At first glance, Pinterest seemed to have a lot more in common with the bulletin board full of random cards and photos on an office wall than Facebook. But its loads of fans often warn of how quickly you can become a Pin junkie, making boards and Pinning favorite products, random recipes, and DIY projects that you’ll never actually do.
That’s also the reason why it’s one of the top social media networks of 2016.
If you haven’t considered this social tool to promote your business, perhaps you should. Here’s why.
Pinterest has more than 110 million active users so far this year. Of those active users, 71 percent are female, 29 percent male. According to Sprout Social, the breakdown amounts to 42 percent of all online women and 13 percent of all online men using Pinterest. Sure, the split leans heavily toward the feminine side, but studies have shown that women shop more online. Even so, that’s one large audience viewing and saving pins every day that you are missing out on. These people could be Pinning your products, learning more about them and ultimately sharing those pins with tons of other pinners.
If that hasn’t convinced you, maybe this bit of demographic info will grab your attention.
Sprout Social also reports that 32 percent of the network’s Pinners are college educated, and 34 percent have an income of $75k or greater. Also, a whopping 93 percent of Pinners have shopped online in the past month. That equates to a lot of smart spenders who would love to see and learn more about your brand through Pins.
Another interesting fact is that mobile devices are responsible for 75 percent of all Pinning that occurs on Pinterest. Reports have shown that in 2015, mobile ecommerce is at just below 30 percent of all ecommerce sales in the U.S. Others predict that number to rise to 45 percent of all ecommerce within the next four years. If you do plan on using Pinterest to promote your brand, be sure that your website is ready to handle mobile traffic and mobile sales. Otherwise, potential customers that find your products via smartphones or tablets may give up on making a purchase.
As for actual product Pins, they should be very visually stimulating. A scroll through the Pinterest feed will reveal tons of beautiful, eye-catching photos, but not much text. Stats show that each Pin generates about six website views, which is good for site traffic. If you sell products, you should also know that Pins showing the cost of an item receive 36 percent more activity than those that don’t. With 80 percent of all Pins being repins, most of the posts on Pinterest are viewed and pinned repeatedly. Consider how many Pins a product post with price can procure (say that five times really fast)!
Put all these numbers together and the sum should tell you what you’re missing.