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(This is an article that recommends WHY your brand, company, blog, or business should be on Pinterest.  In our next article we will discuss HOW Pinterest can give you exposure and make money)

WHAT IS PINTEREST?

Pinterest is a dynamic new social site that combines elements from the social cloud that is Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.  Pinterest users create a virtual pinboard  by assembling various images that are on the web and pinning them to their board (more on this later).  Essentially, Pinterest users organize and curate images from all over the internet. Before you role your eyes and think that you may have your brand or company on enough social networks, hear us out on why Pinterest may do more for you than some other social networks.

(If you would like to just know what Pinterest is, then scroll past this section)

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

1.  Pinterest is Addictive

Do you doubt a site could be more addictive than Facebook? Well then read this recently published article titled: “Addicted to a web site called Pinterest” that was recently published in the Washington Post.

Pinterest is expanding at a very fast rate.  In January 2012, comScore reported the site had 11.7 million unique users, making it the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark.[  Most of the users on Pinterest are between the ages of 25-44.  This one of the most sought after demographics from a marketing perspective.

2.  Pinterest is Digital Crack For Women

If you sell, market, a product or service that is bought by women, then Pinterest is even more appealing.  Here is an astounding statistic: Most of the site's users are female, with 97% of the site's Facebook Likes being made by women. 

3.   E-commerce

If you sell a product or service on the internet then Pinterest is an internet dream come true.  Here is why: As of now, Pinterest does not charge businesses for any type of advertising.  Consumers themselves let other consumers know about you brand through the sharing of images, which are called Pins (more on this below).  They find the images from around the web, your website, or from browsing other Pinterest members boards.  Many brands such as (fill in) have discovered Pinterest just from observing traffic coming in to specific landing pages from Pinterest.

Pinterest is also great for building backlinks for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

People may have already pinned your product, service, or images onto Pinterest.  To do run quick search if anything was pinned from a site or blog type into your browser:

http://pinterest.com/source/yourcompany.com

Where “ yourcompany.com ” is your website or blog URL homepage.

4.  Gifts

This feature is near genius and it is a wonder why other social networking sites don’t offer it.  Whenever a product is Pinned, and a price is entered in the description, the image automatically updates to reflect the price.

Pinterest goes even further. In the header of Pinterest there is a button titled “Gifts”.  When your mouse cursor scrolls over it, you have a selection of choosing what price point you would like your gift to be.  This is an EXTREMELY valuable tool for consumers and marketers.  Users then can surf through gift ideas for a price point they feel comfortable with.  Around the holiday season, this feature can be a boon for businesses and companies.

 5.  It’s Aesthetically Beautiful

People appreciate fine design and nice things.  Apple has made billions in personal technology exploiting that principle.  One of the reasons women flock to Pinterest in droves and find themselves “addicted,” is because the site is so pleasing to look at.

WHAT CAN CONSUMERS DO ON PINTEREST THAT’S SO AWESOME?

How Pinterest Works: 

Pinterest users create something called Boards.  A board is a collection of images or videos from around the web. Think of Boards like a Facebook Profile for Photo Albums.

Here is an example of a profile of a very popular Pinterest user, Scott Mitchell. As you can see he has over 50,000 followers.  In the snapshot below 3 of his boards are shown.

Scott’s Boards of Pinned Images

Scott named the boards whatever he liked and then began to pin or repin images to them.

When clicking on Scott’s Men’s Fashion board, the following PINS are displayed:

Several Pins on a Board

As you can see, every image displays how many Likes, Pins, or Comments there are on an image.  You can also see, below the image, the source URL where it was originally pinned from.  (This is a great way to build backlinks for SEO to your site.)

A Pin From Scott’s Mens Fashion Board With A Comment

Whenever someone else sees their board and decides they like the look of those images – they either Repin, Like, or Comment on it:

Row 1: Other images on Scott’s board Men’s Fashion

Row 2: How and where the image was originally pinned from (URL),

Rows 3 & 4: The number and profiles of Repins and Likes

Repinning an image allows you the user to categorize the image onto one of their own boards. They can edit the description of a repin. But the source-link of an image is saved automatically, no matter how many times it’s repined.

Liking an image has weaker influence than repinning.  That’s because Liking a pin adds the image to a user’s profile Likes section, but it does not get added to one of their boards.

So if your surfing Pinterest and you appreciate fine interior design, you most likely want to see more photos that are similar who else Repinned or Liked  the Pins or Boards that you enjoy.  If an image is loved by so many Pinterest users, it can go viral.  To see images that have viral appeal , simply visit the Pinterest Popular page .  Some are silly such as this cute cat photo, and some are marketing-infused such as this one from Nordstrom (provide link to Pinterest Nordstrom page):

WHY PINTEREST MATTERS TO MARKETERS

Consumers find Pinterest fascinating and addictive because they can easily discover, pin, and organize images based on their hobbies and interests.  Pinterest makes it easy to see others who have similar interests, thereby socially connecting people around different thematic interests.  Some interests are very specific such as Diet Coke ( link and pic needed), while others are more broad such as Design I love (link and pic needed).  From a marketing perspective you can target users simply based on what they publicly like.  This cannot be emphasized enough.

The element of virality is built into Pinterest (Repins) just as it is into Twitter (Retweets).  Pinterest is currently poised to grow even larger since it is in a growth stage.  The playing field is ripe and is crying out for businesses to take advantage of this opportunity.

Overall, Pinterest is great for brands to tell their story and to creatively display themselves as true personalities.  Through Pinterest, brands can showing that they are more than just its their own product, and instead encompass a way of living.  For example, an small online fashion brand can organize boards of accessories of other brands, that look great with the designs of their seasonal collection.  Now, anybody who Liked or Repinned any of those accessories may come across your brand.  An action such as reaching out and repining other brands products would also reinforce the your brand authenticity.

Facebook Vs. Pinterest

(In a future post we will publish a thorough analysis of Facebook vs Pinterest, but for now we draw a brief comparison:)

There are pros and cons to both services.  Obviously Facebook is a social behemoth and is currently the thought leader in social media.  Pinterest is the underdog and has recently broken out of the startup phase.  Nevertheless, we provide a brief comparison to advertising dollars spent directly on both services. Oh wait, Pinterest doesn’t require you spend any money….:

On Facebook, users have a profile picture and voluntarily release enormous amount of personal information. They upload photos and tag their friends.  The information is then used, milked, and distributed to any company who uses Facebook Ads.

From a business perspective, Facebook’s limitations include spending money to run Facebook ads, running contests and promotions, and providing relevant content to individuals who may or may not actually be interested in your end product.  All this for the hopes of more “Likes” or click through’s to your website, which in turn will hopefully garner more conversions or sales for your business.  To be fair, Facebook does not require a business to have a tangible product.  So, for example, car washes in your neighborhood may have a Facebook presence and can offer deals and specials to fans.  That may not work as effective on Pinterest.

With Pinterest, users either already like your brand, product, or service, and have most likely created a collection of similar images onto a board.  Pinterest (as of now), does not require brands to spend any money to promote their products.  It even helps commercialize brands that are not even aware of their presence on Pinterest through their Gifts feature.  To be fair, marketing on Pinterest does require time, creativity, and a photo related product or service.

Competition

Since Pinterest is so new, you should get an account as soon as possible.  Pinterest is growing at an alarming rate and getting a head start now will give you a competitive edge.

Mashable already assembled a slideshow of the Top Ten Most Followed Brands on Pinterest.

Ok I’m Sold, How Do I Get a Pinterest Invite?

Currently, Pinterest is operating on an invitation only model (similar to other sites that want to exploit the feeling of exclusivity of consumers).  Either you are invited to Pinterest by someone who already has an account, or you can request an invite from Pinterest.com and wait until you get an acceptance email (this could take a few days).

Alternatively, you can request an invite from us at GoPinterest@gmail.com

www.GoPinterest.com will provide relevant articles and information on Pinterest and its significant potential of marketing possibilities for you to grow your business, blog, and brand.