With a user base that’s 80% female and skewing heavily towards the 25-55-year-old demographic age segment, Pinterest is the perfect social network for promoting medical products like cheap diabetes supplies.
The challenge for retailers and manufacturers in this category is crafting an engaging Pinterest presence that offers users something that’s more personal than traditional advertising, but still an effective marketing tool.
Many medical suppliers are finding that the inherently personal connection between their products and the customers whose lives depend on them is an ideal situation for building a successful social media campaign.
But building a presence on Pinterest is not something any retailer wants to walk into blindly. Here are a few examples of what medical supply companies should, and should not, be doing on Pinterest.
Offering Advice & Value – Diabetes Supplies and Awareness
For a really good example of how a medical supplier can create a meaningful Pinterest presence, check out Diabetes Supplies and Awareness. This board features a round-up of pins that focus on cheap diabetes supplies and links to diabetes blogs. What makes this board so effective is that it’s run by e-firstaidsupplies.com and many of the pins link directly to their products.
If you’re thinking that this is sneaky ploy, think again. Remember, Pinterest is one of the few social networks that effectively mix retail and personal uses. According to a recent survey, a full 70% of Pinterest visitors use the site as a, “Shopping Enhancement.” That means they’re out there looking for new goods and services that they can purchase later on down the line.
Diabetes Supplies and awareness provides meaningful medical supply content in exactly the format that Pinterest users love.
MEDS 4 URX – Content without Value
Pinterest users are looking for value, not a hard a sell. That’s why Pinterest boards like the one posted by MEDS 4 URX. Unlike the other example we’ve seen, MEDS 4 URX offers a shrill sales pitch with almost no meaningful content.
Almost every pin on the MEDS 4 URX board links directly to a product landing page and not an actual article. Worse yet, titles like “Thanks for Help Me,” and “No Words for You,” barely make sense and offer nothing of value.
Why would anyone take medical advice, or buy medical supplies from, a site like this? Businesses that treat social media like an SEO campaign from the year 2000 are setting themselves up for failure. No one wants social media interaction with companies who do business like this.
Conclusion
Social media users are looking for meaningful interactions and just aren’t interested in interacting with companies that don’t provide useful content. In short, medical supply businesses can’t just put their social media strategy on autopilot and just hope that things work out.
Customers spend a lot of their free time on social media and don’t suffer fools gladly in what they consider to be their private space. Anyone who thinks that the bad taste left behind from shoddy social media doesn’t carry over to the point-of-purchase is in for an unpleasant surprise.
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