How influential is Pinterest?
“Social Media” – never before in history has a single phrase held so much potential for vendors. Be it the casual discussion environment of Facebook, the instant and amazing reach of Twitter or the quiet building power of Google+); there is a buzz on the internet that won’t go away. Undoubtedly the long existence of the giants mentioned here have already caught your attention, and you have dispatched your marketing gurus to take on the social networks. As a vendor in that soon-to-be vast plateau of Ecommerce, there is one social medium that should be at the very top of the list – Pinterest (www.pinterest.com).
Pinterest is the new playing ground for people across the world and guess whom that makes it vital for – you, the vendor! Be it an international Ecommerce giant or a grocery store down the street, they’re all leveraging Pinterest to capture the attention and interest of new customers, and as someone with unique and wonderful products to offer, you shouldn’t fall behind. So, let’s help you understand just how influential Pinterest really is:
* Pinterest is the 3rd most popular social network:
Pinterest, which a little over a year ago had no standing, is now ahead of LinkedIn and Google+. For retailers this means that a mere presence offers a greater reach and a wider audience than either of the aforementioned networks.
* The average referral traffic from Pinterest is 3.6% – the same as Twitter:
Pinterest supplies more traffic to Ecommerce and Online Stores than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube combined! Good traffic is vital to the site, the better the traffic, the better your SEO is going to work out as well.
* Revenue for stores through Pinterest grew from 1% to 17% in less than a year (2011-2012):
Revenue from Facebook and Twitter seems to now be moving to Pinterest, with Twitter losing 9% and Facebook 7%. This is very likely to continue as Pinterest is more visual and therefore more customer friendly than either of the two.
* The value of average orders from visitors who come through Pinterest is higher than that of visitors from any other social network:
A set of high quality photographs of the products from various angles that showcase all its features, with a price quote, is very likely to lead to double the revenue from a Facebook post.
* 41% of people Pining an item do reverse-showrooming:
Reverse-showrooming is when a customer finds the product online (here: Pinterest), and then goes and buys it in a physical store. This works best if you also have a physical store you can direct your customers to.
* 60% of purchasers from Pinterest discover the product there:
These customers may or may not have even known about the product or wanted it before, but upon discovering a pinned image, they were intrigued, checked it out and bought it.
Now, you have a pretty good idea on what Pinterest can do for your store. Further, Pinterest not only helps with traffic, but is also great for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), an important aspect for your ecommerce site.
What is the relationship between Pinterest and SEO?
Let’s see how the elements of SEO can be complemented with the use of Pinterest:
* The Applicable elements of SEO:
Links & Traffic:
Pinterest in the interest of the public and with the aim of minimizing spamming has taken the wise decision of removing link authority. This means that any link you or anyone else posts on Pinterest that leads to your site has no value to search engines. “Then how is it relevant?” you ask. Well, those links might not be worth anything, but think of all the links to your sites from people who see your product there. Every one of those links is certainly valuable. Think of Pinterest as a notice board – you place an ad saying you have a cool product, and people who see it go and tell their friends about it. You telling them might be marketing, but their passing of the message is word-of-mouth, and everyone knows that that is invaluable.
Reputation:
When it comes to reputation, search engines treat Pinterest like any other social network. This means that while the content on the board (your Pinterest display board) is not valued or shown in the search results, it is still considered for page ranking. In other words, a strong presence on Pinterest is worth more than the value of content shared. This doesn’t mean you should upload badly lit, fuzzy pictures, because Pinterest has its own role to play.
* The Non-Applicable elements of SEO:
Despite its usability on the SEO side of business, Pinterest plays no role in the following as they are reliant on your site’s content and that of other sites:
o Words
o Titles
o Words in Links
* Pinterest is a Search Engine too:
It might not be apparent, but if you think about it, Pinterest in its own way is a vast search engine of pictures, sort of like the image search functionality in Google, Yahoo and Bing. This means that how you tag your images, how you title them, their genre and in which albums you place them, all make a difference in the results shown by Pinterest when someone makes a search.
This blog should give you a fair idea of how important Pinterest is in the online world of today. However, it is not a one stop solution, it is but one of the many elements that come into play when you reach out to the world looking for customers. The best strategy would involve leveraging all the top social networks, so as to maximize the benefits to your business.
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