Is “word-of-pin” the new “word-of-mouth”?
Many companies resisted creating pages on Facebook when it first became popular, because they assumed it was not applicable to their type of business. Now, If you don’t have a Facebook account for your company, you’re nearly obsolete when it comes to social media. With the quick rise of Pinterest as a social media giant, it may be time for your company to get on board with them as well.
Coming in at number three behind Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest, in a short amount of time, has surpassed LinkedIn and is quickly closing in on Twitter. According to Experian’s Digital Marketer Trend and Benchmark Report, Pinterest is the fastest website ever to hit 10 million visitors. This is what the numbers looked like in February:
- Facebook: 7 billion
- Twitter: 182 million
- Pinterest: 104 million
- LinkedIn: 86 million
As stated by Gayle Falkenthal for Communities at WashingtonTimes.com, “Pinterest is starting to influence purchases. According to BlogHer’s annual study on women and social media, 81 percent of the women surveyed trust Pinterest more than Facebook or Twitter. Perhaps seeing is believing. As a result, nearly half of the women surveyed bought something based on a Pinterest recommendation. Only a third of them bought something based on a Facebook recommendation. Smart brands are getting on board with Pinterest…[it] is growing beyond the shared recipes, wedding dresses and Martha Stewart tips to embrace adventure travel, sports, music and video, and much more. It has created a new and extremely influential consumer market without even trying. A significant number of images have to do with fashion, home and garden, sports and fitness, family and pets – things people spend money on. For women consumers who get the Pinterest picture, Pinterest is searingly on trend and exciting.”
Making your Website Pinterest Worthy
Since Pinterest is simply a collection of pictures, the first step is making sure your website has quality photos that actually have to do with the product or service you are selling. This enables the visitor to “pin” a picture when browsing your website that they want to remember or purchase for later. This is then shown on a central board that all of the user’s followers can see, thereby creating what I like to call “word-of-pin” advertising.
Source: Uploaded by user via Infront on Pinterest
Not only will you start to brand your company within social media, but you will also increase your image search engine ranking with more photos on your website. If you want more traffic, and what company doesn’t, you can optimize these photos with image alt text. Image Alt Text is simply a description of the picture so that search engine spiders will know what it is when crawling and be able to properly categorize them for search results.
Getting “on-board”
Start the process by making a profile for your own company and create boards with pictures that relate to your company in any way. Start following people/companies that you know and you will receive followers in return. This will begin the marketing process within the Pinterest community, directing traffic to your site and perhaps getting leads. Don’t forget to follow Infront while you are at it and we will follow you back!
Allan Todd, Chief Marketing Officer
Digital marketing expert with 22+ years in marketing, SEO, content marketing and website design. Has worked with hundreds of businesses in Colorado Springs and nationwide since 1997.
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