While many businesses are just getting comfortable with Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Youtube they now have to contend with the new kid on the block and that kid, or toddler if you will, is Pinterest.
What Is Pinterest?
While some may call it “Picture Twitter”, “Digital Scrapbook”, or “Browser Bookmark Bar” the easy elevator pitch response is “a virtual pinboard”.
If you need a little more detail, here’s the ‘About Us’ straight from Pinterest themselves:
“Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”
How Are People Using Pinterest?
While the ‘About Us’ page provides examples of uses such as home decorating ideas, wedding planning and saving recipes, the different uses for Pinterest is growing daily. For example, I use to collect info graphics on the digital marketing industry https://pinterest.com/paynesbrain/infographics/ from industry though leaders and I also have a board of creative uses of advertising https://pinterest.com/paynesbrain/advertising/ If you are an existing Pinterest user, I would like to hear how you use on my Facebook Page.
Do I need to be on Pinterest?
It’s a question that’s certainly sprung from the tongues of many business owners large and small over the last 3-4 months as Pinterest continues to gather steam amongst social media circles. With it’s traffic increasing a whopping 329 percent from September to December 2011, it’s certainly worth the discussion with your agency or at your next marketing team meeting.
Why You and Your Business Should be on Pinterest?
The easiest answer: Pinterest is hotter than Gisele Bunchen right now (sorry Tom but it’s true). If you need some evidence or backup to defend the investment, how about the following:
- Unique visits increased by 55% from November (4,855,000 visits) to December (7,516,000). In the month of January, Pinterest had more than 11 million unique visits, which has made it the fastest website to cross the 10 million mark (yes, even faster the Facebook).
- Pinterest raised $37 million in funding last year and has an unconfirmed valuation of up to $200 million. This will only get bigger with time.
- According to comScore, the average Pinterest user spend 98 minutes per month on the site (this will only get higher), compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr, and 7 hours on Facebook.
- Pinterest will soon be releasing an API. This only means that we have yet to see the untapped opportunities for brands to reach their potential on Pinterest.
- Did I mention that it’s hotter than Gisele Bunchen? If something is that hot, you might want to pay attention.
Still not sure if you should invest? Check out this infographic from Monetate.
Monetate Marketing Infographics
Sign Up, Get Familiar, And Innovate
Like many tools that enter the online ecosystem, my personal advice is to signup for a personal account and begin following your friends, industry peers and the brands you like to get an idea of how other people are using it on a personal and business basis. Pinterest (like all social media) can become quite addictive so proceed with caution as you begin to pin.
Not sure where to start? Start by following me https://pinterest.com/paynesbrain/ where you will find many infographics and pins on seo, mobile marketing, and some advertising pins which have piqued my interest.
If you find any unique examples of individuals or business using Pinterest, I look forward to hearing from you.
BTW, if you don’t want your co-workers of family members know about that sexy pair of leopard print thongs you pinned to appear on Facebook and Twitter, I would suggest you take the following steps:
- Click your username at the top-right toolbar
- Then click Edit Profile. Next, you can add/remove Pinterest to your Facebook Timeline by clicking the slider.
- ON will add your pins to your Facebook Timeline. OFF will remove Pinterest from your Facebook Timeline.
- Click Save Profile at the bottom of the page when you’re finished.
