Pinterest is a social media site that’s become an almost constant presence on- and offline. Between your friends using it to grab the latest recipe ideas and websites often asking if you want to “Pin” the images featured in the articles that you read, it’s hard to escape this visually appealing social platform. While other social networks have come and gone (such as the short-lived Ello,1 Ping,2 and Diaspora3 disasters), Pinterest has proven, since its launch four years ago, that it has the staying power to rival Twitter and Facebook. However, while the site has lots of appeal for individual users, business owners looking to use the social platform to their advantage can often find themselves wondering, “Is Pinterest right for me?”
As with any social media site, whether or not you add a Pinterest account to your social endeavors depends heavily on how well the platform fits your business’ needs and setup. After all, if the fit is wrong, your time would be better spent on social platforms that are better suited for your business goals!
So to help you start to think about whether or not Pinterest is a great fit for your business, we recommend considering the following three scenarios; if your business matches one or more of them, Pinterest could very well become one of your best social media tools:
1. Your Business Is Visual
For those of you who’ve explored the virtual bulletin board of Pinterest, it’s easy to see that the platform is extremely visual. Unlike other social sites such as Twitter, Pinterest is based entirely on the concept of focusing on and sharing images. On one hand, this isn’t necessarily good news for a business that relies primarily on text communications. But, if your business has a strong visual appeal, Pinterest could be the missing piece to your marketing efforts. In fact, a strong majority of company-related success stories4 on Pinterest revolve around a business’ ability to create and share enticing, colorful imagery that appeals to Pinterest users.
As a bonus, businesses that do well on Pinterest tend to have the same success when creating an Instagram account. The visual nature of instagram makes it possible to mirror campaigns from one social platform to the other. With 300 million active monthly users, Instagram just might be worth a shot as well.
2. Your Business Is A B2C Company
If your business thrives by talking directly to consumers, Pinterest could be a good fit for you. Companies that have a B2C audience, particularly those in the retail business, tend to have more success on Pinterest than B2B companies. There are a couple of reasons for the spike in success from these industries. For starters, around 20 percent5 of Pinterest users have a total household income of $75,000 or more. Because of this fact, reaching an audience with expendable incomes is much easier on Pinterest than other social media sites.
Additionally, before making a purchase, 52 percent6 of daily Pinterest users will log on to the social platform to get ideas, feedback, or reviews on products. This means that being on Pinterest can only help with your brand’s online visibility – and conversely, not having your business represented on the the platform could mean that your brand gets overlooked in a customer’s decision making process.
3. Your Business Targets Women
Does your business target women? Think about this for a second: almost 95 percent7 of all activity on Pinterest is created by women. With such a strong female audience, Pinterest is a great tool for companies looking to reach out to women. Female centered industries, such as the beauty8 and food industry,9 tend to do extremely well on this platform because it’s easy to connect and engage with the ladies.
And there’s more good news for women-oriented businesses and brands: businesses that target the “mommy” demographic do even better on Pinterest than those who target the general female population. In fact, ShareThis10 (a company created by Google alums in an effort to make the world more connected) reports that moms are three times more likely11 than their childless counterparts to share content on the social site. Once shared, a company’s content awareness increases exponentially. So, if you’re looking to spread brand awareness about a female centered product – particularly for mothers – Pinterest is definitely a social site you want to consider.
Pinterest definitely isn’t for everybody, and that’s okay! For some businesses, the image-focused social platform leaves much to be desired. However, many modern companies and small businesses could really find success in all the benefits Pinterest has to offer. If you work for a business that survives by speaking directly to female customers, and/or you have a usable premise for creating vibrant photographs, then Pinterest may be something that your business can easily jump “pin” to!
Need more information? Check out our other Pinterest post: “A Beginner’s Guide to Using Pinterest.”