Pinterest and The Big Game With Raman Sehgal

In case you haven’t noticed, Pinterest is changing fast, having added features like promoted pins and the smart feed over the past few months. So, who better than VP of marketing at Ahalogy, Raman Sehgal, to give us the lowdown on all these changes and get us up to speed?

Ahalogy is a brand-marketing tool that helps companies curate popular content on the Pinterest platform.

Joining Ahalogy almost two years ago – he was one of the first 10 employees at Ahalogy –Raman has been a rising star in digital marketing and social media for quite a while now. Prior to working at Ahalogy, Raman was a digital marketing and media strategist at Proctor and Gamble, and then moved on to Dannon, where he was brand media manager.

Raman came to the show on the week of the ‘Big Game’ – you know, the intensely popular football game that rhythms with ‘Pooper Coal’ – but his experience and insider knowledge extends far beyond a single big event. Raman explains that Pinterest is both social media platform and search tool, though it differs from Facebook and Google in very unique ways – he describes Pinterest as a discovery engine.

Raman further provides insights into the value of promoted pins, driving traffic to a Pinterest board or profile, how men are signing up to Pinterest at a larger rate than women, and brands balancing their marketing plan with showing a bit of personality.

Whether you’re a marketer, a brand executive, or a content creator, Raman Sehgal is sure to illuminate for you the power and potential of Pinterest.

Here is a list of questions we discussed:

1. How did you become VP of marketing at Ahalogy? (1:26)
2. What exactly is Ahalogy how does it fit in with Pinterest? (3:49)
3. What did you love about Pinterest when you first got started? (5:09)
4. How important to small businesses will be promoted pins? (7:50)
5. What do you say to people who feel promoted pins will make Pinterest more like Facebook? (9:24)
6. Do you have any tips for small businesses to optimize a promoted pin? (10:29)
7. Is the trend of people going straight to Pinterest for content, instead of places like Google, on the rise? (13:16)
8. How are Pinterest end-users thinking about repins? (14:40)
9. What is the best way to drive traffic to your Pinterest Page? Should you pin more stuff on your page? Or should you optimize your page by keywords?
10. How can small businesses capitalize on events like the ‘big game’ on Pinterest?  (18:25)
11. Do you think it’s good for businesses on Pinterest to balance their brand marketing with a more personal look into what the brand is about? (21:52)
12. Do think the trend of men signing up for Pinterest more than women will continue, level off, or decline in the future? (24:16)
13. Do you have any facts specific to the ‘big game’ that you can share? (25:22)
14. How do you avoid looking ‘spammy’ when you are using data to your advantage? (27:23)
15. Since Pinterest is moving toward being a discovery engine, how can we make our pins more ‘discoverable’? (29:16)
16. What are some mistakes you made when you first started using Pinterest? (32:30)
17. What advice do you have for guys just starting out on Pinterest? (34:29)

Thanks For Watching And Listening!

I really appreciate you joining me for this week’s episode.  Have questions or comments?  Leave a message in the comment section below!

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If you’d like to learn more about a certain topic or have something you’d like me to talk about during the show, feel free to contact me.

Thanks to Raman for being such a great guest.  See you for the next episode where we’ll be adding testosterone, one pin at a time!