Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, how many more social media sites do we need? Well, add one more site to your checklist. Pinterest is the newest social site where users can share their love for food, style, animals, and décor all through photos.
Users will spend hours upon hours scrolling through photos of new recipes or easy DIY projects for their home. Just like Facebook you can “like” a photo or “pin” it to your pinboard for all of your followers to see. You can organize your pinboards into personal categories such as recipes, fashion or décor. But what makes Pinterest so addicting is that it is photo after photo without having to do any clicking. Unlike Facebook or Twitter you don’t have to go to a personal page to see a photo. Pinterest jumbles all the photos together so you can see thousands of photos with just one click and if you like the photo then you can go to the individual’s pages.
Pinterest is only 3 years old but in the past 6 months the site has grown by over 400%! According to Monetate, Pinterest is now the 5th most trafficked social media site behind Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Yahoo! And it has actually surpassed Google+, which is lagging behind as number 9. Pinterest is becoming yet another outlet for companies to promote their products.
But how can you company benefit from this new site? An article from newIncite laid out 4 ways companies can benefit from Pinterest.
1. Branding Exercises: Have you ever participated in a new product meeting, brainstorming all the possible way to reach your audience? You sit for hours attempting to find the perfect image; well Pinterest can become your virtual meeting where everyone can contribute style and colors that might catch their customers.
2. Market Research: Use Pinterest to see what your audience wants to see. Save money on focus groups and surveys and allow Pinterest to be a better and free way to gain valuable feedback from your consumers.
3. Pin Favorite Designs or Campaigns: Companies can use Pinterest to display their portfolio, favorite campaigns and designs.
4. Event Image Collages: Trade shows are a great way to get your company seen. Put pictures up from your trade shows and organize your bulletin boards for each trade show or conference your company attends.
Inc. magazine posted on their technology page “9 Tips to Boost your Business with Pinterest” and their biggest piece of advice is to make sure that your company is a match. Pinterest is for a company that caters to food, décor and crafts. Inc. mentioned a store in Minneapolis called Creative Kidstuff who uses their Pinterest page to show great toy or books ideas available in their store. They have bulletin boards for different ages, craft ideas or great kid books. According to the article Creative Kidstuff says that since they have started their Pinterest board they have yielded about 150 extra page views.
So don’t think that Pinterest can’t help your business because Pinterest is yet another great cost effective tool to get your company seen on the Internet. Create your Pinterest page today and don’t forget to link your Pinterest page to your website and all your other social media pages!
