Pinterest for Business: What Every Business Professional Should Understand about Pinterest
Kim
Nov 16 2012
Pinterest is the quickest growing independent website in the history of the internet. In addition to tremendous growth, Pinterest is also appealing to businesses for a number of other reasons.
What Makes Pinterest Different:
Pinterest is public – Unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, on Pinterest you can connect with and follow people that you don’t know. Pinterest boards are typically public and are searchable, which means that you can easily find other people who share your interests.
Pinterest content has a longer life – While there is a timely factor to Pinterest content in the newsfeed, content on Pinterest typically has a longer life vs. content on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Since it is shared on boards based on interest, people can come back and see your content vs. searching for it in a single newsfeed.
Pinterest is based on Interests – It isn’t just a clever name 😉 Pinterest allows businesses and people to connect with others based on shared interests. You can search Pinterest for people in your target audience, and see the content that they are interested in sharing.
Pinterest is VISUAL – Pinterest is highly visual, which means that you must have an image strategy for your website. If you don’t have beautiful and appropriate images, people won’t be able to pin content to your site. Re-evaluate your image strategy (we just hosted an images and instagram training program to show you everything – it’s now available online).
Why Pinterest Matters for Business
High Virality Rates – Recent data shows that 80% of content on Pinterest is repins, which means that Pinterest has a high virality rate. This means that initially seeding content on Pinterest could have a huge payout as content that is interesting can travel far.
People LEAVE Pinterest – This is a good thing. People on Pinterest are excited to leave the site by clicking on pins and going to other websites to explore content. Unlike Facebook, where people typically stay on the site for long periods of time (and don’t like to leave), Pinners go to other sites, which means that they can be a huge traffic source for your site. Pinterest refers more traffic to other sites than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined.
Pinners are more likely to BUY – Studies show that traffic from Pinterest is 10% more likely to BUY from you than other social media traffic. This means that if you are looking to sell products on your site, Pinners can be a valuable source of revenue.
Pinners spend more – Studies show that traffic from Pinterest spends an average of 10% more per transaction than traffic from other sites…. They don’t just buy, they also buy more.
Pinterest = Traffic – Pinterest can drive HUGE amounts of traffic to your website if you have highly visual and highly interesting content. Pinterest is the #1 source of traffic to MarthaStewart.com and could be a significant traffic source for your business.
You Need Images on Your Site – In order to take advantage of Pinterest, you need an image strategy for your site. Make sure that any content that you want shared has descriptive images to go along with it. Pinterest is highly visual, and if you don’t have images, people won’t pin your content.