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Should My Business be on Pinterest?, originally published on Forbes.com.

We often get asked, “Should my business be on Pinterest?” Our answer is usually, “It depends.”

While not as popular as TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook, Pinterest recently announced that it has reached 5 billion searches every month, so considering its addition to your social marketing mix is worth investigating.

Before creating an account, formulating campaign ideas, and finding room in the budget for Promoted Pins, your business should consider whether Pinterest is the right platform to spend your time and money on by looking at its user base and how they consume content. If it seems like a match to your audience and goals, your business may benefit from using Pinterest to connect with its community.

You can get started by analyzing the following questions:

Do Pinterest’s primary users align with your target audience(s)?

Women make up the majority of Pinterest users at 60%, according to the platform. But as its user base continues to grow, so does its audience diversity. Pinterest noted in 2021 that the previous year saw the fastest growth in both men and Gen Z spending time-consuming and creating Pins on the site. While still predominately a platform that is used by women, if you have a product that transcends both women of all ages and younger men, Pinterest should be considered.

Do the products you sell lend room for interesting Pinterest content (without forcing it)?

Social media is just that — social. And just as we’d recommend you not use Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram for hard sells, Pinterest is not the place for selling either. Whether your brand sells pencils or parkas, Pinterest should be a place to inspire imagination, foster creativity, and inform. Marketers can attain all three of these goals with Pins. For example, you could showcase fashionable ideas on how to wear your company’s parkas on cold, wintery days. Provide tips on using your pencils for everything from sketching to fanciful desktop displays in your office. If you can’t showcase your products into Pins that will engage your audience, then Pinterest may not be the right platform for your brand.

How can Pinterest help you to achieve your goals?

Next, determine your goals. If you know that your audience is on Pinterest, and you know that your brand and products would translate well onto the platform, what does your brand need to take away from all of your efforts? It could be showcasing all of those wonderful ways to wear your brand’s parkas to help grow sales. It could be to cut down on common customer service inquires with how-to Pins on your products. Or maybe it is simply finding and fostering brand advocates by becoming a part of the conversation probably already happening about your brand (or starting that conversation to get the ball rolling). It could be all three or even more. Determining what results you need to see from your initial Pinterest foray can help shape the types of content being used for your brand.

Where should you get started?

If you have done your research and think that your brand should be able to navigate Pinterest successfully, consider Promoted Pins. Promoted Pins are much like Promoted Posts on Facebook or LinkedIn. They are paid ads used by business accounts on the platform that appears in a user’s home feed, search results and category feeds.

Why spend the money? Well, we know that social media can be successful when done organically but that success can increase with ad spend. Pinterest says that “85% of weekly US Pinners [users] made a purchase based on Pins from brands.”

Finally, let people know that your brand is now represented on Pinterest. Add a link on your website, place the official logo in email signatures, and mention it in your other forms of advertising. Invite other company team members who already use Pinterest to engage as well.

Pinterest may be overshadowed by the likes of TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. But with a steadily growing audience and a fun-to-use platform that offers marketers the chance to get creative with their brands, Pinterest could be a contributing factor to increasing sales, assisting support staff, or finding connection with brand advocates.