What is Pinterest?

 

What is Pinterest? Pinterest is one of the visual social media platforms online and is also considered a search engine in its own right. It’s mostly a virtual dream board where people can share and save ideas. You can find everything from recipes to project renovations and the perfect outfit for a special event.

Each idea is represented by a “pin” made of an image, a description, and a link back to the source of the image online. When someone clicks a PIN’s URL, they can learn more about and act on the idea.

Pins come from all over the web and are brought to people by a mix of personal and business accounts. People can Pin anything they want from any website they visit using browser extensions and the “Save” button.

Pins are saved to boards, which can be created and organized on a user’s profile; however, they wish to set them up. Once someone adds a Pin, others will see the Pin in the home feed and search results. Businesses create Pins to build brand awareness, highlight their products and services, and increase sales.

This is the first three-part series on Pinterest, making it work for your business. So, with the basics of how it works, let’s look at some statistics that show why your business needs to be actively pursuing Pinterest as part of your social media marketing strategy.

Isn’t Pinterest Just for Recipes and Crafts?

Pinterest may have started as a hub for recipes and crafts, but it has significantly evolved. Home improvement brands like Lowe’s and Home Depot use the platform to highlight home renovation and landscaping projects. Fashion brands highlight their clothes, shoes, and accessories. Even marketing agencies and those without tangible projects benefit from the network because they can pin helpful articles with beautiful graphics.

Pinterest has over 150 million monthly active users, and 80 million are outside the United States. Two million users are saving shopping Pins on their boards every day. In addition, 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of the network, and 93% of Pinners have used the site to plan a purchase.

Most active pinners are under age 40, though the network has older users. While the system used to feature primarily women, male users have grown 120% in the past year and account for 40% of all new sign-ups.

What if I’m Not Marketing Products?

Its correct products do well on Pinterest, but you can still use them. It’s a great place to promote your website content. More than 5% of all referral traffic to sites comes from Pinterest. It’s a massive traffic driver, and though 5% doesn’t seem all that impressive when you consider the volume of traffic on the web daily, that’s a considerable amount. Pinterest is only second to Facebook, which accounts for 25% of all referral traffic. To put it in perspective, Twitter, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Google+ all have less than one percent of the market.

Many brands aren’t in any e-commerce space, still making Pinterest work for them. In this article from the Search Engine Journal, you’ll see how brands use Pinterest to bring foot traffic into their stores, engage with their audience, show off their talent, and communicate their brand.

Why Does Pinterest Matter to SEO?

Pinterest offers a lot for SEO if you know what you’re doing and understand how it works. By properly optimizing your account – including description, boards, and Pin descriptions- you have a better chance of showing up on the search engine results pages. Though the links from Pins to your website are not followed, they still put your links in front of people to drive traffic. The more traffic you get, the better off you are since Google and other search engines will see your content as a source of quality information that meets users’ needs.

When someone comes to your site from Pinterest, they may join your email list, purchase your products or services, or inquire about how to work with you. Ultimately, Pinterest can support your off-page SEO efforts as much as Facebook can. We’ll get more into how that works in the final part of our series.

Pinterest is a Marketing Power

In the final two pieces of our series on Pinterest, we’ll dig much deeper into how to make it work for your business. Our second piece covers how to set up your account correctly so that you’re in the best possible position to use it for marketing and SEO purposes. Our final part in the series covers Pinterest and SEO, along with tips to get the most from your account.

Are you interested to see how Pinterest can work for your business? Pinterest marketing options are vast and give you lots of room for creativity. If you want help with your next campaign, get in touch today! Or book a meeting directly with our CEO Garry Grant; click the following link to Schedule a call with Garry.