Pinterest has to be one of my favourite Social Media platforms – and I’m not alone!
With 79.3 million users, 50 billion pins and 1 billion boards it is host to an enormous amount of content. But many of us don’t understand how Pinterest can support our business. Traditionally, it has been seen as a place to store our favourite recipes, wedding ideas or decorating inspiration. So, how can it help us to promote what we write, sell or do? Over the next three weeks I will be introducing you to Pinterest, explaining how it works and then how you can optimise it for your business reach.
So here are a few more stats to try and convince you that it is worth signing up for…
- 86% of users are women, but…
- 30% of new signups are men
- 67% of content pinned on Pinterest is from a business website
- 96% of pinners have used Pinterest to research and gather information
- 80% of pins are repins
- 72% of brands use ‘pin it’ button on their product pages
- 47% of US online shoppers bought something as a result of a Pinterest recommendation
- Pinterest brings an average of 300% more referral traffic to your site than Facebook.
That last stat alone is worth reading on for, surely?!
So, what *is* Pinterest?
Pinterest is an online pin board, which allows you to pin from anywhere on the internet to your own curated boards.
Imagine your scrapbook as a child. You cut out pictures or news articles or interviews from all of your favourite magazines and stuck them in. It is exactly like that, except it is online. Each page of your scrapbook might have been devoted to a favourite band or artist, and again, this is exactly how you can manage your online pinterest account.
Pinterest allows you to pin from your own website, or from others. You can pin directly from pinterest or from anywhere else on the internet.
What is a pin?
A ‘pin’ is an image or video that you add to Pinterest. You can use the ‘pin it’ button to add images. Most websites have the pin button enabled, so that when you hover over an image on their site a little ‘p’ will appear in the top left corner which if you click on will allow you to pin it on one of your boards.
If the website doesn’t have ‘pin it’ enabled, you can download the facility on your own computer easily. You can install the button here: http://bit.ly/1P3oXVj
The beauty of the pins, wherever they are pinned is that each one will take you back to the original source, allowing people to go straight to where the image or video originated whether that was a website or a blog, or even Twitter.
You add your pins to boards, and you can add a specific pin to more than one board. We recommend this as people tend to follow boards rather than accounts a lot of the time, depending on what is relevant to them.
And what is a board?
A board is where you collect all your pins. Each board has a different title and theme – on our account we have a number of different boards based around different social media channels and so are titled ‘Twitter’, ‘Facebook’, ‘Pinterest’ etc. Each board allows you to tell a story about that subject.
You can keep your board public, or have it secret. You can make a secret board public but not the other way round. You can also invite people to pin on your boards, whether they are public or private, and you can also join other group boards that you can pin to.
You can also give your board a location if needed.
So that’s the basics, but why is it so popular and how can it help you?
Well, unlike other social networks that are faster paced, and more focused on the ‘now’, Pinterest actually gives you more exposure the longer your post (or pin) is out there. You get more visibility over time, and not less. The below infographic gives you an indication of the ‘family tree’ effect of a pin, which hopefully helps you to see the possibilities.