Are Pinterest Stories Right for Your Marketing Strategy?

Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook… practically every social media platform seems to have a story feature today. Well get ready because the Pinterest app has also developed their own types of stories, yet they are a bit different than the others. 

Pinterest is known as a social media platform where a user goes to find solutions for their problems or inspiration for their upcoming projects. It is not in the same realm as Instagram or Facebook where people are updating their network about their day-to-day activities and sharing selfies of themselves with friends. For these reasons, Pinterest pins tend to contain recipes, guides and links to a blog post or products. With regular pins, a quick glance at the imagery and text (if applicable) has to do all of the heavy lifting to obtain the consumer’s attention. Once the image is clicked, there is more information and often a link that goes into more detail about the topic. 

This is where an opportunity is brought to social media management. Rather than having a few seconds to catch someone’s attention while they are scrolling through pages of competing images, why not have a new feature that utilizes the whole screen and has multiple entertaining elements like sound and animation?

Pinterest Stories Overview

This is exactly what a pinterest story is, and they have even more fun features to offer! Not only do they offer what is listed above, but they also have prime “real estate” on the Pinterest interface. They are prioritized at the top of your feed while also appearing throughout the home feed, search results and Today tab, gaining more eye traffic than a normal stagnant pin. 

Stories also benefit from Pinterest’s “visual discovery engine” that searches similar pins according to how something looks. Another great feature of Pinterest stories is the amount of space for the creatives. With the capacity of 20 slides total, there is a lot of room to create engaging and eye-catching posts. Although there is room for 20 slides, Pinterest recommends that the optimal amount of slides utilized is around five. It is the perfect amount to get a consumer engaged without dragging out that catch for too long. 

A big reason that Stories were created in the first place was to condense and make a more easily digestible way for the Pinterest user to obtain information. That is why Stories are perfect for things like three-ingredient recipes and quick guides. One feature that differentiates Pinterest Stories from other social media versions of stories is the time element. With Instagram Stories, users post in “real-time” to engage with their audience and only have that content live for 24 hours. Pinterest Stories are for a whole different use. They are to be informative in the sense that the pinterest user is seeking answers. They also are potentially posted forever, with no “expiration date.” 

At this point you may be wondering if Pinterest Stories are the right choice for your Pinterest business account. If any of these sound appealing to your brand’s marketing model then Pinterest Stories are a great platform feature to look into. 

• You want your consumers to be able to easily interact and share your content
• You don’t have a blog that you often link to, or there is no need to include a link within Stories
• You want to include more than one link in a post
• You want to include multimedia content
• You want hold consumer’s attention longer
• You want to simplify and emphasize previous pin content

If none of these resonate with your business account model, then perhaps Pinterest Stories are not necessary for your business at this time.

Pinterest Story Best Practices

If you do decide to move forward with using Pinterest Stories, here are some best practices to keep in mind.

• Use high-quality images or videos
• Make sure content inspires action
• Add relevant link(s) (if applicable)
• Use relevant and clear text

Wrapping Up

The choice of incorporating Pinterest Stories is dependent on your audience. It is important to refer to your Business Hub on Pinterest and develop your marketing strategy around what type of content your target market engages with and where you see potential room for growth. Maybe Pinterest Stories are your key to creating a more interactive experience with your consumers. You don’t know until you or your digital marketing agency tries!

Sources:

1. https://elle-linton.medium.com/introducing-story-pins-from-pinterest-keep-it-simpelle-2e9b4258d406
2. https://newsroom.pinterest.com/en/introducing-new-ways-for-creators-to-build-and-grow-with-pinterest
3. https://neilpatel.com/blog/pinterest-story-pins/
4. https://www.simplepinmedia.com/pinterest-story-pins/