Vincent NG
To help celebrate Canada Day, I decided to take a look at two Canadian companies and how they’re using Pinterest.
Let’s start off with Lululemon. Lululemon is a famous for making yoga clothing around the world. Lululemon actually started in my home town of Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver has actually been labelled as the third worst dressed city in the world, and that’s partially because Lululemon wear is so popular among the locals.
Lululemon’s Pinterest page has over 1.9 million followers, and people love the brand. The brand doesn’t pin that much, it actually only has about 2,200 pins, so the brand has a loyal community of following. The ability to develop a strong community and prescence can help boost the number followers your business has.
What Lululemon Does Amazingly well with Their Pinterest Page.
1) Create an Amazing Blog Like Lululemon
Most people may not see blogging as directly related to Pinterest, but it does have a big influence in the way that your website is found.
Lululemon creates amazing blog content that they find are relevant to their audience. They cover blog topics like, Five Reasons Why You Need Apple Cider Vinegar in Your Pantry, or Five Dry Shampoos For Sweaty Lifestyles. Being a resource to your customers and potential buyers is vitally important.
I find that too many companies focus on their products and services but neglecting to be able to provide great education to gain a person’s trust. When you’re able to create great blogging content, you’re also creating great pinnable content. But that means you have to create great pins.
2)Lululemon creates Customized Pins for their Blog Posts (Sometimes)
It’s quite interesting to note that Lululemon did a great job in creating customized images for Pinterest for two of their blog posts. These pictures were long and would pop up in the Pinterest newsfeed. I believe one of the main reasons that both those pins were repinned tremendously more than the other was because of how the pins stood out.
They were a bigger size, and did not use small horizontal pictures. However when Lululemon started using horizontal pictures, they still received repins, but I noticed that blog post pins that used predominantly horizontal images were shared around 200 plus times, compared to the vertical ones that had been repinned 500+ and 1900+ times.
3) Lululemon Created a Lifestyle Pinterest Account, not a Lululemon Account.
It’s hard to describe how cohesive the Lululemon Pinterest board is. It’s a feeling that you know when a company has got it right. I find what I love about Lululemon’s Pinterest board is that they know who their ideal customer is and they cater their pins to that person. They do a healthy job of promoting products (without over promoting) and they share content from other pinners or sources.
They create boards about healthy foods, places to travel, and healthy exercises to do (that aren’t always yoga related). They share beautiful pins of people doing yoga poses and they rarely show only product shots. Instead, they show people using their products which adds a nice cohesiveness to their board and pin layouts.
What impresses me most about Lululemon, and is probably the X-factor when it comes to their Pinterest account is that fact that they are using Pinterest to promote a lifestyle. It’s about staying healthy, about being motivated and inspired, being trendy and travelling the world. They’ve created a lifestyle account, not a Lululemon account. That’s pretty smart.
Welcome To Roots Canada – Former Provider of Olympic Clothing for the Canadian and U.S. Teams
Another well known retailer in Canada is Roots. Roots creates athletic wear and leather goods. The truth is you may not have heard of Roots, but you most likely have seen their clothing.
One of Roots’ claim to fame is that they have designed clothing for the Canadian Olympic Team, and, yes, for the United States Olympic Team as well. The company no longer designs Olympic clothing for political reasons. What is it that I really enjoy about their Pinterest account?
1) Creative Use of Canadian Passion
The company maintains their strong Canadian identity. I like their Oh Canada board very much. The board not only shows off some of their Canadian wear, but also shows off beautiful places in Canada. I think people who follow that board will have a particular passion for my country, and so when they post their Canadian clothing up, it draws in the right audience.
2) Cross Promote What’s Hot on Facebook onto Pinterest
Here was an amazingly cute photo showing a baby wearing a Roots hoodies. It’s absolutely adorable, and I’m not the only other person to think so. It was liked 501 times and shared 18 times on Facebook, but wasn’t shared on Pinterest.
Here was an amazingly cute photo showing a baby wearing a Roots hoodie. It’s absolutely adorable, and I’m not the only other person to think so. It was liked 501 times and shared 18 times.
This type of photo received great feedback on Facebook, and should be on their Pinterest board, Roots for Kids. If people love it on Facebook, there’s a good chance that they’re also going to love it on Pinterest as well.
So make sure you’re not shy about cross promoting different visuals on your different platforms.
Lululemon and Roots should Add Rich Pins for Products To their Pinterest Page
When you have rich pins for business, it allows those pins to show up in the Gifts section of the Pinterest. Non rich pins won’t qualify, so that’s an opportunity that’s missed.
I was a little sad to see that both Roots Canada and Lululemon didn’t have rich pins for their business. When you have rich pins for business it allows you to show up in the Gifts section of Pinterest. Non rich pins won’t qualify, so that’s an opportunity that’s missed.
Here’s the great thing about Product rich pins, when the price drops by at least 10% then people who have pinned the item may receive an e-mail notification regarding the price drop for the item. Isn’t it great that Pinterest does e-mail marketing for you?
Rich product pins also have bolded texts on the desktop version of Pinterest, which helps them stand out in the newfeed. Giving rich pins that extra edget compared to non rich pins.
That’s my two cents on two large and wonderful Canadian retailers.
And before I go, here are three Canadians that invented something that changed the world.
1) Basketball was invented by a Canadian. James Naismith.
2) The zipper was invented by Gideon Sunbeck.
3) Telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell.
To all my Canadian friends, happy Canada Day!
