Pinterest is Hot Now, But What Does it Mean for Your Social Media Marketing Plan?
Perhaps, in your spare time at 2 a.m., you have found yourself searching for creative uses for your paperclip collection on Pinterest. Or perhaps you are a busy small business owner who doesn’t have time to bother with learning about unconventional uses for uncooked spaghetti noodles and has never set eyeballs over there. Still, the hype about Pinterest is hot and you are left with the nagging worry that perhaps you are missing something—or worse, that your business is missing out on an Internet marketing opportunity. But how can a virtual corkboard for people looking for interior design, recipe, outfit and children’s craft ideas be useful for you, the small business owner wondering about your next web marketing move? We can help you sort that out…
Is Pinterest a Fad, a Social Media Marketing Opportunity, or What?
Pinterest has only been around since March 2010. It started out as an invitation-only visual social media location where people can set up pin boards where they “pin” pictures from around the web into categories like “travel” or “recipes” or “kids crafts” or “wedding ideas” or “life hacks” etc. It is linked with Facebook and Twitter so when you tweet or like something on Pinterest, the news spreads over there too. 82 percent of American Pinterest users are women (who also make the majority of spending decisions). And the reason it’s become so popular so quickly is that it’s almost completely visual, and it speaks to a very organic need for normal people to get stuff done in their daily lives. It currently has well over 10 million users, with more than 21 million unique visitors stopping by from around the world every month. It’s geared toward the people on the street, in their kitchens and in their gardens, looking for helpful products and creative ideas. It is definitely a social media marketing opportunity for small businesses that cater to those markets!
Pinterest = Show, Don’t Tell: Another Tool in Our Web Marketing Toolbox
There are many small businesses that could take advantage of Pinterest as a web marketing and social media marketing tool. Do you make interesting products for people to use? Would showing them how to use your product or service in a picture format inspire them to want to try it out, or to share it with their friends? Some businesses that do very well gathering new clients on Pinterest include catering companies, a travel-related businesses, wedding planners, florists, bakeries, arts and crafts shops, cafés, organic food markets, furniture shops… the list goes on. Research shows that people are spending more time now on Pinterest than Facebook. They are interacting with shops and developing relationships (which are at the core of Internet marketing) with brands in new and exciting ways there. Pinterest visitors who follow a link back to a particular shop’s website are spending 70 percent more money after clicking those links than people who link to the business from other sites (like Facebook, Twitter etc.) Clearly Pinterest is generating leads and sales for creative small businesses that are involved there. It gives businesses a fun, social Internet marketing opportunity to show potential customers how their products work and why they’re cool—not just tell them about it in words.
But can Pinterest Help me “Get Found” via SEO?
Yes. In spite of its inherently visual nature, Pinterest is also SEO-friendly. This makes it a good idea on two fronts: the social sharing front, where customers and potential customers share your pictures with other people, which garners more followers organically—but also on the search engine front, where people type in the product they’re looking for and come up with a list of links. The key here is that small businesses still need a certified SEO consultant to help with this aspect of social media marketing. That’s because the major search engines are always changing their search algorithms, sometimes without warning, which leaves small businesses cold if they don’t have an expert web marketing company on their side, constantly tweaking the back end to make sure search engines can find you before they find your competition.
Here at Affordable Web Design, we can help your sort out these issues with your current website, or even help you design a fresh, new one that helps your business take advantage of Pinterest and all of the other social media marketing options you have. Contact us today so we can show you how!