Is Pinterest the Twitter of 2012? Perhaps, perhaps not, but regardless an it poses an excellent business opportunity!

Have you heard about Pinterest? Chances are you have. What you may not have thought of is how this new form of social media can help you build your business and increase the visibility of your brand.

 In its own words, Pinterest is an online pinboard that enables you to organize and share things you love. Users “pin” images or videos to themed online bulletin boards. These photos or clips can then be “re-pinned,” “liked” (similar to Facebook) or commented upon by other Pinterest users.

According to data compiled by comScore and shared by ad agency DraftFCB, the following groups make up the majority of Pinterest’s users:

• 68% are women
• 27% are 25-34 years of age, 22% are 35-44, and 17% are 18-24
• 28% have a household income of $100K+
• 50% have children

If your business targets any of these user groups, you might consider leveraging this new “it” form of social media. For instance, are you a freelance wedding photographer? As you’ll see below, Pinterest is the leading social referer from MarthaStewartWeddings.com. If this is where your potential clients are, this is where you should be too.

Three additional reasons you should consider Pinterest to promote your brand:

1. Pinterest is becoming a significant source of referral traffic for retailers.

• According to Monetate (February 2012), Pinterest has become one of the top five referrers for several apparel retailers and small clothing boutiques, driving more traffic than Google+ and in some cases Twitter. Monetate also reports that referral traffic from Pinterest to five undisclosed retailers rose 389% from July to December 2011.
• According to Mashable (February 2012), Pinterest is now the top social referer for marthastewartweddings.com and marthastewart.com, sending more traffic to both properties than Facebook and Twitter combined. Pinterest already drives three times the amount of traffic to Cooking Light compared to Facebook, is the fourth largest source of traffic for Country Living, the ninth largest source for both Elle Décor and House Beautiful, and was among the top 10 referral sites for Self.

2. Pinterest allows for seamless social sharing on Twitter and Facebook, which creates the potential for more people to see and  engage with your content across multiple channels.

3. Pinterest provides real-time feedback on consumer response. Each piece of content added to Pinterest has three clear engagement metrics: likes, repins, and comments. The more of these you get, the higher the consumer affinity for your brand or product. If it makes sense, you can add “Pin It” buttons to the product or content pages on your website to aid in organic sharing.

Social media continues to rapidly transform and, chances are, your business will have to transform its tactics along with it. Here at WorkingPoint, we make managing your small business easier, so that you can stay on the cutting edge.

-The WorkingPoint Team

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Looking for the next step in managing a small business? The answer may just be in the palm of your hand.

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