Avid interest in Pinterest is growing by the day, but why?
This blog post aims to cover what Pinterest is and how it can be beneficial to businesses, and which kinds of businesses can benefit the most.
So, what's Pinterest all about?
Well, Pinterest is an online pinboard or mood board, which allows users to categorise photos or images into collections. The images or photos can be 'pinned' from a website or uploaded, and the latest uploads are displayed on the site's homepage in chronological order. Pinterest is similar to Tumblr or Twitter in that users can 'follow' other users. The pins can be commented on and are always linked back to the sites from which they originated.The difference is that Pinterest, unlike Twitter, is purely photo-based. Every pin is a photo or image, and instead of Tumblr, where you can only post one photo at a time, Pinterest 'pins' are selected and sorted by their pinners into categorised boards filled with related items or concepts.[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="700"]
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How can Pinterest benefit your business?
A recent report has shown that Pinterest is growing fast, with traffic increasing by 40 times in the past six months (as of December 22, 2011). It drives more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined, and is growing as quickly as Facebook did back in 2005.Traffic referral is great for businesses as it helps gain exposure to potential new customers and audiences, and because of its high traffic referral percentage this is also great for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).It has also been cited that 58% of it's regular users are female and 59% are between the ages of 25 and 44. This makes Pinterest the ideal digital platform for businesses that tailor to this market. Moreover, users outside of these demographics can still be seen as active users on the site.Companies have recognised the potential Pinterest has to gain exposure to customers and target audiences. Although Pinterest is currently an invite-only website, this has not deterred companies from signing up and contributing their product ideas and inspiration boards for their followers.Before any business can capitalise from Pinterest, it is essential to identify the customer base from which their revenue is being generated.
What kind of companies can benefit from Pinterest?
Any visual-based company can benefit from Pinterest, in particular art galleries, photographers, graphic designers, web designers and product designers.Pinterest can also be beneficial for e-commerce websites offering visually-appealing products online, such as fashion, accessories, food, home décor etc.Alongside pinning their own products and services, companies can also pin relevant links and images that correspond with the business' brand or products. In doing so, this helps the company to be seen to be engaging with their customers interests and likes.In fact, almost any business can find a way to use Pinterest to connect with their current and potential consumer base, by using visual content to link to their services, products and industry-related content.In summary, Pinterest can be a highly-effective marketing tool for reaching both existing and new audiences, and is rapidly becoming the next big thing in social media.
For other ways and ideas to gain exposure for your business, please get in touch.
