (with utm or similar tracking – but no DFA tags just yet!) back to your site, providing the opportunity to convert if you have an ecomm site. SEO Value: The content of the pins can be optimized for SEO value. Pins were seen as one of the top correlations to increases in ranking according to the latest Search Metrics report. Enhancing Paid Search: As part of a paid search strategy, a brand can start by researching volume around the their product terms and words like “pins” or even more broadly, “inspiration.” Leveraging paid search performance data can also help shape your Pinterest strategy. Top selling or high search volume products could be a starting point for back-to-school pins. Last year, interest in “back to school” peaked August 18-24. However, users began their search at the beginning of June and continued until October. This is all the more reason to launch campaigns early. Before engaging in any social media strategy, you must understand the vernacular. Yes, you should do it but first define a measurement strategy. Then you can make Pinterest – and the concept of visually powerful content – a part of your digital strategy. 0