Our focus has shifted from a simple approach to social media to a largely visual approach to social media. Traditional social media focused more on the written word whereas today’s social media environment is largely visual based. For this reason, your options when it comes to social media marketing have never been more vast.
The shift to the visual has provided us with many brand new business opportunities and many new social media platforms have entered the scene, including Pinterest and Instagram. Today, the two site’s rank as the fourth and seventh most popular in the USA respectively, which is why you may wish to consider adding one or more of them to your social media marketing strategy.
These platforms focus on sharing images with followers as the primary form of content, followed by a short description of the image with optional hashtags. In today’s blog post, we’re going to focus on the pros and cons of adding Pinterest to your social marketing strategy.
About Pinterest
Pinterest was founded in 2009 and was launched in 2010. The site began on an invitation-only basis but by 2012, the need for an invitation was dropped once the site’s app for Android and iPad was launched. In October 2013 Pinterest was valued at $3.8 billion and today it has 70 million users.
Is Pinterest Ideal for your Social Media Marketing Strategy?
Research has found that 80% of Pinterest users are women, which means that if you are thinking of incorporating the platform into your online marketing strategy, you should only really do so if a large percentage of your target market is female. Otherwise, you run the risk of wasting time that could be spent on alternative platforms that will boost your traffic and increase conversions.
But that doesn’t mean to say that you can’t include Pinterest in your strategy if your target market is mostly male. An increasing number of businesses are using the site – including male orientated businesses, and since there is such a heavy emphasis on the visual, it is a great platform to use if your brand fits readily into Pinterest’s visual mould.
For example, chefs, suit and shoe companies as well as travel agencies use the site to promote their businesses as it gives them the perfect opportunity to showcase their products or services directly against major brands.
Summing Up
Adding Pinterest to your social media marketing strategy can bring immense benefits including increased brand awareness, improved website traffic and enhanced conversions. As such, if Pinterest matches your brand and you have the time to commit to the platform it is certainly worthwhile adding it to your strategy.
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