WTF is Pinterest? (and How Can Crypto companies use it?) | Ep. 27

Ty Smith0:04

Welcome to another episode of the Crypto Marketing Show. My name is Ty Daniel Smith and with me is Kylie and for his first podcast appearance, Phil.

Phil0:09

Hey.

Ty Smith0:10

Today we are going to discuss Pinterest. Pinterest is something that I know basically nothing about. So Kylie and Phil are going to explain to me and to us what Pinterest is, how to use it, and if it's worthwhile for cryptocurrency companies to look into and use. So to start off, what is Pinterest?

Phil0:24

Kylie, go ahead.

Kylie0:26

Think of Pinterest as a vision board, a digital vision board. You can do anything from pin aesthetically pleasing—and by pin it means you're saving a picture to a virtual board, and the pictures are called pins. So you would save it to a board. You can do it for aesthetic purposes, information, how-to guides, inspiration, all sorts of different types of things. Basically, Pinterest is kind of like Tumblr, but you can organize the things that you save in a lot easier ways.

Ty Smith1:14

So what kind of content do you post to Pinterest?

Kylie1:17

So I, for my personal use, I don't really post a lot of my own personal pictures, although I should start since I'm doing my thrifting page. But I mostly just save pictures that give me ideas. For Coinbound, we post basically what we post on Instagram, blog posts, images that are in our blog posts, and they link back to our blog. So someone can search how to go viral on TikTok, and our blog post is up there, how to go viral on TikTok, they can click on it, and it goes straight to our blog. So it just depends on what your goals are and what your company is doing.

Ty Smith2:07

But is it primarily pictures? Is it text? Is there a limit to the number of characters you can post like Twitter?

Kylie2:12

Yeah, so it's very visual, image-based. The image is the most important part of the pin. I don't even read the title. There's a title, it's limited to a certain amount of characters, probably 150, I think. And then there is a bio, or like a description, and I don't know how many that's limited to, like a couple hundred. And then you can link that pin somewhere. And those are basically your options for pins. But really, when people are on Pinterest, they're looking at the picture. So that is what needs to be focused on the most. That is the most important part.

Ty Smith2:59

Okay, so you guys both have Pinterest accounts. Is there like Pinterest influencers? Is it like you follow accounts, or is it you follow subjects? How does that work?

Phil3:06

Usually, I look for certain things. If I'm looking for men's fashion, I find a couple of influencers there, like male models right there, especially like whether it be boots or jackets. Jacket season was big on Pinterest. I saw that a lot every time I logged on to Pinterest. So yeah, every now and then I'll find a few influencers there.

Kylie3:21

There are a couple of influencers that I follow. I found them through Instagram, and I really like their outfits, so I follow their Pinterest because they pin all their same pictures.

Ty Smith3:27

So they have a large—are they big on Pinterest, or are they just big on Instagram and then you're following them because they're big on Instagram?

Kylie3:33

So basically, the specific girl I'm talking about, she is a blogger. She started off as a blogger. Her blog got big thanks to Instagram. That happened for a lot of people, being able to share pictures of their outfits easily to one place, and then people can go find them on their blog. I found her through Pinterest. I kept seeing outfits I liked of hers. I followed her on Instagram, and then I followed her specific Pinterest because I pinned so many of her outfits, I might as well just get those pictures directly from her rather than just organically finding them. So is it worthwhile for crypto companies to invest in Pinterest? I think it's worthwhile to at least put your content up there. Even if you're not going to dedicate a huge chunk of time, if you are posting blogs, if you're posting on Instagram, there's an option where you can save an image from a website. You just type in the website URL, find the image, and then save it. Instagram, so easy. And then you just throw in the caption, and you're done. And that at least is easy for people to find because the demographic on Pinterest is going to be women.

Ty Smith5:09

That's what I was going to—that was my next question, also. Because I, like I said, I know nothing about Pinterest, but I always, in my mind, thought it was mostly a female social media platform. So it is?

Kylie5:16

Yeah, I mean, it is a predominantly female platform. There are men, certainly, absolutely.

Phil5:20

Phil's one of them.

Kylie5:21

Yeah, absolutely. I'm a good example of that. But it is predominantly female. I think it's a female-run company as well. So I think it's just that kind of vibe. But when I go on—Pinterest was one of the first places I looked for crypto when I had an ex-boyfriend talk about it and I wanted to learn about it. Pinterest is where I went. And there's not—there's a lot of information, but not easily understandable. And I think that's really what Pinterest is lacking as far as crypto is concerned.

Ty Smith5:41

Is there crypto content on there?

Kylie5:42

Oh, absolutely. But it's very overwhelming. Like if you type in Bitcoin, there's a lot—there's a lot that comes up that's not easy to understand if you don't—as soon as I saw it the first time, I was like, 'Nope, not dealing with this.'

Ty Smith6:16

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this. So let's say I type in Bitcoin. It's going to show me images of Bitcoin, or is it going to be like infographics?

Kylie6:21

All of that. It's kind of a combination of basically—

Ty Smith6:23

Because I can't imagine why I would need a picture of Bitcoin. What am I searching for?

Kylie6:26

You might be searching for an image of Bitcoin.

Ty Smith6:27

Why wouldn't I just Google search that if I just wanted a picture?

Kylie6:29

Because there are people like me who will search Pinterest.

Ty Smith6:32

Instead of Google?

Kylie6:33

Well, yeah. I mean, it just depends on the thing. But I mean, there are so many—Google search can sometimes be a little crowded. You can really refine searching on Pinterest because once you search one thing, it'll give you options to refine your search, which is a cool aspect. But back to the female demographic, because crypto is predominantly male, Pinterest is going to be a place where females, when learning about crypto as mass adoption comes around and people are learning more, women are going to search crypto on Pinterest because it's a place where they are constantly on. And they search for recipes, outfit ideas, home decor ideas,

Phil7:30

Tutorials.

Kylie7:31

Right, exactly. So if they go to Pinterest for their information, they're going to also search something like crypto because, like I said, it's a place where people like them, it's a platform for them. So I definitely think it's worthwhile to at least put your content out there on it. You have nothing to lose.

Ty Smith7:45

So, I lost my thought.

Phil7:49

If I can just give you a better idea of how it functions, Pinterest also kind of functions similar to Google Images. When you tap on the image on Pinterest, it's going to direct you to that person's blog or—so it also serves as a link, also. So when you tap on that image, it's going to take you to that person's blog where you'll find that image. It's kind of similar to what Google Images does. But like Kylie said, Google Images, it's very crowded over there. Pinterest, a little less crowded.

Ty Smith8:32

It sounds like a good opportunity then to post crypto content.

Kylie8:34

And if you click on—so let's say I search—I just go on my home page and I've got all these different kinds of stuff because I search all different types of things. But I see something about Bitcoin. I click on that pin. Now all the—I scroll down, all the pins underneath that are related pins to that pin. So it makes it very easy to get lost and find kind of go down a rabbit hole.

Phil8:50

A rabbit hole of inspiration, really. Like whether it be—I follow a lot of filmmakers on YouTube, and I'll find their stuff, like their photos on Pinterest, and it'll lead me to their blog or what not.

Ty Smith9:24

So are there any—because I don't know anything about Pinterest. I imagine a lot of business owners in the crypto space also don't know much about Pinterest. Are there any tips that people should follow when they're first getting into Pinterest? Because every social media kind of has its own etiquette, and if you break the etiquette, it's a pretty big deal.

Kylie9:36

Yeah, I think when—first of all, you should definitely get familiar with Pinterest. Use it for a little bit. I've been using it for eight years, so I know Pinterest very, very well. I've seen it from when it was the beginning to now. They've added so many different features. So I know how to use it. So it's been easy for me to translate it for Coinbound, but I think you, when you're trying to optimize keywords, make sure you know what keywords you want to add in. And I think if you want a reference, check out Coinbound's. I've been doing some work on our keywords, things like that. But the most important thing, like I said, the images. If the images are not good, nobody will be pinning them, and therefore, it's not going to go out to the masses. And Instagram is one platform where things aren't easily discoverable. It's not as easy to find an account unless you're following them or they're suggested to you. Pinterest is so easily discoverable. Like I said, because you can get down a rabbit hole. So—

Phil10:47

And there's a search bar, too. Type in what you're looking for specifically, and you're going to find the images right there.

Ty Smith10:51

So Coinbound has a Pinterest?

Kylie10:52

Yes.

Ty Smith10:52

Okay, this is kind of news to me, but this is good to know. So how do you follow—is it like a handle? How do you follow an account on Pinterest?

Kylie10:57

If you type in Coinbound, we should come up as a profile. There's really nobody else.

Ty Smith11:01

So it's a search bar kind of thing?

Kylie11:02

Yeah, as soon as—the first thing you'll see is your feed page. There's a search bar at the top. Type in Coinbound, you'll find our page. And yeah, you can see our blog, our Instagram, all different sorts of stuff.

Phil11:34

It's a very good-looking page. Good job, by the way.

Kylie11:36

Thank you.

Ty Smith11:37

So that is all for today. Thank you, guys. Please remember to rate, review, and recommend this podcast if you find it valuable. We have a Slack channel as well at coinbound.io/joinslack where we're discussing all kinds of crypto marketing related topics, and you can ask questions, and we're always in there answering them. And we actually just recently launched a crypto marketing newsletter, an email newsletter. It goes out once a week. It's full of actionable, really easy-to-understand marketing tips for cryptocurrency companies specifically and content creators. So join us there at coinbound.io/cryptonewsletter and follow us on Twitter @coinbound_io. That is all for today. Thanks, guys.

Kylie12:03

Bye.

Phil12:04

Later.