Pinterest as a Marketing Tool

Why You Should Use Pinterest to Market Your Business Due to the sheer number of social media sites available, most business owners focus their time and attention on one or two. When considering which sites to use to promote and market your business, don't overlook Pinterest's visually compelling Pins and Boards. There are several notable ways in which Pinterest differs from other social networking platforms. While you can "follow" other users and they can "follow" you, this is not a social network. Rather than that, it's about providing rapid access to compelling visual imagery and instructive Pins on virtually any subject. These Pins can then be saved to a user's own boards for easy access in the future. Any user can view another user's Pins by searching for the category or term associated with the Pin. While each Pin may have some text or even a URL, the purpose is not to convey the "here's where I am or what I'm doing" information seen on the majority of social networking networks. Rather than that, a pertinent comment on the message and what it represents is acceptable. Most crucially, unlike Facebook and Twitter, where your updates are rarely visible for longer than five days (or a few hours), Pins can be visible in search results eternally. Still Not Convinced? Consider the Following Statistics. If you're tempted to continue with the major players, such as Facebook and Twitter, hold off on dismissing Pinterest until you examine the facts. To begin, let's discuss the sheer number of your potential audience. Pinterest has a mind-boggling 150 million active users. Yes, you read that correctly. 70 million of those are in the United States, while 80 million live elsewhere. As could be predicted, Pinterest activity is enormous. There are about 75 billion Pins on over a billion public and private user boards. Each day, almost 2 billion shopping pins are shared. 87 percent of users make purchases as a result of viewing products or services on Pinterest, and 93 percent use it with the primary objective of making a purchase (online or offline), making Pinterest a no-brainer platform for companies looking to offer goods and services to a shopping-oriented audience. And 72% of users make offline purchases based on Pinterest content. As a result, it is not solely a goldmine for internet enterprises. The average Pinterest user session lasts slightly more than 14 minutes, which is rather amazing when compared to the majority of other social media networks. Every day, 14 million rich pin articles are published, and Pinterest accounts for an astounding 5% of all web traffic. Because 80 percent of Pinterest users visit the site via a mobile device, mobile marketing and mobile-friendly content are critical here, and because two out of every three pins are shared by businesses or brands, you're up against some stiff competition. Oh, and if you're in the culinary specialty, you're in luck: Pinterest has almost 1.7 billion recipes.