Have you heard about Pinterest? Did you know that Pinterest is now the number three most popular social network in the US? With a strong growth and presence – not only in the US but also worldwide – we simply can’t ignore the fact that Pinterest is here to stay – and keep making a strong impact for small business. So, are you ready to learn more about Pinterest? Well, just read on 🙂
We all know that small business owners seem to be reluctant in adoption social media for their businesses’ benefits, but hey – we are gradually embracing social media at least for one major reason: We are realizing that social media is the whereabouts of our customers and prospects.
Now, in getting our business found on social media, we need to know which social networks we should focus our effort on. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter seem to be strong candidates – as always, but what about alternatives?
Google+ is pretty cool, especially for your local Internet marketing efforts, but you must not forget one more social network, especially if your target market are women: Pinterest.
What is Pinterest, anyway?
If you have never heard of Pinterest, today is the right time to learn more about it! Doing so will bring your small businesses ahead of the competition, as 71 percent of small businesses have never used Pinterest.
Here’s how I explain about Pinterest: It is a social site in which you can share your photos by ‘pinning’ them – just like a pinboard! You can collect not only your ‘pins’ but others too in a ‘board’ (a collection of photos); you can create as many boards as you want, about anything you want.
Well, if the above doesn’t help much, just go to Pinterest for some basics.
Okay, since you are now having an idea or two on how Pinterest works, let’s fast-forward to a few steps ahead: While pinning will become easier as you use Pinterest often, today you need to know whether Pinterest is for your small business.
Before you decide on anything, you need to know some facts about Pinterest, as well as some tips on how to use it for the benefit of your business. There are many resources available on the web today – mostly free; Of all resources, I would like to recommend you guides in the form of infographics. Why? Because they are visual and compact, which means you can quickly learn about something.
Well, today is your lucky day as I have compiled some quality infographics that I personally hand-picked to recommend to you. Please note, all of the infographics I recommend you below are all hosted on Visual.ly – my go-to place for learning about everything.
So, without further adieu, here are 10 of many infographics which I think will help you a great deal in making sense of Pinterest.
1. Learn how user interacts on Pinterest
Before you jump into the Pinterest bandwagon, you need to know how users interact with each other inside. Well, this infographic can give you the big picture: 80 percent of users are women, and many of them are ready to buy from you, if you interact right with your pins.
2. An Inbound Marketer’s guide to Pinterest
In just 2 years time, Pinterest has taken over the online world by storm. The big question: Is it delivers? Well, we do know that brands use Pinterest to showcase their products, but what about web traffic; is it really sending traffic to business websites?
From this infographic, we can learn the the answer to the above is YES – Pinterest DOES delivers traffic! It ranks fourth behind Google organic search, direct visit (e.g. people type in your web address on their browser,) and Facebook. Yes, Pinterest is above Yahoo!, Bing and Twitter!
3. Pinterest is growing in popularity – quickly!
This infographic is pretty much chiming on what’s mentioned in the above infographic. However, what interests me – and I would like to point them out to you to check out – is this: Pinterest’s growth is phenomenal – even faster than Facebook.
You might also want to check out the demographic of Pinterest: Most users are within then 25-34 years old age group, and as I mentioned in the first infographic, 80 percent of them are women.
4. Pinterest’s user base
This short and simple infographic is showing you something I’ve never see in other Pinterest infographics: User counts in a particular region. As predicted, US is a country which residents are heavy users of Pinterest with more than 11 million users, followed by India with more than 2 million users.
5. Pinterest’s strong purchasing power
Okay, by this time, we are aware that Pinterest is a buyer’s social network. People on Pinterest are ready to buy from you.
Check these stats out: Call-to-action pins increase engagement by 80 percent; Shoppers sent to a shopping site via a pin are 10 percent more likely to buy; not only that, shoppers referred via pins spend 10 percent more than those coming from other sites!
6. Small business owners’ guide to using Pinterest
In social media posting, timing is very important; reaching the right audience at the right time will make a strong impact on your social media ROI. This infographic shares some important information, including: The right time to publish a pin… the right use of images… and some practical tips on how to make things work for your business.
7. Building the perfect marketing pin for Pinterest
So, let’s dig deeper into pin optimization: This infographic can give you some great tips on how to pin a photo and add the right kind of text to it, in such a way that your pin will generate as much repins and shares as possible.
Kudos, Andrew MacCarthy, for the great pointers!
8. How Pinterest Can Help Your Business
Okay – by now, you must have enough information to start pinning more effectively than 80 percent of Pinterest users! Now you need a strategy to optimize buzz generated via your pins. This infographic can give you just that: Some maths to explain the viral-factor of pins, as well as some tips on how to make your pins more interesting – and more viral.
9. Holiday promotions using Pinterest
It’s spring break time! And Summer time is approaching quickly. While many dwell to the beach parties, small businesses need to smarten up in their promotions. Want an effective tool for that? It’s Pinterest.
The infographic is packed with essential need-to-know information on how women are using Pinterest for holiday shopping ideas, and how pins help them in their purchase decisions. There are also 3 valuable tips on how your small business can devise holiday marketing strategy for Pinterest.
10. Pinterest best practices
To conclude what we are learning so far, here are 10 Pinterest best practices to help you devise and optimize your social media marketing plan (I personally need to dig deeper about #2 – Set Goals…)
Want more? Check out my Pinterest board
Can’t get enough of Pinterest infographics? you can find more infographics on this board of mine:
…and also a list of Pinterest resources you should visit
These resources might cater your specific purposes of using Pinterest for your small business…
Takeaway
So, congratulations! Whether you realize it or not, you have learned the basics of Pinterest… and believe it or not, you are now more Pinterest-savvy than 80 percent – even 90 percent – of small business owners.
Knowledge without action is useless – so I urge you to practice what you have learned today.
Good luck in your pinning endeavors!
