By now, you’ve come across, or used, the “pin to top” feature on at least one of your social media networks. Your company Facebook page has had this feature for years, so has your LinkedIn page, and now Twitter’s new interface is touting “content pinning” as one of its main new features. It allows you to stick a piece of content (a post, a tweet, an update) to the top of your feed as a way of featuring content for a longer period of time. A feed will bump content as new content is distributed – so, very quickly, marketers understood that unless people saw the post the moment it was posted… it wouldn’t get enough reach. The social network folks are smart, the medium has to please the masses, but as a business tool, it has to please the content marketers.
Quite simply, pinning gives a longer life and greater visibility to content.
So, what kind of content should you pin to the top of your social networks? Here are some criteria you should use to decide to help you get the best results from pinning:
- Keep it interactive: Social media 101 – just like posting, the most successful pins are interactive. Include a question or poll, an opportunity for a download, “gameification” (something competitive), or a compelling call to action. This is a perfect way to promote an event, a survey, a contest. Find ways to interact with your followers and you’ll see HUGE returns in the form of conversation and engagement.
- Create a visual: Pin images and video – the statistics that back this up are too crazy-good for you to pass up. Spend the time to create an image, or post your animated video. The visual will command more attention in your followers feeds – and since you only have 140 characters on Twitter, an image or a video gives marketers a chance to “say” more. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, and it has been said that video is worth a million.
- Choose to be timely or timeless: You can pin and unpin regularly, and very easily. So change it up. Give the post time to make an impact, but keep it timely. Alternatively, you might decide that your video should live on the top of your pages/feeds permanently. That can also be very effective. If your video content is timely, it can add tremendous engagement opportunities in the long term. For example, your video explains your business/services, includes your contact info and a call to action. This is perfect as you get new followers who may not know anything about you…yet.
Try it for yourself this week. Pin lead generating content to your social pages, and give your content more quality face time with your followers.
