What is Pinterest and how can I use it to benefit my business? Pinterest is a
pinboard-style social photo sharing website created to allow members to create and manage image pinboards based on their various themes and interests such as movies, clothes, hobbies etc. Users can browse each other’s pinboards, ‘re-pin’ images to their own boards and ‘like’ photos on other users boards.

The growth of Pinterest has been phenomenal, after its launch in 2010 it was the fastest site to hit the 10 million unique visitor mark taking only 22 months. Pinterest has recently won the 2012 Webby award for best social media app for their iPhone and iPad apps and are rumored to be about to launch an Android version in the coming days.

Pinterest can work in several different ways depending on the nature of your business but the four main benefits are: Driving Traffic, Creating Warm Leads, Building Links and Increasing Social Sharing.

Due to the visual nature of Pinterest eye-catching images that include website links refer huge volumes of traffic to websites and blogs. In October, the website of Time Inc.’s real Simple magazine got more traffic from Pinterest than Facebook.

Leads from Pinterest tend to be more profitable for companies than Amazon Google and Facebook with an average purchase value of $80 compared to Facebook’s $40.

Links created through visitors using the “pin it” button on any of your pages allow new pinners to discover your site and share your content on their own boards. You can also include links in the descriptions of each pin that improve your SEO.

Pinterest is connected to both Twitter and Facebook allowing pinners to share their pins, boards and interests across multiple pages. Officially Pinterest is not connected to Facebook Brand Pages but through using the Pinterest Tab app by Woolbox on Facebook you can share your business pins on your brand page.

The demographics of Pinterest users are interesting as they vary from country to country but in the USA the most active users are Females accounting for 80% with the majority of these being in the 25-54 age group with a household income of between $25000 and $75000.

Pinterest is all about indirect marketing. Build boards that spark people’s interest and indirectly market your company. If your products are well suited to Pinterest like clothes, animation, DIY or furniture then you can build very engaging boards around themes such as “my favorite spring outfit” or “our new kitchen”. However more functional service providing companies can also create infographics, pin employee activities, create review boards of movies/books/plays and create boards around related interest topics to demonstrate the personality of your brand. With companies like Shopinterest in the pipeline which intend to turn Pinterest into a storefront it is important for every business to create and run their own Pinterest campaign.

To Learn More about Pinterest download the free How to use Pinterest for Business eBook from Hubspot.

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