[00:00:00] Jeff Sieh: Welcome to Social Media News Live I’m Jeff Sieh.

[00:00:04] Grace Duffy: I’m Grace Duffy. And this is the show that keeps you up to date on the world. Social Media.

[00:00:08] Jeff Sieh: Today, we are joined by my friend, Alisa Meredith and today’s show is all about one of my favorite platforms. Pinterest, we’re going to be covering Pinterest prediction around the biggest consumer trends in 2022 and how you can use this info to reach new customers.

[00:00:24] We’re also going to be talking about leveraging video on Pinterest to drive sales and how its user base is evolving to include more men. Like I didn’t know that and novelty seeking gen Z this year. So we’ll be talking all about that. So Alisa so excited. You’re here. Thank you for joining us today,

[00:00:43] Alisa Meredith: grace.

[00:00:44] Thank you for having me.

[00:00:45] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Now this is going to be fun. So if you don’t know who Alisa Meredith is. You really should, because she is a well-known speaker, an expert on Pinterest marketing and Pinterest ads taught everything. She knows no, that’s actually the opposite. She’s run a digital agency since 2005, which now primarily focuses on Pinterest ads.

[00:01:06] And you can find out more about Alisa@alisameredith.com. Alisa. Welcome to the.

[00:01:11] Alisa Meredith: Thank you. Thank you. Like how did my favorite topics? So

[00:01:15] Jeff Sieh: I know, I don’t know, but I will also want, before we get really deep in the Pinterest weeds, I want to give a shout out to our friends over at Ecamm. They’re the ones who make the show possible.

[00:01:26] They’re also a sponsor of the show. They’re at socialmedianewslive.com/ecamm That’s what we’re using, but what’s really cool. They’re doing something special next week. If you wanna use. Learn how to use a Prezi, which is amazing a software for presentations that I have just fallen in love with.

[00:01:43] If you want to learn how to seamlessly use present video together with Ecamm, they’re doing a special takeover event. Next week, January 24th to the 28th, they’re doing a takeover where experts will be from their team will be sharing their design and presenting tips through live demos, Q and A video tutorials there.

[00:02:01] I actually did one and they’re actually using some clips of what I did for their Leap Into Live conference. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a virtual presentation and collaboration software that can bring any content into your video feed as you present and interact with your audience. So if you’re really wanting to take your presentations up a level for 2022, you really need to check this out because it’s, I was super impressed with it.

[00:02:23] And it works perfectly alongside of Ecamm. You want to go check them out over on their YouTube channel. They already have some of the links up where you can actually get reminders. So go to youtube.com/ecammnetwork and here’s a bonus tip. You don’t have to be a design expert to create something amazing.

[00:02:41] It’s super, super easy. So next week, January 24th through the 28th, make sure you go check them out. So I’m seriously. It’s amazing. It’s amazing software. I was shocked how easy I can even I can do it. So there you go. That’s all you need to say. All right. Let’s get started.

[00:03:00] Pinterest trends and updates, grace.

[00:03:02] There are some interesting things about this, so

[00:03:06] Grace Duffy: yeah. Everything from emotional escape rooms. That a fact.

[00:03:12] Relation Tips, Relation Tips, which I had to look that up. And it’s actually like advice for managing relationships. I was like, oh, okay. And then, so recently, Pinterest business, you can find this on the.

[00:03:23] Or business.pinterest.com and look up Pinterest predicts and they unveiled their 20, 22 predictions. And it includes over 150 trends to review and consider for your content strategy and the platform. And it’s a really cool setup because it looks like a Pinterest board. So you click on each thing and then it has different examples and different ideas of how you could utilize this for your own marketing.

[00:03:46] So this is the thing that Pinterest does every single year based on the most popular trends it’s seeing months ahead. And all of these reports are based on what it expects a skyrocket on popularity based on their own internal solid research data volumes. So this is definitely coming from what people are trending towards, what their, what is peaking in, in clicks.

[00:04:10] And what’s peaking in interest. So Alisa and Jeff, tell me what are some of the trends that sparked your interest and tell us how marketers can best leverage them.

How Marketers Can Use Pinterest Trends

[00:04:22] Alisa Meredith: Oh, goodness. I just want to say too, that Pinterest has been right in eight out of 10 predictions in the last couple of years. So they’re definitely onto something like you, grace.

[00:04:34] I had to look up what some of these things were, but what I liked was flexor size as a trend exercise. It’s good because it, what it’s saying is that people are looking beyond the typical, hit or CrossFit or running to embrace other forms of exercise, like dance or stretching.

[00:04:59] And this is across all age groups too. So everyone’s looking for maybe a more laid back approach. Some of the words they’re looking for, like floating aesthetic or lazy workout in bed, which sounds fantastic.

[00:05:15] Jeff Sieh: That’s perfect.

[00:05:17] Alisa Meredith: Definitely daily stretching routine. I guess I can do that.

[00:05:20] Walking in nature, things like that. And what I really love about all each of these predictions, and you can go to Pinterest, predix.com to see all of them. There are a lot of them is that it will give you like the obvious fit. If you’re a wellness brand, obviously you’re going to be going beyond those traditional workouts to think about stretching routines, outdoor activities, obvious, right.

[00:05:44] But if are food and beverage, how can you use that? You could share a simple recipe that’s like for a post flexor sized snack, or if you’re in apparel think about how you are showing your workout gear. Is it always in a hit setting? Could you show more stretching and showing all sizes of bodies to will be really important with this trend?

[00:06:09] Jeff Sieh: You don’t want to see any pictures of me stretching or exercising. I’m telling you let’s break the Pinterest. So maybe they do. So how do you, let’s say so let’s say you’re you talked about like jumping on that trend. Do you tag it? Is it in your titles? How do you get your pin to show up in like the search thing?

[00:06:31] Because if you guys don’t know and we’ll touch on this probably throughout the show, Pinterest is really not a social media network. It’s think of it as a visual Google, right? Alisa. It’s not so much, you’re going on there and it’s not Social. As the other platforms, it’s a search engine.

[00:06:48] So how do we get in these trends? Do we have to do a hashtag, what do we do to I know, I know I said that the H word. Well, how do we get in those? Is it, some secret sauce?

How Do We Get Our Content In Pinterest Trends?

[00:06:59] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. Don’t use hashtags please. They give you, so they give you some words, right? So they give you simple dance moves, I’m walking in nature and they show you the growth in that search trend.

[00:07:13] The other thing you can do is a lot of us have noticed that something that we love on Pinterest Reese cotton guided search, where you type in a search term and Pinterest will return these bubbles, which are popular related search terms. So I would do that with all of these rising search terms.

[00:07:32] And if there are any that you can use yeah. Use them in your title, use them in your description, on your pen, use them on the image itself. But if it’s. If it doesn’t feel like that is right, there’s still a way to kind of pull in this trend in your visuals. So if you’re a brand that for some reason is showing people exercising, instead of what you used to do, showing them pulling a tire, maybe you’re showing them in a stretch, right?

[00:08:01] So just adding that aspect to your visuals can make it feel more relevant when this is the kind of trends people are looking.

[00:08:10] Jeff Sieh: I wish you would not pick that trend. I wish it would have been like food related. I know there’s some interesting, so I want to talk about, okay, this is a big report that everybody’s talking about.

[00:08:21] All the news recovering it’s like Pinterest is predicting for 2022, but can you, and I’m going to throw an audible here. Grace rehash. Your question is, can you talk a little bit about another favorite tool that we use? That’s on the same minds, which is trends.pinterest.com. So talk about how marketers can, and businesses can use that.

[00:08:38] And I’ll say it again. It’s trends.pinterest.com and you and I both love that. And we dive in there quite a bit. So talk about that a little bit. Yeah.

[00:08:46] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. And I feel like I’ve neglected it with all these predictions, but it’s absolutely fabulous little tool. It will pull in the search trends for the us, UK and Canada for what’s happening this week.

[00:08:59] And before it used to be like if you pin something now it’s not going to show up this week. But if you’re using ideas. Then absolutely will. So it will show you what is surging overall? So this week we have jelly nails. There’s always some kind of fingernail, something trending inner bicep tattoo.

[00:09:19] Men sounds very busy.

[00:09:20] Jeff Sieh: There we go.

[00:09:22] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. Homemade go-karts off-road trucks, right? So we’ve got some guy things, possibly a short sassy hair. And then for the most popular categories that we’ll also show you trending. We got fashion food and drink Bakker beauty, home decor and travel.

[00:09:40] Jeff Sieh: So one of the things in that is not only can you see what’s going on, like you were saying, use it for idea pins, which if you guys know what idea pins we’re going to get into that a little bit later, but it’s stories on Pinterest is the best way to say it but you can also, Pinterest is. Seasonal. So you can see these trends. So like maybe you did miss out on pinning something right then and there, but you can see, oh, about this time, last year, this hit like cupcake, recipes hit right before Christmas. So I’m going to try to get on that trend and you can see that it happens every year.

[00:10:16] So that’s another way to look at trendsdotpinterest.com.

[00:10:20] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. And you can do that for planning ahead. So right now, one of the things that is trending for whatever reason is smores bars. But when you, when you click on that trend, it will pull up a graph for you. So you can see all right, not surprisingly the highest search time for that is going to be around the end of June.

[00:10:38] And then it goes down it’s up right now for whatever reason. But if you’re thinking ahead, you can say, oh, I should probably put my pin out, maybe April. And so by June it will be ready to go.

[00:10:53] Jeff Sieh: So we’ve got some comments coming in and we’re going to talk. So Brooke’s yes, I want to hear more on pins for sure.

[00:10:59] So I will make sure to talk about that. Cause we always do what Brook says. But also Kerry says Jeff food ancestral eats was listed on business Pinterest. So on the Pinterest predict. So my, I know my ancestral eats was bacon. That’s all I need to know.

[00:11:19] Alisa Meredith: It was the cake

[00:11:19] Jeff Sieh: one. Okay. So sorry, Grace.

[00:11:21] I went off the rails there, but go ahead and ask your question.

[00:11:24] Grace Duffy: Oh no, I think that’s Alisa kind of answered this a little bit, but as we know, pinners are planners and if you’re new to Pinterest marketing, remember that you’re sharing when you’re sharing these tips close to the actual holiday.

[00:11:36] So if your planning these Christmas cupcakes, Jeff than putting them out on December 23rd is probably not. Attraction, because at this point we’ve, our us Penders have already planned our Christmas cupcakes at this point. So how far ahead marketers be planning and executing on these to reach his aspirational?

[00:11:57] Pinners it in that like pin now to use later, because even before the show, you and I were talking about going through our own Pinterest accounts and there’s stuff in there that we saved that we’re probably not going to use until like later on or whatever. And it’s just so, I mean, it could be two years before I get to those cupcakes you asked for Jeff.

Pinterest Seasonal Cycles

[00:12:16] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. I think that there are two different sets of rules now, personally. And I’d love to hear what others think one set for your static and video pins and one for your idea pins. So thinking more traditionally with Pinterest, we know that things start trending 30 to 60 or in the case. Major holidays, even 90 or more days ahead.

[00:12:37] So you want to get your pins out even before that, because if you’re looking at your Pinterest analytics and you’re looking at, let’s say impressions, and you look at just the pins that have gone out in the last 30 days, it’s teeny tiny and you might feel like this is not working, but what happens is it builds over time as it gets that engagement and more distribution.

[00:12:56] So your static pins need to go out as early as possible. Your idea pins, however, those, like I would put out a cup, a Christmas cupcake recipe. If I was going to do that two days before the date, because those show up immediately, they feel very relevant. And of course they’re getting a lot of distribution.

[00:13:17] You can also like, if you’re like, oh no, my thing wasn’t ready until three weeks before the holidays it’s too late. No, you can use ads for that. And you can do them really affordably. So you I’m running a campaign. Unbelievably affordable.

[00:13:33] Jeff Sieh: When you say ads are kind of way to get to the front of the line, it’s like a fast pass.

[00:13:37] That Disney.

[00:13:38] Alisa Meredith: Absolutely. Yeah, because otherwise it’s Pinterest really is other than idea pins, a very long game. So if you’re feeling, I don’t know if I want to invest six months or a year or more in this, if I don’t know what’s going to resonate on the platform or if I’m doing it right. Try ads and see how they do.

[00:13:57] Yeah,

[00:13:58] Grace Duffy: sure. He has a curious, has a question. She says, so a minimum of two months ahead of when you’d like to get them in traction question, mark static, referencing static and those evergreen pins that you’re talking about.

[00:14:11] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. That’s, that’s what I would do now. Maybe it was different six months ago.

[00:14:16] Maybe it will be different in six months, but yeah, I’m seeing them take a while to ramp up. So if you want to be out there when people really start searching, yeah. Go even.

[00:14:25] Jeff Sieh: And things like, we talked a little bit about cycles that goes through throughout the year. So I know Peg Fitzpatrick has certain pins that she has a cupcake when that goes viral every year.

[00:14:36] And that’s why I use cupcake that it gets goes well before Christmas. So those things, if you hit on them, and they’re relevant for that season, you can see those continue to drive traffic year over year. And so it’s, it’s remember it’s a long tail evergreen kind of platform. So very cool. So I want to,

[00:14:55] Alisa Meredith: oh, I just want to throw this out that if you are not on Pinterest yet, and you’re thinking about it, think of it more as like Google SEO, rather than Facebook or Instagram to get the right mindset for what to expect and what kind of timeline to expect.

[00:15:09] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. It’s a long thing. It’s a snowball process is what I like to say. It’s it starts really slow and then slowly starts to build. Then you can get buried down the Pinterest rabbit hole. So

[00:15:20] Grace Duffy: Perfect segue into Jeff’s next question, because he brought up some interesting things about this apple privacy issue that we’ve been dealing with.

[00:15:28] Jeff Sieh: You know, this privacy thing, we’ve talked a lot about it during the show and how it’s impacted marketers the interesting thing is this Apple’s privacy initiatives has less impact on Pinterest because, it doesn’t really use that first party data, but it’s more focused on building brand awareness than being reliant on mobile advertising like Facebook and some of the other places are.

[00:15:52] So do you think this is because it’s more at the top of the acquisition funnel and less focused on attributing sales to individuals? So how has this, how can marketers think of Pinterest regarding like their overall marketing.

Does Apple’s Privacy Initiatives Impact Pinterest Reach?

[00:16:07] Alisa Meredith: Yeah, there was definitely less of an impact with the iOS update. And part of it is probably what you said, where do they get their data?

[00:16:14] The other part of it is that they have a pretty sophisticated, enhanced match option, which you do need to turn on, but it basically lhashes emails or something or other, and gives you that information that you, we wouldn’t be able to get. Maybe on the other platforms, I don’t really know what they’re doing over there, but I just know that Pinterest was not very effected by those iOS changes.

[00:16:37] Yeah, I think Pinterest has long been about that branding push. And so that initial discovery phase, but we’re going to talk about when we talk about guys on Pinterest, it’s not, that’s not always the case. And I think that we need to be thinking in terms of funnels for sure.

[00:16:54] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Totally agree.

[00:16:56] And so I think. The thing I’ve seen a lot of brands and I’ve heard, seen a lot of things in different articles that they’re moving some of their stuff, because they’re so frustrated with Facebook over to Pinterest because they’re seeing some big bang for their buck over there. So that might be something to try.

[00:17:13] If you guys are thinking about and are frustrated with, Facebook and you’re not seeing the reach you’re getting, or it’s not converting as the way it was, is to try some of your budget over on Pinterest ads and shameless plug for Lisa. She has a course on Pinterest ads as well. So you can go to Alisa meredith.com and check that out.

[00:17:32] Alisa Meredith: How many to update it already, because typically I would recommend, okay, start with a consideration campaign, which is sorta kind of traffic, but not really. And then I try to conversion campaign just last week and it is so inexpensive for clicks. Like I’ve tried them before for signups, for upgrades.

[00:17:53] The super expensive, but I think now that I have a retail store to play with, I’m able to see like how cheap it can be for conversion ads on like visits to your website. I don’t know. That’s probably too much information, but we’re

[00:18:05] Jeff Sieh: starting out. We’re sorry if we’ve lost you, but just go over there and check it out because really, if the big companies are starting to move over there, that’s a good sign too.

[00:18:14] Okay, well maybe I should do something over there because it’s not, let’s

[00:18:17] Alisa Meredith: do it now because if you wait until September, it’s going to be really expensive.

[00:18:21] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So next section, we’re going to be talking about new user insights. Yes.

Are Men Using Pinterest?

[00:18:28] Grace Duffy: Pinterest also shared some new insights about how men are using their platform in their shopping journeys, men on Pinterest.

[00:18:38] What not a secret if you’ve known Jeff for as long as I have, who I believe lodged manly Pinterest tips back in 2014. Was that right? It’s been awhile. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I tried to figure out when it started, like I thought it was like 20, 30 anyway, either way men have always been on the platform, but they’ve done some new research.

[00:18:59] Pinterest has done some new research and earlier this month, the business, their business side published a new study that offered significant insights into how their male demographic. And just to go put this in parameters. Okay. Men ages 25 to 54. So that’s their demographic and they’re focused on the new shopping trends and their goal is to help marketers better plan and strategize their Pinterest outreach.

[00:19:24] Especially if your target audience includes men in this age, demographic. So what are men pinning this year? Jeff at Alisa. Tell us all about it.

[00:19:36] Alisa Meredith: Jeff. I want to know what you’re pinning this year.

[00:19:38] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Can I say it on the show? No, it’s nothing bad. So late it was, we just had the holiday, so I was pinning a lot of.

[00:19:47] You know, food, I think food, can you believe it? Yeah, I eat a lot. But yeah, so I did a lot of recipes as I do all the cooking in the house and cause Jody’s just cause Johnny’s is a teacher and I like to give her a break when she comes home. So I do that. And so I, we did a lot of cool Christmas stuff.

[00:20:04] I did a lot of cool crafts with the kids and so that’s mainly what I had been pinning lately, but I’ve also been this sounds so goofy, but since I’m going on this cruise, I’m like, what? Shoot, I’ve never been on one. So I’m like, what shoes do I wear on the beach? What are the best men’s water shoes?

[00:20:21] So that went to my secret board. That is very, probably too much information, but that’s actually what I’ve been pinning lately. So here’s the thing it’s so funny to me, it’s so funny because this is a big surprise and they’re putting this big report, like what men are on Pinterest. Men are visual.

[00:20:38] Like it’s the perfect platform for me. I mean so like it’s so not a hard thing. Once you train the algorithm, you don’t get nail art and braids and stuff, you get man-cave and bacon. I can have a bacon board and it’s just amazing. I mean, there’s so many goods, there’s so much cool stuff over there that you just it’s I love the platform.

[00:21:04] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. And Pinterest has noticed too, that goals are really big for guys this year. So looking to spend more, to do more, to go more places, which, why would any of us feel like we need to go somewhere? But they’re talking about goals as far as not like working out and no we’re talking about goals, like going to the movies or getting together with friends, eating out having parties, things to do with the family, buying a new car.

[00:21:34] But those are all things that people are searching for on Pinterest, which that I think is.

[00:21:41] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And the thing is too, is that guys, we spend more, we’ll spend more money and we’ll do it faster. And we also like we’ll do like, like you said, like buying a new car is what we’ll go on there. I like, for me, The one of the last purchases I made is a really nice, it’s called solo stove.

[00:22:00] It’s this big fire pit that lets you, it like has this double wall thing and it sucks the fire up and there’s not any smoke and it’s amazing found it on Pinterest. And and I saw it, I saw the video pin and I’m like, that’s all I need. And I bought it. So I, there’s not a lot of thinking going on that.

[00:22:19] There’s not a lot of things going on a lot of times, but you know what

[00:22:22] Alisa Meredith: though? I think if you’d see the same thing, if you went to if you went to a mall, like if people do that you go one way, Jody goes the other way. You’re gone for five minutes. You come back with something that was price Jody’s maybe gone for two hours.

[00:22:35] She comes back with five things that were all on clearance. Like it’s just stereotypically a different way to shop, but it actually. Really is yeah. And, and guys too often, when they go on Pinterest, they are actually looking for a brand. Whereas typically like over 90% of searches are unbranded, but guys know what they want.

[00:22:58] They go see it. They like it. They buy it. Whereas women are often like exploring a bit more. I know I’m stereotyping horribly, but this is what the trends show. This is what the research

[00:23:11] Grace Duffy: yeah. Oh no. This is exactly what the Pinterest data shows is that men are like, they convert quicker. They’re premium shoppers and personalization is a big key. And I love that Jeff was just like my solo stove and I immediately knew like the thing I liked about the solo sofas. It’s portable.

[00:23:29] It’s awesome. But that’s a brand, right? It has an identity. There’s a whole I just heard about it recently and there’s a whole personality around it too. Yeah.

[00:23:42] Jeff Sieh: Okay.

[00:23:44] Alisa Meredith: Okay. Grace, you mentioned that personalization. What does that mean? That they’re getting their things engraved? Did you get your grill engraved?

[00:23:50] No. What it means is what, I’m sorry, what part of it is important to you? Like Grace said the portability maybe what was the most important thing to you, Jeff?

[00:24:02] Jeff Sieh: That it didn’t have smoke. It’s yeah. So it’s really cool.

[00:24:07] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. So those are the things that you want to pull out in your graphics and in your description and your pin titles, like maybe you make one that really focuses on people like graves who want the portability one for Jeff, maybe you have one that pulls out each of those factors on one pin to,

[00:24:24] Jeff Sieh: so that’s a good point because one of the things is personalization is very important and the thing that’s so smart about the smart feed in Pinterest, it really it’s almost TikTok.

[00:24:36] Like it gives you what you want once you’ve trained it, you start seeing things like I was researching stuff for a Barndominium and I’m seeing more things that would go manly into a Barndominium stuff. And I mean, there’s all sorts of ways that can do that. And, going and seeing like Carrie says, she’s a research freak.

[00:24:55] So yeah, she does a lot of times too much research mixer. I love doing research too. It may shock you, but like when I was a kid at the mall, I just buy what was on the mannequin. I’d go to the what is the, not the gap before gap. It was oh gosh, Grace, I can’t even anyway, I just go, okay, I’ll take that because I’m horrible at that stuff.

[00:25:14] And so yeah and also the personalization, like I’m going on this cruise that I keep mentioning, and it’s a Marvel cruise. There’s a Marvel day at sea that they have. And of course I went and looked at what kind of braids I could braid my beard to look like Thor. And so I have a whole board. Beard board.

[00:25:33] So yeah, I tell you that’s, what’s so cool.

[00:25:37] Alisa Meredith: I cannot wait to see the pictures from this.

[00:25:38] Jeff Sieh: They will not ever see the light of day, but it’s going to be fun.

[00:25:42] Grace Duffy: Oh my gosh. I want to see you at the, what is the hair salon there? The bippity boppity

[00:25:50] Jeff Sieh: boutique. Yes. I want that.

[00:25:53] Grace Duffy: I want to see that you’re speaking to

[00:25:56] Jeff Sieh: Terry gets me.

[00:25:57] She goes Marvel. cruise cool! That’s right, Carrie. It’s going to be amazing. Lou Mongello, Lou’s probably going to be, I’m going to be the fat Thor if you’ve seen End Game. Anyway, as we digress, let’s talk about this personalization though, for men, because this is really key for marketers to tune in that.

[00:26:14] So give us some examples that you would like you would try to hit the main demographic. Let’s say your a, what kind of let’s say a donut shop, a local dinner. Which, how would you personalize that for men?

[00:26:29] Alisa Meredith: Oh my goodness. I mean, all people like donuts, so for men, I

[00:26:35] Jeff Sieh: don’t

[00:26:36] Alisa Meredith: what, there’s a bacon donut.

Importance of Personalization On Pinterest

[00:26:38] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. Okay. So you have your answer, but I also always want to bring in the visual part of it. If, if you cannot think of any other way to use a trend, then do it with your visuals. So instead of showing 10 women around a table, eating donuts, you show a couple of guys, maybe they’re at a construction site, maybe they’re at their office, maybe they’re at home with their kids.

[00:27:01] But just making it feel relevant to that group is what’s going to be important.

[00:27:06] Jeff Sieh: So on that note, is there a difference between static pins and when I say static pins, not video pins but also pins that go in the feed versus the visuals that you would do for an idea pin, because. For awhile, there was a thing they would say on Pinterest, don’t show your face that’s for Instagram, for selfies.

[00:27:27] So would you show guys gathered around and just show them from the neck down? Are, would you like have them like, Hey, we’re all enjoying her bacon donut. What, how would you do that photo?

[00:27:39] Alisa Meredith: I think if we had a dollar for every time we told people back in the day, don’t put faces on Pinterest.

[00:27:44] We would, we’d be on a different cruise all the time. But it, it does, it’s not the case anymore. People change, audiences, change behaviors, change. We want faces now on Pinterest. They tend to do better. So yeah, show the face, show them stuff in the donut, in their face. Yeah.

[00:28:01] Jeff Sieh: So not just, I didn’t pins, but even in the regular.

[00:28:04] Okay. There was also a thing for, I know there’s a lot of people who do food blogging and recipe blogs and stuff like that on Pinterest. And I know there was this big thing for a while and amla Corto did this a lot. She called it the pans and hands where she would make stuff. And you would see the hands in the idea pen, which is once again, like a story.

[00:28:23] So is that still a thing? Do you want to do pants in hands or do you want to have your face go and look, I’m making my bacon donut.

What Types of Images Work on Pinterest?

[00:28:31] Alisa Meredith: The great thing about an idea pen is that you can do both. So the very first frame I would highly suggest. And so does Pinterest that it’d be a video and if it can include you in it, that’s great.

[00:28:42] The hands and pans is also great. Photographs will work, but I would always that first frame needs to be a video. The more you can put yourself in there, the better, whether it’s a voiceover or preferably a video and, or a photo of yourself, especially for that very last frame where they’re getting ready to see that kind of prompt to follow you, like who is this person?

[00:29:04] We didn’t use to care about that on Pinterest, but now we do. So they want to see your face and see what you’re about.

[00:29:10] Jeff Sieh: You said a voiceover or an audio. So for a long time, it was like, we would talk about when we’re talking about video on Pinterest, we’d say no audio, cause it doesn’t matter.

[00:29:19] Nobody turns it on. So you’re saying that you should have it on an idea pin.

[00:29:24] Alisa Meredith: Yes, but I also use captions. So I know you were always very, don’t even bother with the audio. I think wherever

[00:29:33] Jeff Sieh: the other way you were the one who said.

[00:29:36] Alisa Meredith: No, don’t rely on audio, right? You don’t have another way if people don’t want to turn on the audio, but with idea pins, especially it’s meant as an experience, Pinterest wants it to keep people on the platform.

[00:29:49] So the more elements you can include in that pin, whether it’s voiceover or music, whatever stickers innovations, the more you can do to keep people there, the better that pan is going to do.

[00:30:02] Jeff Sieh: Gotcha. And they do work. Cause I have some that have over 10,000 views, they keep growing, I keep getting emails from Pinterest.

[00:30:09] Hey, your view, your pin has been viewed 50,000 times. I’m like, holy cow, I need to do more of this, but I’ll tell you, I feel curious pain. She goes, I admit she’s still not a fan of idea pins. So what would you tell Carrie? Cause I was the same way because I’m like, it doesn’t link back to my stuff. And why should I do an idea pen?

[00:30:27] I would

[00:30:27] Alisa Meredith: Ask Carrie is that as a user or as a creator because there are. Cases to be made depending on who you are. I think as a content creator who used to be all about marketing and I still am, but I also have this other option, which is art. I love them because I’m seeing like 800,000 impressions on this painting of mine and people commenting on it and asking questions.

[00:30:56] I love that it’s not going to happen for me on any other platform, but then Pinterest. So I’m really happy to use it. Oh, Carrie says as a user viewer, that makes a lot of sense to me. So one of the complaints that people had is I see this idea, pin, this great thing, but I can’t then click to go find out more.

[00:31:20] Super frustrating, but that is because that idea pin was not well-crafted right. Your idea pins should include every single thing you need so that you do not need to go to a website. So when I do my art ones, it has the colors, it has the formulas, it has the ratios, it has everything you would ever need.

[00:31:41] Don’t need to go to my website if you don’t want to.

[00:31:43] Jeff Sieh: So let’s, can I save that idea pin? Like I’m not in my smock to do painting right now. So can I say that idea pen to go check it out later? Yes.

[00:31:53] Alisa Meredith: And please do it will help me.

[00:31:55] Jeff Sieh: Okay. There you go. Yeah, so it’s, a lot of people are talking about idea pins.

[00:32:01] Brian says his idea pins are videos of him talking to the camera and doing terrible compared to my pretty wedding images about. Of the impressions, but it might have to do with my face. I don’t think that’s true. I feel you’re paying them. Yeah. I’ve had the same

[00:32:17] Alisa Meredith: and I’m having some fun with a template that I made to just a Canva template for idea pins.

[00:32:22] And I’m putting all these Pinterest predicts trends into idea pins. So I have 11 pages. They’re all templated. They’re all automated the way I want. So I just throw in that information and out goes my idea pen, and I think that’s key is having a process for idea pins, because otherwise it can take for it.

[00:32:40] And if you want my templates, you’re welcome to them.

[00:32:42] Jeff Sieh: Cool. So I go email at at Alisa Meredith.com. The, one of the things, and if you are like, are hesitant and haven’t tried idea pins because you’re like, Ugh. Which I was F for a long time, make, go give it a try. Like I’m serious. I get, I have 10,000 views views on multiple pins and they’re two frames.

[00:33:01] They’re two panels. I have a title. And then I have a video clip of one of our shows and they’ve gone bonkers. So I’ve got a whole plan to do more of those. So

[00:33:10] Grace Duffy: wait a minute. Whose face is on that

[00:33:11] Jeff Sieh: video clip? I will not say I will not say it was probably yours or my, I guess I never put myself on there because it scares people.

[00:33:18] All right. So we got to go to our next section really quick, because this is interesting. It’s all about what is gen Z one? Cause that was something that Pinterest talked about. So gen Z, that is what’s the age range for gen Z it’s

[00:33:36] Grace Duffy: between it’s, but it’s people born between 1997 and 2012. So our kids do, I just want

[00:33:45] Jeff Sieh: to make sure that everybody on the same page, because there’s so many, X, Y boomer, anyway.

[00:33:49] So Pinterest has said they have this new report from Pinterest said a gen Z, which Pinterest defines is like Grace just said, 19 87, 20 12 brought 80% more new products. They bought 80% more new products in the last year than their older counterparts. And they’re more likely than other generations to try new products, partly because of their love for novelty, which doesn’t surprise anybody over brand names.

[00:34:15] So they’re constantly craving new experiences to cultivate their individuality, their motive, more motivated to buy and consume new products, to discover and express who they are and how they want to show up in society. Alisa as the day, the data shows gen Z will gladly open up their wallets for items that’ll authentically represent them.

[00:34:35] There’s a lot of cool craters that are on Pinterest. So brands have this enormous potential. They can connect with this gen Z, they, and they may see it like a 14 times greater revenue growth opportunity on average with this generation versus old people like us. So what you let me, I’ll just say me, not us.

[00:34:54] Sorry. So how can how can we translate this into usage and how we can, we promote all this stuff? If we’re trying to market on Pinterest.

How is Gen Z Using Pinterest?

[00:35:04] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. So I think look to TikTok, right? The whole idea, pen thing, and the push for video in them. A lot of that has to do with the huge growth of gen Z on Pinterest and the last year.

[00:35:21] So what are they doing over there? They want some, it’s not going to be quite as entertainment E on Pinterest is going to be more about products, but like you mentioned, there’s their spending. And the interesting thing about gen Z folks in general is that they want to try something new and exciting, right?

[00:35:39] So if you have something new and exciting exclusive, it hasn’t been out there before, or you can show your product in a new usage, a new light that is what’s going to attract them because it just because they have a favorite toothpaste or brand of socks doesn’t mean that they’re not going to buy yours.

[00:35:58] They are very open to trying an alternative to what they are.

[00:36:03] Jeff Sieh: I would also say to look to not only idea pins, but video pins, one them. And also if you could incorporate humor, because that’s one of the biggest things over on TikTok. Now I wouldn’t download your TikTok videos and upload them to Pinterest without taking off the watermark.

[00:36:17] Because just like on Instagram, they’ll demote that in the feed. But one of my favorite video pins is it’s really quick, but it’s, I think it’s from it’s like a big coffee thing, like Maxwell house or something, but it shows one of the Keurigs, and it’s got the mug upside down and somebody reaches in terms of right side up, because they’re so sleepy, they forgot to turn it side up, but it, and it’s spilling over, but it catches your attention and it’s funny and it’s a brand.

[00:36:44] And that’s the other thing we didn’t talk about earlier is that people love brands on Pinterest. They don’t have the icky feeling like sometimes we get on Facebook, they L brand. They like it. And if they see something that’s visually appealing or something new, or you know, something crafty on there, they’re like, Ooh, I want to have that.

[00:37:02] My daughter is always sending me pins, that stuff. She, some weirdo pin that she sees on pictures that she wants to get or something. But yeah. So a

[00:37:11] Alisa Meredith: lot of the trends that we were talking about before with Pinterest predicts those, a lot of those are driven by gen Z, which is, I think why grace and I were like, what in the world is, what does this mean?

[00:37:22] What is Pearl core? What is marketecture?

[00:37:27] Yeah. A little too cool for me, but yeah, that’s what they like.

[00:37:31] Jeff Sieh: So go ahead, Grace. I’m sorry.

[00:37:35] Grace Duffy: I was going to say some more insights from the city is that video ads are more likely to capture gen Z’s attention than any other type of marketing. They want to understand they want to buy from brands. So as much as they’re not brand conscious, which.

[00:37:50] Yeah, that’s what the data says, but I don’t know that I see that they are brand conscious, but they want to find things that they want to find companies that understand their values and their preferences. And sometimes that’s a hard line to draw between like your values as a brand appealing to their values and doing that in a sincere way.

[00:38:08] That also is just not that icky, brand saying this or whatever. And they also want to find these products that express their unique identity. So talk to us about linking that idea of the values, have like promoting your products in a way that appeals to their values, whatever that might be.

Appealing to Your Audience’s Values on Pinterest

[00:38:26] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. So that’s a tough one, right? Be part of your Pinterest strategy, that’s going to be your brand strategy. So what do you, what does your brand stand for? What does it stand against? Mostly what it stands for, but that needs to come through in your messaging. And in the images that you use, so diversity should be important to everybody is that coming through in your images?

[00:38:49] And is that coming through in your products themselves, they likely know about you, excuse me, from other places as well. And I thought it was interesting about, the products that show their uniqueness and individuality. That is a young person thing, right? When you’re growing up, like that is super important right now for them to be able to express that individuality.

[00:39:12] So something a little bit zany or wacky different, is probably gonna appeal

[00:39:19] Jeff Sieh: to them. Yeah, until they get all the joy crushed out of them when they have to have a job and normally work every day,

[00:39:28] then we’re just all mindless drones. We’re all the same. So anyway, on that note, let’s talk about Pinterest video, which, I have been a fan of for a long time, and I think this might be a little contentious with Gleason, right? We mentioned video ads. So let’s talk about leveraging video on Pinterest.

[00:39:48] So back in November tech crunch reported that Pinterest gets into live shopping with the launch of Pinterest TV. Woo. So Pinterest, what they did is they going to live shopping as part of the pivot from being only an inspirational shopping site to becoming a home for creator content. Now we’re big on live shopping here.

[00:40:08] We’re actually over on Amazon live. We love it, very bullish on live shopping, but it appears to be a live video experience with the, it has this audience chat feature, right? But this Pinterest TV is very exclusive. So what is it? Where can we find it and how does it work at Lisa?

[00:40:26] Alisa Meredith: Yeah, so it’s so exclusive that it was only that three days in November.

[00:40:31] And only for previously scheduled really fancy people. So it is not something that we can use ourselves whether it will be in the future or not. I have my doubts only because I think it would be really hard to make sure that it stayed at a high quality, because if just anyone can jump on their live and start hocking what they’re selling, I think it could be a really bad user experience, but I do think it’s a great test in a way that they could partner with the larger brands and with influencers as well.

[00:41:04] It, I don’t even know if I can access it anymore. Have you been able to find it? Yeah, I,

[00:41:11] Jeff Sieh: I didn’t want, I know peg was telling me all about it and she was like, and I thought it was a series that was going. A little bit longer, but

[00:41:18] Alisa Meredith: you can actually, if you go to your on your mobile app and you go to the watch tab, it looks like a few of those might be on there as replace.

[00:41:28] Yeah. Yeah. If you hit the little TV icon, it will show you some of those. Oh, What am I talking about? They’re actually doing more alive. That’s what

[00:41:36] Jeff Sieh: I’m saying. I see. If you’d research the show before we come on as a guest, it’s like, oh my gosh.

[00:41:43] Alisa Meredith: So they have not really been promoting this.

[00:41:46] No, but yeah, there’s one about cakes and veggie soups.

[00:41:49] Jeff Sieh: And there’s one guy who knits, who’s like a famous sports person that knits that’s on there. Yeah. So,

[00:41:57] Alisa Meredith: and I just was like, this is just not what I want probably is what gen Z wants

[00:42:03] Jeff Sieh: it is. So yeah. So my daughter would love this kind of stuff. So here’s the thing you said I will disagree with you, which is, I know shocking when we get together.

[00:42:13] I think they’re gonna, they’re gonna allow people to have live. I don’t think it’s going to show up in the feed. I think it’s gonna be a special place in the w the watch and here’s the reason why they don’t want to lose out to him. Shopping. I think they also don’t wanna lose out to Instagram. They don’t want to be the law.

[00:42:29] They will be the last, but they don’t want to be not having live video on there. Pretty

[00:42:34] Grace Duffy: sure. I’m pretty sure LinkedIn will be the last with the live shopping job. Honestly, 20 years we’ll get LinkedIn live shopping in about 20,

[00:42:43] Jeff Sieh: but there’s a lot of money going through Amazon live right now.

[00:42:47] Tons of money. And that’s why Facebook’s jumping on it. That’s why Instagram is going to have all this stuff this year. And Pinterest, a lot of times wants to be Instagram. And so with the shopping feature. So I just think that they’re going to allow it. Now you may have to jump through hoops and it may be something like Amazon’s creator program.

[00:43:07] But I think they’re going to open it up in sections like that. It’s not going to be only celebrities that have it. It’s going to be like, Pinterest nerds will be able to get on it like Alisa and I,

[00:43:17] Alisa Meredith: yeah, I’ll be all right with that. I just don’t think knowing the content that sometimes. People want to share on Pinterest.

[00:43:25] I, yeah, I do hope that there’s some kind of screening process.

[00:43:29] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. But they’re letting a lot of stuff through anyway. So

[00:43:34] Alisa Meredith: yeah. They want it to be a good user experience. So I think that would be a good idea.

[00:43:39] Jeff Sieh: Grace, I mean, there were some other questions about the watch tab. So talk about that because Lisa mentioned it.

What Type of Video is on Pinterest?

[00:43:46] Grace Duffy: Yeah. So w we’ve touched on each of these things a little bit throughout the show, but Pinterest has been working to make video more core to its platform over the last few months, the end of last year, it introduced this watch tab where users can easily scroll through a feed of creator videos.

[00:44:01] We’ve already discussed idea pins, which is the video first feature. And then back in December, Pinterest did roll out the option to reply to comments with a video. So these are all things that are pretty common and pretty normal on all of the other platforms, but how have these updates shaped things over at Pinterest over the last few months has the combination of particularly shopping and video made it more appealing platform to consumers.

[00:44:25] Are people actually utilizing this connection between the ability to find an idea, pin click on a link and then perfect.

[00:44:35] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. So idea pins don’t have links. Okay, well, yeah.

[00:44:40] Grace Duffy: Sorry. Like find the, find it does this make it easier for people to find where to buy?

[00:44:48] Alisa Meredith: Yeah, I don’t think idea pans do, but I think the Pinterest TV will, assuming you can get access to it because when you’re watching it does pop up.

[00:44:55] Like here’s a little thing and you can click on it and buy, go immediately to buy, which I think is Ben something that Pinterest has wanted to improve since the beginning. If you’ve been on a long time, you’ll remember the days when you found the perfect couch and you would click on it and it would be image uploaded by user.

[00:45:14] There’s no link, there’s no window, and it was like super frustrating. So they want to take that friction out. And that’s partially what Pinterest TV is for.

[00:45:24] Jeff Sieh: So back to idea pins, I thought you could put affiliate links in linked to shopping in your ideal clients.

[00:45:31] Alisa Meredith: Now that’s different.

[00:45:33] Jeff Sieh: Because that’s important.

[00:45:35] That’s what we want.

How Do I Add Affiliate Links on Pinterest?

[00:45:36] Alisa Meredith: Yeah. Yeah, you can. So when you create an idea pen and you have to do this on mobile, but it’s on Android and iOS, you can add a sticker. And with that sticker, you can add a link. You can use Amazon affiliate target works. There are a bunch of other ones that work as well. I say, just try it.

[00:45:57] If it doesn’t work, it’ll tell you you can also link to your own products. And what Pinterest will do then is create a brand new pin based on this link that you uploaded. If you’re using an affiliate link it will alert that person, that brand, that you have added them to their pin. It also has an option for a little slider button.

[00:46:23] If it’s sponsored content. So if it is an affiliate link, just click that on your good with FTC. It will put includes sponsored products on your pin. So that’s the way you can absolutely get affiliate income, because as it’s going through the pages, you put the sticker on the page, you want it, it has a little pill button click on that and you go, and you can buy it from there.

[00:46:49] So yeah, you can absolutely use

[00:46:51] Jeff Sieh: affiliate. Yeah. So that’s what Carrie was asking if he used affiliate link. So theoretically I can make an idea pen, let’s say, and I want to make it like, this is my live video set up. I’m going to do a walk through my studio and I can link to all my stuff over on Amazon, on my idea again and make affiliate money.

[00:47:11] Alisa Meredith: I can now the only way I’ve gotten Amazon affiliate links to work and try it the other way, if you want to, but is to go into the affiliate center of animal. And get the link from there. Cause when I’ve tried on mobile and just to share the affiliate link from there, that link doesn’t work, but the one from the affiliate center.

[00:47:29] Jeff Sieh: So you could do that easily if you had an iOS device, because it will actually copy from it, your desktop, the link to your your phone. See? Yeah. Do you not, have you have, do you have an iPhone?

[00:47:41] Alisa Meredith: I do. I didn’t know. That was possible. You just got

[00:47:43] Jeff Sieh: turned on. Yeah. See super fast. Fi I taught Alisa something.

[00:47:47] My work here is done. One more question. I want to ask, so let’s talk about some of these for marketers. Like the, I know a lot of marketers have digital products you know, and it’s really hard to do affiliate links for digital. If your own digital product, like if I’m selling a online.

[00:48:10] There’s no affiliate link for that. So what, is there a way to get around that? How can I use idea pins to sell my digital course? Like your ads course for a perfect example. How would you use idea pins for that?

[00:48:21] Alisa Meredith: So you’re not, you don’t have to use an affiliate link if it’s your own product. So you just add the link to the product and it will add

[00:48:32] Jeff Sieh: an idea.

[00:48:33] Alisa Meredith: Oh yeah, absolutely. You can. Yeah. So when I do my painting idea pins, I will link is it depends on how lazy I’m being. I will sometimes link to say the paint that I use. It’s an Amazon affiliate link. I will link to the products in my own store. So I’ll wait till I put it in my store, grab that link, throw it in the pin.

[00:48:57] And yeah, so there’s a combination of ways. You can try to make money with affiliates in your own products and get works for digital. If you have a catalog, so on regular pins, you can link, you can add a product tag to your digital product on a static pin, and that will work like a collection pen.

[00:49:18] So people can go right to your product. From there on an idea, pen, those have to be in your catalog. You can add digital products to a Pinterest catalog is way more technical than we want to be today, but

[00:49:34] Jeff Sieh: that’s what we want to make sure. So you can actually do it like an here’s what I’m tight teaching in my Pinterest ads course.

[00:49:42] And not worrying about just going to your profile, you can actually have links back to that product digital product. Yes

[00:49:47] Alisa Meredith: you can. And then on profile itself, those those pins would be on your, like where people land on your shop tab, you could have your digital products

[00:49:58] Jeff Sieh: to all right.

[00:49:59] Folks that is worth the price of admission today, right there. That’s really cool because before it was like, really, do you have an article or anything about that on your site? Alisa,

[00:50:10] Alisa Meredith: I’ve had a tag products, not necessarily how to create a PR a

[00:50:13] Jeff Sieh: catalog feed. Get on that because we need it by the way.

[00:50:16] So after this, we’ll let you go a little bit early and you can go right there.

[00:50:20] Alisa Meredith: What you could do is you can Google a catalog feed example, Pinterest, because they have one, they have a template that you can use and just drop your info information. And then if you host it on your website, you can use that later.

[00:50:35] Connect your catalogs, your Pinterest.

Final Thoughts

[00:50:37] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Very cool. So tons of great info today, we are out of time, but if you can’t tell Alisa knows a little bit about Pinterest. So Alisa, before we wrap things up, where can people find you this amazing ads course, you’re talking about this new article.

[00:50:56] You’re going to write about how to do all this affiliate stuff. So where can people find you?

[00:51:03] Alisa Meredith: It’s Alisameredith.com. If you want the template for an idea pen, which will walk you through everything that you need it’s just a Bitly link and it’s idea. Dash pin it’s not gated or anything, just have it use it.

[00:51:17] And I hope it helps.

[00:51:19] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. Grace, where can people find the amazing gray stuff?

[00:51:24] Grace Duffy: Every Friday here with you, Jeff. Our next show is actually next Friday at 11:00 AM. Eastern antennae of central, but when I’m not here, I’m the video content lead over at restream. So I’m also available to answer all of your live streaming restream questions.

[00:51:42] So that’s where you can find it.

[00:51:44] Jeff Sieh: And I’m Jeff Sieh and you can find me at the sushi place here in a few minutes, and I’d be happy to throw you to buy me a roll or two, but thank you guys so much for joining us today. Thank you, Carey Gary. All the folks who show up every week, we have the most amazing community Sabrina.

[00:52:00] I didn’t give a shout out to Sabrina today. Sabrina is always awesome and amazing. Thank you once again for everybody who showed up, ask all your great Pinterest questions. As Grace said, we will be back next Friday, January 28th at 11:00 AM. Eastern 10:00 AM central. You can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Amazon live.

[00:52:17] Thank you Alisa for being here. And also we’re a podcast. If you want to go over all these things again, that Alisa said, and don’t want to look at this hairy face. It’s really easy. You can just listen to us and podcast at your favorite podcast player. Just go over there and do a search for Social Media News Live.

[00:52:31] We’d love for you guys to leave us a rating and review. And with that, don’t forget our friends. at socialmedianewslive.com/ecamm But they also have this new Prezi thing, the takeover that’s going to happen next week. Make sure you go to their YouTube channel, youtube.com/ecammnetwork And sign up for that and get your notifications and check that out because it is really, I think there’s even some stuff you could probably do over on Pinterest to really make your pins pop.

[00:52:57] So I have to write something about that. That’s really something there. So anyway, thank you guys so much for watching. We will see you next time

[00:53:06] Grace Duffy: Bye everyone.