This new site is an elegant easy-to-use way to power social shopping. Businesses are using this new social photo website to promote their products and services, build a community, bring web traffic and drive sales. For now membership to the site is available to only by invitation. Businesses can request an invitation at www.Pinterest.com.
With its traffic in the U.S. skyrocketing Pinterest, the new online scrapbook site, is now one of the top 10 social networking and forum sites. According to comScore, the website had over 11 million unique visitors in December, 2011. Time magazine included Pinterest in its "50 Best Websites of 2011" column. On Pinterest, users create online scrapbooks consisting of images and videos to share projects and coveted products. The images placed on a user's page or board, produce an inspiration or collection of ideas. Pinterest is very popular with women, especially those in their twenties and thirties.
This new site is an elegant easy-to-use way to power social shopping. Businesses are using this new social photo website to promote their products and services, build a community, bring web traffic and drive sales. For now membership to the site is available to only by invitation. Businesses can request an invitation at www.Pinterest.com.
Pinterest Traffic is Strong
According to statistics provide by Shareaholic, a social sharing tools firm, Pinterest is driving almost as much referral traffic as Google and Twitter. In fact, Pinterest is driving more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+, or Reddit at this time. It's one of the most popular social media portals for consumers to visit before they go to a retailer's website.
Hitwise, a tracking firm, stated Pinterest is one of the Web's top 10 social networks. People who visited the site in January, 2012 spent close to 100 minutes at the site, compared to 19 minutes on the professional social networking site LinkedIn.
It’s Easy and Fun to Create Boards
At Pinterest, companies have the opportunity to grab a visitor's attention with images instead of words. The website and apps allow businesses to create image boards showcasing products and/or services. Businesses can upload an image or link to a board, pin links to videos they have at YouTube as well as add images related to the products or services they provide. Many companies are creating unique and interesting photo galleries just for use on Pinterest.
The most important thing on Pinterest is the pin. A pin is simply an image. Once an image is pinned it can be repined by other Pinterest users. Repining is how content spreads virally on this new social platform. Users can even follow other user's boards and repin, comment or place a “like” on a pin. Companies can add a “Pin It” button to their product pages to lets users know they can pin items they find in their online store onto their own Pinterest board.
Businesses shouldn't just place images of items they sell; the interaction on this hot new site about sharing the lifestyle associated with the brand. Pinterest wants businesses to engage in their community. Using pins from other sites on your own company's boards show followers that you are not just using Pinterest to promote your own merchandise and/or service; you are promoting a lifestyle which builds trust and gains more followers.
Companies can also use Pinterest's price display feature. When a Pinterest user pin an item on a board for their followers to see, the image of that item automatically includes the item's title and a banner showing the price.
Pinterest is Driving Targeted Traffic That Is Buying Merchandise
Traffic to a company's website coming form Pinterest has been highly targeted from the onset and is more likely to produce a purchase. Many businesses have found the traffic more targeted than Facebook or Twitter. Typically traffic from a person's Facebook and Twitter pages consist of people who are interested in that particular person, what she did last night what she had for dinner and whether or not she is in a relationship but traffic from that same person's Favorite Dress board at Pinterest consists of people who are interested in dresses. For example, a user finds a fabulous dress on a retailer's board, using the “Pin It” bookmark in her web browser, provided by Pinterest, she pins the dress to her Favorite Dress board. This visual pin also serves as a direct link to the product page where other consumers can purchase the same dress from the originator’s online store.
Google Analytics Tie-in
Google Analytics keep tracks of all pins on an individual basis. The information lets businesses keep track of popular items being shared by users and conversions which may result from the pin. Business can see every pin which has been pinned from their domain. This information helps a marketing team to identify sales and viewing trends on the most pinned items.
Some Ways You Can Use Pinterest
You may want to consider creating a contest on Pinterest where customers create boards and pin their favorite merchandise from your online store. The additional sales and brand awareness that is generated can easily outweigh the cost of providing a prize to the winner of the contest.
Companies are also using their Facebook pages to advertise their Pinterest boards. You can also encourage your Facebook and Twitter followers to pin your products on their Facebook and Twitter page. Innovative companies are also sending emails inviting people to see what they're doing at Pinterest or have recently pinned.
Pinterest provides a new way for companies to build a valuable connection between their ecommerce platforms and consumers that are collecting and sharing content. It's a great tool for small, medium and large businesses.
Should You Consider Using the New Google Offers?
To understand if Google Offers is right for your business, compare it to the other locally optimized “deal” sites out there, like Groupon, Daily Deals. These sites have gained millions of followers – but are they actually good for the businesses that advertise on them? Google Offers could aid your small business if you have the product or service to support a multi-part promotion.
Be Careful How What You Say About Your Product Features and Benefits - Don’t Get Caught by the Feds
Overselling your products or over-marketing features and benefits can not only hurt your business, but can land you in trouble with the Fed's. Find out what to do and what you should steer clear of when it comes to marketing your products features and benefits.
Four Great Tactics to Make Social Media Work for You
Social media pages form one of the foundations of inbound marketing -- they're where you can post your valuable content, using a call-to-action to drive visitors to your landing page, where they may become qualified leads. Find out four great tips to put social media to work for your business.
