This post began because I wanted to know more about Pinterest. I have seen some interesting videos about Pinterest lately and learnt how it can grow your business traffic. It piqued my interest enough to really want to know why we should use Pinterest for business.
I tried a different way to create a pin described in a video, not all the detail was there of course because teaching it was this couple’s business. But I tried from the bit I did learn and yes, it was a success. Well not like theirs of course but I quite quickly got a few pins and impressions. Enough to impress me, if no one else.
I am going on the assumption that you have already started your business. If not read HERE!
A Pinterest account
Table of Contents
I am assuming that you already have a Pinterest business account! If not, why not?
Perhaps you have a personal page? If so it is easy to create a business page as an offshoot or just make a separate page. Its not hard to do, I created mine years ago, when I knew very little about anything and managed perfectly well.
In the intervening years though I have added stuff in fits and starts without really paying it much attention.
What Changed?
I joined a platform called Wealthy Affiliate. I joined on a free membership and was so impressed with everything available, training, hosting, community etc, that I signed up for a half price month to look inside and then for a year. That was 2 years ago. Anyway, I digress. Part of the training is about social media. It made me go and look at my Pinterest account that I hadn’t even added anything to in about 18 months, maybe longer. I had not ever paid attention to the numbers and that was a shock.
3.2k followers, that was a surprise! I also had 13.2k monthly views! This on a page I barely looked at. A possible traffic source I was not only overlooking but totally ignoring. Even after discovering all that, I am still a bit sporadic with my attention to this extremely useful business tool. I have been better but I admit, not that much.
Now it seems that everywhere I look there are things about Pinterest. I think the Universe is trying to tell me something.
A Few Interesting Facts about Pinterest
Renewed interest means I want to know if it will be worth the investment of my time. I want more traffic and sitting back waiting for it doesn’t cut it. I need to be proactive!
So on to the Facts
Pinterest has grown rapidly and has generated an additional 100 million users over the last year. At the start of 2020 Pinterest had about 320 million active users per month. And now their user base has now increased to 459 million monthly active users.
We all know why there is such a huge increase. The number of users would have gone up anyway as Pinterest is growing but the Covid-19 Pandemic has made everything online explode. This also means that Pinterest now has more monthly active users than both Twitter and Snapchat combined.
Did you know that Pinterest is not a Social Media platform? It is actually a Search Engine!
A very large amount of Pinners use the mobile app, a whopping 85%! Who knew?
Half of the users live in the U.S.
Around 50% of Pinterest users live in the United States, so in the rest of the world there is also a large audience actively using Pinterest to save content, products and ideas.
240 billion Pins
That is a lot of pins by users of Pinterest over the last 11 years it has been in business, an average of 533 pins per pinner.
Pinners spend 80% more
Another amazing fact is that users spend 80% more in retail than consumers who don’t use Pinterest.
If you pay attention to Pinterest demographics, you see that 49% of U.S. users’ income is more than $100,000 a year. The higher income means the ability to spend more on products on the platform.
Projects from pins
Pinterest has always been well known for DIY projects, recipes, gorgeous home and fashion pictures as well as handmade crafts. For years now, users have had fun trying out the different crafts and projects they’ve seen and saved.
Which is why Pinterest then added a “Tried It” button to Pins for users.
That’s how the Pinterest is able to measure and work out that 98% of users, have tried something they’ve seen on this social network.
So what do the facts mean to me?
The first thing that springs to mind is that Pinterest is full of people actively looking to buy. They have interests but also look outside their interests for something new to create, to design and make, for themselves and their homes.
It means I no longer think its for people who have spare time to waste. I know it’s for people looking with a purpose. My daughter looked for inspiration for doing up her home, other people look for ideas for crafts to make. Some are looking for work opportunities. Still more are searching for clothing and shoes that are different, every day items and holiday wardrobes.
Pinterest for Business
So how does it work? Essentially its a digital pin board where we pin items that are of interest to us. We create our own pins and save other peoples pins, that we feel are relevant, to our boards.
Take a bride planning her big day: She may be looking at not only dresses but venues and how to dress a venue to her taste. She wants ideas that will make her wedding different to that of her friends. Her Chief Bridesmaid/Maid of Honour might also be searching for ideas for a hen party with a difference, a gift, helping with the dress search etc.
Now that is just 2 people from one wedding, that’s without all the other leading players and more minor ones. Then multiply that by the amount of weddings there are in a year! That’s a lot of business going on right there. Just one subject!
Is YOUR business aimed at Weddings or more specifically Brides? Look at the possibilities available to you via Pinterest.
Why are they doing the majority of searching on Pinterest? Because it is visual. A page full of pictures is so much more interesting than a page of listings (writing). WOW!!
Why We Should Use Pinterest for Business
Much of this is occurring to me as I research and write this. I have clearly not given Pinterest enough thought at all. I have wasted a valuable resource all these years.
If you want to drive a ton of free traffic to your website, you can’t afford not to use pinterest. I have been hearing more and more that most traffic to websites, comes from Pinterest.
Below is a quick round up of the main platforms people use and how long the post, pin or tweet will last.
Social Media Posts
Pinterest: The lifespan of a Pin is much longer than any social media post on any other platform. Why? Because it can still appear months later when certain words are searched for.
Twitter: 18 minutes says the data. That though I think, depends upon whether it gets retweeted, by whom and how often. A tweet that you pin to your profile will last as long as it is pinned there. Being time poor most retweeters will use the pinned post rather than search for other tweets of yours.
Facebook: 6 hours but that depends on post interaction. Most impressions will occur within the first couple of hours. If other people comment on your post then it may be shown to a few more people. Your reach is no longer about the amount of ‘Likers’ or ‘Followers’ because Facebook limited the reach of businesses to get them to pay for adverts.
Instagram: The data varies on this one but many say 24 to 48 hours. I do post to Instagram but don’t know that much about it as yet. Like all of them though, it will depend upon interaction to determine how long it lasts in the public eye.
A few benefits of using pinterest for your business
Pinterest is one of the sites that gets regularly listed through search engines such as google.
Initially, pins have much longer because they are still searchable and also you can reuse a pin over and over again, which makes it so much simpler to market because you’re, not spending as much time and effort into constantly creating new content.
Most pinterest users are on pinterest for purchase.
Users are three times more likely to click over to a brand’s website from Pinterest. Most social media platforms are actually designed to keep you on the platform and discourage external links, whereas Pinterest is actually designed to have your website discovered.
What do you think?
Now there are, of course, many more benefits to using Pinterest for your business, but that will be for another post. Next time we will go into the getting started and setting up of a Pinterest account.
I already have a few Pinterest pages having been told by those ‘wiser’ that its a good thing but the more I learn the more I am unsure on that front.
I am amazed at the amount I have learnt already just from researching this starter post. I am looking forward to gaining a lot of knowledge to help me increase the traffic to my businesses.
See you in the next post!
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Hi. Wow, I learned so many new things from your post. I did not know Pinterest was a search engine (makes sense). I too tried Wealthy Affiliate in 2017 and have been part of the community ever since. I do have a Pinterest account but, I have to admit, I haven’t spent very much time or effort there. That will certainly change after reading your article. I can definitely see the benefits of spending a little time on Pinterest. Your traffic stats are amazing. Thanks for the great information!
Vic
Glad you enjoyed the post and found it useful Vic.
The more I learn about Pinterest, the more I want to learn so I can utilise it fully.
Those stats are from not doing much with it, very much off and on, so think how much that would improve if I used it more. Its learning enough to ensure it can be used fully with the least amount of time to do so.
Good luck with yours.
I’m learning to use SEO. And I was a bit disappointed when I was told I should also learn to rank on Pinterest. But now that I have researched a bit more I see that ranking in Pinterest is way easier than ranking in Google. And Pinterest also is fun because it’s a visual search engine. And it suits my niche perfectly. I think I’ll give it a try!
Thank you for commenting Abel.
If you want help with SEO, try the Rank Math plugin. I found it really helped me bring up my SEO score for each post.
Its not so much ranking on Pinterest, as using it well to bring traffic that will help you to rank higher in Google.
Traffic is key because you want people to read your posts and in time, click on links. SEO will bring traffic eventually but social media will bring some traffic now.
This is a fantastic post. I started a Pinterest account so long ago I can’t remember the exact year but I believe it was 2013. In spite of having an account for all those years, I’m now starting over again. Due to lack of effort my first account was closed. So now I have one follower, thanks to you. The fact I’m writing this comment proves how valuable Pinterest can be to those who are prepared to put the time and effort into their account. I believe that Pinterest is the most valuable social media due to the continuing life of Pins. In saying that, constant activity by the account owner is vital.
Thank you for reading the post and commenting Valerie.
My Pinterest was started probably about the same time. I would remember it sporadically which is probably why I still have that first one. I am making an effort to learn more and have another post on Pinterest almost ready.
It has changed a lot as the platform has grown. One good thing is that you don’t need followers to increase your views, just regular usage as you said.
Glad you liked the post.