Getting Pinned

Posted by michaels on Mar 18, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

  Ok. I admit it… I’ve never been fond of facebook, I’ve never been tickled by Twitter… but I am addicted to Pinterest.

It’s true — I am wild about Pinterest. I have pinned infographics about work. I’ve repinned words of (varying degrees of) wisdom, images I liked, cartoons I laughed at, and statements about things I believe in.  I’ve started taking pictures with the expressed intent of pinning them to my wall. I’m a writer and a unfulfilled designer — I love to show off, I live for show-and-tell… and Pinterest lets me show the world what I’ve got and sit back and wait to see if anyone else agrees that I’m brillant.

It’s Nirvana. It’s also the fastest growing social media network by far, In fact…

Pinterest is already driving more traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace combined.

I’m not a numbers-guy, but when you see stats like these, you have to start to think “how could my clients be using Pinterest?”

According to AppData, Pinterest has 10.4 million registered users (and growing). And remember, as I’m writing this, Pinterest is still Invitation-Only.  Sure, getting an invitation requires little more than asking for it

In just a few short months, Pinterest has become the most talked about social network of 2012. AllTwitter reports that American users of the social network spend an average of one hour and 17 minutes on the site, well ahead of Twitter (36 minutes), LinkedIn (17 minutes), and Google+ (six minutes). Mashable recently reported that daily Pinterest users have increased by more than 145 percent since the beginning of 2012.

But is it for business?  Oh yeah, it’s for business.

The current top corporate Pinterest boards refelct the fact that the audience is (currently) predominantly female: Real Simple (34,517 followers), HGTV (17,824 followers), Nordstrom (9,886 followers), West Elm (11,547 followers), ModCloth (11,813 followers), Whole Foods (14,217 followers), Better Homes and Gardens (15,127 followers), Kate Spade (16,371 followers), Etsy (53,784 followers).

Copyblogger (probably the best of the best online copywriting sites out there) has a spectacular post that shouldn’t be missed — 56 Ways Pinterest can help your business – http://www.copyblogger.com/pinterest-marketing/.

I’ve started recommending Pinterest to both clients and potential clients — it’s actually becoming a great foot-in-the-door. Most people are just starting to hear about it, the press is all good if they look into it, and once you’re there, it looks great and, trust me on this, it’s a addictive once you start to play around. And if you think I’m the only one enjoying it more than facebook and Twitter, take another look at those on-site figures.

Can’t think of any real-world applications? You’re just not thinking about it…

• Our local hospital has launched a new campaign using these very cool, ultra-extreme close-ups of some the micro-technologythey’re using — all the ads look like beautiful abstract designs… and they’d all make perfect pins. They grab your eye… and they could link to the hospital’s main site.

• One of my favorite local stores sells nothing but door knockers, door knobs and cabinet hardware. I love walking through the store and looking at all the intricate designs — every one of them would make a great pin. Draw attention to your products, draw traffic to your store.

• Become an expert in your field… by repinning the extraordinary information dump you can already find on Pinterest. The more you pin, the more followers you gain, the larger your audience when you start pinning original content about your business or your clients.

Pinterest = Free Audience = Big Opportunity