Pinterest is growing in popularity, with more brands using the social network to engage with potential customers and using it to build their visual brand identity. When used correctly, Pinterest can help boost search engine optimization (SEO), reach popular target markets (including women and high income households) and increase engagement.
What Is Pinterest And How Does It Work?
Pinterest calls itself a “visual bookmarking tool” and is, in essence, a virtual pinboard. Users create an account and then start following and creating boards that are of interest to them. Each board is made up of “pins” (images, websites, videos, etc.) around a central theme, which could be anything from food ideas to film quotes to fitness tips. Users can also leave comments below their pin. The boards are grouped by common categories and are also searchable. When a user sees something they like, they can “pin” it to one of their related boards. Users can choose to pin items from other boards and can also pin items from all over the Internet.
Most Pinterest users are Internet savvy and are on multiple social media platforms. They are comfortable engaging in online conversations and publishing content online. As of October 2023, Pinterest had 465 million monthly active users (Source: Statista).
Who Uses Pinterest?
- Almost 80% of Pinterest’s users are women. No other social network has such a large disparity between men and women’s usership (DataReportal)
- 57.9% of Pinterest’s audience is aged 18-34 (DataReportal)
- 9.2% of people above the age of 13 use Pinterest (DataReportal)
- 40% of adult Pinterest users in the United States live in high-income households (Statista)
- 37% of adult Pinterest users in the United States have at least a college degree (Statista)
How Can Pinterest Be Used For Marketing?
- Pinterest is a great marketing tool for brands that are visual and have a lot of graphical content to share (this can include images, videos, infographics, etc.)
- Be sure to create specific, targeted boards that are easy to understand, making them more likely to be followed.
- Remember to be continually adding to your boards to ensure that your pins are regularly showing up in a user’s home page.
- Try to infuse your Pinterest with creativity. This could mean fun board names, unique pins or creative comments on others’ pins of your products. Also, don’t forget to be as descriptive as possible in your pin description and names. This can help boost your SEO and increase click-throughs.
- Consider applying content marketing principles with your approach to Pinterest. Think of all of the supplementary content that relates to your brand and your target market’s likes, habits and behaviours. You can have boards revolving around all of those areas, helping to boost your reach and making your Pinterest more likely to be followed.
- Create group boards to interact with your consumers and related brands. A group board allows multiple Pinterest users to add to the same board. You can choose to add approved users (for example, users that have related boards to your brand) and can create a collaborative approach.
Even if you’re not ready to start on Pinterest, make sure you’re offering a “Pin it” button or some way for visitors to pin your content to their personal Pinterest account.
