Recently, about 40% of my facebook friends have followed me on Pinterest. Everyday I get at least two new people following me because they happen to be my facebook friend. With all these people moving onto Pinterest and in turn inviting the rest of their social circle, should Pinterest be where online retailers invest time and on?
By the end of the year Pinterest had 7.21 million unique visitors (compete.com) and continues to grow. There is definitely an audience there, and since its a virtual bulletin board that allows users to share images/links, the reach is vast. Several brands are utilizing these numbers to promote themselves and their products.
ModCloth, who utilize several different social media platforms – on top of building a social aspect to their business, are a great example of the capabilities a store owner can use Pinterest for. They have several boards that promote their brand. They do not directly post their products onto any specific board but their other pins impress followers to seek more on their site. If you run a search for pins that have ModCloth as the source, you get an endless list of various products. Each of those pins, are in turn shared with various social circles.
Pinterest has wonderful potential to reach new customers and raise site traffic to your online store. Like ModCloth, you can promote your brand through boards, but another option could be to directly promote your own products. Refinery29 also has a board called Reserve Deals where they showoff their own products that happen to be on sale. While their have a little over 4000 followers, this specific board has almost 9000.
Needless to say, Pinterest is a wonderful place to engage your audience and find new customers. It feels less like direct advertising and more like fun. Are you going to start using it? And if you already are, what sort of strategies are you employing?
