If you haven’t heard of Pinterest yet, you may have been hiding in a hole. It’s one of the newest social networks out there and has been taking the Internet by storm.
In fact, it has quickly risen to become one of the top traffic generators and the #3 most popular social network – ranking only after Facebook and Twitter. People who use it for business have seen up to 20% of their website traffic coming from Pinterest.
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But, before you start grumbling too loud about having another network to keep track of – yes, I can hear you from here – here are some reasons why you might want to consider integrating it into your existing online efforts:
- It’s extremely popular – As of this month, Pinterest is now the third most popular social network in the United States. With more than 104.4 million visits per month, Facebook and Twitter are the only two networks that get more attention.
- It appeals to an ideal audience – The majority of Pinterest users are women between the ages of 25 and 44. What’s more, many of them are avid pinners of travel information and photos who boast a household income of $100,000 or more. Considering the major decision makers in travel planning are also women, this is as perfect as it gets for a target audience.
- It’s a great traffic generator – In January 2012, Pinterest was officially generating more referral traffic to websites than LinkedIn, Youtube and Google+ combined. Many website owners report that Pinterest is now responsible for 5% to 10% of the overall traffic to their site.
- The learning curve is fairly low – For those who find Twitter too obscure or Facebook too complicated, Pinterest offers a choice that is fairly simple to understand and manage. If you can grasp the concept of bookmarking useful links into designated categories, liking things that interest you or commenting on a post, you’ll be able to make yourself at home fairly quickly on Pinterest with their pins, boards, likes and comments.
- The time commitment is not huge – Although pinning new things often can help spread your name around, Pinterest does not require a daily presence to be effective. In fact, even just a few pins can live on for a long time on the network and even generate traffic to your site while you’re not doing anything. This makes it perfect for time-strapped professionals who don’t want to spend too much time online. But, beware! Pinning can get very addicting and you may find yourself starting to do it just for fun!
Intrigued? Good! Tomorrow we’ll learn more about this newbie network and its purpose.
Sophie Bujold is a social media strategist who specializes in helping travel professionals achieve online success. She is the creator of Take Flight with Facebook, a social media FAM trip program designed to help travel professionals of all kinds build a winning Facebook marketing strategy. Sophie also speaks at industry events and works individually with travel agencies across North America. For more insights from Sophie, visit her website and sign up for her weekly email tips (it’s FREE.)
