Pinterest is the sexy new kid on the social media block. And a new study byShareaholic proves that the hours spent pinning all those pretty pieces of inspiration are paying off in a major way. The survey says... Pinterest drives more referral traffic to company websites and blogs than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube, combined. In other words, it's time to get acquainted with Pinterest, especially if you've been putting time and effort into growing your business via YouTube, LinkedIn and/or Google+.
- What is Pinterest? An online bulletin board that lets users organize and share images from around the web. Pinterest's number of unique visitors grew 400% between September and December 2011, ending the year with 7.5 million uniques.1
- According to Mashable, "brides-to-be have replaced bulky three-ring binder wedding planners with the simplicity and portability of a Pinterest account". Nearly 60% of Pinterest users are female, and it's all about visual engagement and effortless sharing.
- Virability: Like Facebook posts, pins can go viral since followers can like, comment or re-pin your pieces of inspiration to their boards. We recently published an article that went viral on Facebook, and the referral traffic was tremendous.
What this means is that Pinterest is the perfect place to reach new brides and grow your traffic! So, for all our Pinterest newbies, here's a beginner's guide to getting started:
- Get an invite! From the Pinterest homepage you can request an invitation, but expect to wait. A quicker option is to request an invite from a current Pinterest user (like OneWed). Reply to this email and ask nicely for an invite and you'll be pinning in no time. iPhone users can download the Pinterest app which lets you capture and share inspiration on the go.
- Create boards! Each pin must be assigned to a board so you'll need to create a few boards before you start pinning. You can create general wedding inspiration boards, or boards focused around your expertise. If you're a florist, create boards for flowers by color or by season, boards for bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces, etc. Photographers can create boards for real weddings, detail shots (shoes, rings, dress), first looks, and the list goes on.
- Start pinning! Download the Pin It button and anytime you see aninspiring photo, click the button, select the image, assign it to a board and write a brief description. You should pin some of the best photos from your website and/or blog, but make sure to pin content from other sites too. The 80/20 rule that drives social media engagement and success on Twitter applies to Pinterest as well. If all you do is pin your own products and photos, you'll have a tough time building followers.
- Follow up! The more folks you follow, the more relevant inspiration you see, and the quicker you build up your boards and follower count. Don't you just love the social media circle of life? Start by following OneWed, then check out the Pinterest users we follow and who follow us. To find more pinners to follow, hover over the Everything dropdown and click Weddings & Events from the Pinterest homepage.
We can't wait to see you on Pinterest!
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