Fast Facts:
- It recently hit 10 million unique monthly views faster than any standalone site in U.S. history!
- On average each time a person visits the site they spend 58.8 minutes "pinning" while Facebook has an average visit time of 12.1 minutes.
- Nearly 1/3 of of all Pinterest users have an annual household income of $100K+
- Almost 70% are female
- The largest demographic on the site are between 25-34
- 50% of Pinterest users have children
Big Brands who are pinning successfully:
- Whole Foods (11,000 followers)
- Mashable (17,000 followers)
- West Elm (15,000)
Why I think these brands have big followings:
- They are creating creative categories for boards
- They are using beautiful images
- They are early adapters and doing a good job of producing content
- They are thinking creatively and visually
Using Pinterest - The Basic Concept:
- The links are non follow, so they are not used as part of your seo strategy; however the links will direct visitors to your website.
- You can add the Pin It button to your pages and images. Using the "Goodies" section will easily allow you to create a Pin It button which you can embed on a Blog Post or Web Page.
- You can then "Pin" to one of your own boards, and add a link to the post | page in the image description.
Creative Uses for Brands
- Set up a guest pinning and allow your followers to create boards or Pin.
- For example, my friend Tracey owns Urban Junket a handbag design and distribution company. She could have her customers pin where they have traveled with the bag, the most random items found in their bag, or Sartoralist type shots of fashionable woman with their Urban Junket bag racing around in their daily lives.
- Lowes - a retail establishment that I don't really feel motivated to visit, has boards for Valentines Day, Family Projects, wreaths, lighting, all sorts of beautiful images which actually make me want to get off the computer and get to some DIY projects.
- Add hashtags to pins to make items more search friendly and cross-channel linking
- Use videos. I don't see many videos on Pinterest, yet the platform supports video, be the trail blazer.
Random Notes:
- The Pinterest search function is not as refined as what I am used to with traditional search engines. For example, a search for Whole Foods yields items that have been pined by people from Whole Foods, local Whole Foods Markets and people who have put whole foods in their profile description, which makes sense, but if you are looking for the company, it may require a little digging around.
- Tip - the url structure is such that if you type in pinterest.com/BigBrandName you will probably find what you are looking for.
- I suggest if you are going to use your original photography on Pinterest then you should put a company watermark on the photos. You want to make certain all credit belongs to you. My favorite blogger Slim Paley does this.
See also: