Pinterest – Chances are you’ve heard of this visually oriented social network. You may be wondering:
- Why do you need yet another time robber?
- Isn’t Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus enough for now?
- How many hours are in a day anyway? 🙂
Here are a few interesting facts about Pinterest:
- Their launch date was in March 2010.
- There are 70 million Pinterest users according to a Semiocast study done in July 2013. Back in July 2012 that number was only 23 million.
- 80% of them are women.
- There are about 500,000 business Pinterest accounts. If you already have a personal page, you can convert it to a business page.
- The average number of daily pins is 5 million. You read that right – 5 million a DAY!
- Pinterest is now used by 15% of internet users in the United States. Twitter is actually only 1% higher at 16%.
Pinterest is definitely being used by businesses as well as for personal use; and it’s been a game changer in the world of eCommerce. If you haven’t tried it yet, but are interested, here are a few tips:
- Increase sales on your products by pinning images along with a link to your website. You can also post the price which will encourage people to actually click on the link.
- Try to increase your number of followers on a regular basis. The way to do this is to follow prospective customers. Connect your account to Facebook and Twitter which will help you add those friends and followers.
- Make sure you have a quality image and a brief description that use good keywords.
- Use words like “love” and “favorite” to encourage people to click and re-pin your image.
- Add the “Pin It” button and “Follow me on Pinterest” buttons to your website.
- Don’t just pin the products you sell, post interesting articles, tips and tricks, and news from other websites.
- Follow the popular companies on Pinterest. If they follow you back, other users will too.
Pinterest has been working on making its platform more user-friendly for both retailers and shoppers. They now have “product pins” that show users more details about the sale items that shoppers “pin”, such as the product location, its price and whether or not it’s in stock. And an application programming interface (API) is now available as well. An API transfers data between programs and allows sellers to show buyers the most recent items on their sites that were pinned, the most clicked-through pins on their sites and pins from specific search terms.
I’d be interested in hearing if any of you use Pinterest now and what your experience has been; or if you decide to use it in the future. I know this seems like just another item added to your ‘to do’ list; however we’ve seen this make a huge difference in sales for our customers this past year. Other than your time commitment it’s easy and free to get started and can yield a great return on investment.
Feel free to share your experiences with my other readers!