Is Pinterest challenging the big platforms in B2B social media marketing?

The big three social media platforms for B2B are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. As social media success increasingly relies on visualisation is Pinterest an opportunity B2B marketers cannot ignore?

This month Pinterest exceeded 70 million users worldwide. Its highly visual structure capitalises on the current trend for increasingly image-led engagement successfully competing with the likes of YouTube, Vine and Snapchat.

To date, Pinterest has largely been dominated by a US female audience and popular categories like food and drink, home décor, DIY and crafts. But the gender gap is narrowing and its global reach extending. As social strategies drive integration across platforms and more traditional channels Pinterest‘s appeal broadens.

In the US, organisations such as HubSpot, Intel and GE have led the way in broadening Pinterest into the B2B market. They have incorporated it in their overall strategy, not as a bolt-on, but rather to harness the unique attributes of this platform. HubSpot successfully uses Pinterest to promote its thought leadership. Strong images and infographics support their educational content and capitalise on Pinterest’s stickiness and interactivity to promote blogs, whitepapers and eBooks.

Intel uses Pinterest to place their brand firmly in the spotlight of innovation and technology. Their Geek Sheet board features all technologies not just those in their sphere.GE uses a variety of boards sourcing content from all its social channels and engaging in conversations around the content. It tries to demonstrate its culture and the breadth of its portfolio in an interesting way.

In the UK, Econsultancy has created several boards including Meet the Team which invites a deeper engagement with their experts.

​By DMA guest blogger Julie Atherton, chair of the DMA Social Media Council research hub, Planning Director at Indicia