Over the years, social media sites are growing tremendously. These days people from different walks of life are in one or more social media sites. Facebook might be the number one social media site, but there are other powerful social media sites as well. Social media sites are not just for personal networking, but also have business use. These days businesses in different niches are exploiting social media sites to maximize their sales as well as draw customers to their products and services.
Pinterest: What is this about?
Those who are not using Pinterest are the people who do not see any benefits in using Pinterest. They do not see the benefits because they know nothing about the demography in Pinterest. Here are some Pinterest stats, which might open the eyes of the people working in the field of digital marketing or online business.
The statistics presented here are from Pinterest as well as from social media experts and internet marketing companies.
- Pinterest is a pin board style social media founded in 2010.
- Pinterest has over 150 million active monthly users. Among these active monthly users, 70 millions are based in the United States.
- Just about 67 percent users are millennials.
- The average time spent on each session by a user is 14.2 minutes.
- The average yearly income of 18 percent Pinterest users is $75,000 or more.
- About 93 percent active Pinterest users say that are using Pinterest to make plans for buying something, of which 87 percents are actual buyers.
- For each pins, there is about 6 visits to the actual website.
The aforementioned statistics are just a few examples that show how powerful Pinterest is. You can see, how Pinterest has grown since its inception in 2010. With a simple Google search, you can find numerous statistics related to Pinterest that might overwhelm you.
How to Use Pinterest In Digital Marketing
Now that you have learned what is Pinterest, how Pinterest helps individuals, professionals, businesses and websites, and how Pinterest helps in online marketing, you will have to understand how to use Pinterest for marketing and promotion.
Here I am going to share some proven techniques to get best of Pinterest in the digital marketing Industry. When you follow these steps, you will improve online presence of your business, and also reap the benefits of Pinterest
- Create Eye Catching Graphics
The success of your pins lies in the fact that your images must be eye catching. Pinterest is all about pinning memorable and stunning pictures and graphics. If the images and graphics you pin are not good, your Pin will never get visibility. Therefore, when you are developing contents, you should always create stunning pictures and graphics. You should also have 2-3 images in your written content.
Only the pins with made for Pinterest images will succeed. In order to create stunning images and graphics you can use photo editing and manipulation programs. One of the best programs for editing pictures and creating graphics is Photoshop. If you don’t know how to use photoshop, you can use online photo editor such as BeFunky, PicMonkey or Canva. These online photo editors are free to use and you can create amazing graphics with few clicks. The ideal image size on Pinterest is 800 by 1200 pixels.
If you are not using your own photos to create graphics, you should always buy photos or use royalty free images. You can get free photos on various sites and my favorite is pixabay. You can also buy photos on iStock.
- Create Local Boards
We have already mentioned that Pinterest offers a wonderful opportunity to establish yourself as a local expert. In order to establish yourself as a local expert, you need to create boards that reflect local sentiments. Your boards on Pinterest should not only contain your greatest and latest listing, but also give enough space to the locals. Your local boards should provide contents for people interested in your communities.
- Join Group Boards
One of the best ways to make the most from Pinterest for digital marketers, business owners and online entrepreneurs is by joining group boards. You can find many powerful group boards in real estate niche on Pinterest.
One of the advantages of joining group boards is the extension of your pin reach. When you are on group boards, your pin will reach many people. For example, if the group board has 10 K followers, your pin will reach 10 k people
I have 2300 plus followers on Pinterest. I have joined more than 15 group boards on real estate niche. When I pin, my content will reach my followers as well as the followers of group boards. Your reach will also extend if you have more pins.
- Follow Successful Real Estate Professionals
Whether you are improving your presence on Pinterest or building your portfolio on some other social media network, it is advisable to follow the successful individuals. For an online entrepreneur or digital marketer, one of the best Pinterest practices is to look upon the professionals who are very successful on Pinterest.
Once you find these successful professionals on Pinterest, you can assess how they are working, what kind of boards that have, what kind of things they pin, how many repins they have, how many visits their pins have delivered etc. You may even send an email ask them how they are doing. In most cases, they might be more than happy to answer you.
There is a popular saying, “If you cannot beat them, join them.’” Keep this in mind when you are building your portfolio on Pinterest or other social media.
- Super Sharer: A Big No
Most of the time, digital marketer, online entrepreneur and other professionals do not succeed on Pinterest. That’s because they are Super sharer. You might be wondering what super sharer is? Super sharer is a term used for individuals who publish a new content and then posts the link on various social media sites in one go and then eventually forgets about the content.
Whether you are using Pinterest or any other social media sites to market your content, you should never be a super sharer. You should never pin numerous contents in one go, instead, you should pin one or two contents on day one and come back to your account on day two to pin few more contents. If you are pinning in one go, your pin will be never seen by your followers.
Here is a great Pinterest tip for marketers and professionals. Pin your content on various boards but do not pin at once, instead pin the content on different boards with the gap of 5-7 days. This will extend the life of your pin, thus improving the visibility. Here is what I did when I publish an article, I’ll pin the image from my content on few boards instantly. Over the days, I will pin images from the same content to other boards. When I am pinning, I space the pins by few hours. This improves the chances of discovery.
Using Pinterest For Marketing and Business Promotion
As an online marketer, online entrepreneur, or a website owner, you might be aware about your competitors using social media and how they are maximizing their sales through social media marketing. For marketers and entrepreneurs, there are various marketing platforms to choose from. Therefore, it is good to spread the wings and exploit every marketing platform available.
Marketers and Online entrepreneurs have presence on facebook and twitter. This is good. However, some marketers and business owners are still undermining Pinterest since a long time. That’s because people generally believe that Pinterest is not a social media network and Pinterest does not help businesses generate sales. Most of the entrepreneurs and marketers consider Pinterest as a huge waste of time. This is a false assumption.
How Pinterest Can Help Businesses and Marketers
If you think you will get tons of buyers and sales leads by using Pinterest, you are wrong. However, Pinterest is still useful in generating sales.
- Boost Online Presence
The major benefit of Pinterest is improving online visibility. Pinterest is a discovery platform where buyers meet the sellers.
One of the common ways to find seller is by asking for recommendations from family members, colleagues, and friends. While making a search for things to buy, people tend to start by asking people in their close circle. They will always trust the seller or product that has been recommended by people they trust.
Times have changed. These days, people no longer find information through word of mouth or phone calls. The Internet has now become the ultimate source of information. People search the internet looking for products to buy. Instead of asking for referrals from the people, they check the online store.
If you are selling online, you might already have a website, still your website may not be found by the potential buyers. By using Pinterest, you can make your website visible to the prospective buyers. If you pin your products on Pinterest, the Pinterest users will easily find your website.
Being active on Pinterest does not guarantee that people will instantly buy from you, however, it may help the potential buyers to understand your industry. This also ensures that you have an online presence..
- Drive Traffic To the Company Website
It is surprising that many online entrepreneurs do not have a website, since they are selling from third party site they think that they do not need a website. However, for those who have a business website, having a Pinterest account is must. It is no arguing that Pinterest helps to drive massive traffic your website.
The traffic to your company website is must. Traffic suggests that your services are being checked by the potential buyers. High traffic means, high number of potential buyers are visiting your website. If they like you what you have shared, the Pinterest users will repin your posts. This increases the visibility of your website. Having better visibility means, your traffic is increasing. More repins you get, better will be your rank on the search engine result pages. When your pins get likes and repins, you will gain social signals. Social signals boost search engine ranking.
- Establish you locally
Pinterest provides a platform for the businesses to showcase their projects to the local communities. Pinterest helps the entreprenuers to establish their expertise in the industry.
- Pins Are Evergreen
When you pin a photograph, it will always stay on the Pinterest site. Your Facebook and Twitter posts get buried under the feed. If you want to find someone’s post you have to dig deep. However, pins can be found easily as they are always in their places. Therefore, pins are referred as evergreen contents. That’s why it is easier for users to discover pins, repin, and visit the pin.
Pins are evergreen, therefore, when you show your presence on Pinterest, your website and webpage will have an advantage.