Should You Jump on the Virtual Pinning Bandwagon?

What does Pinterest have to offer your brand?

What started as an unofficial pinboard for (let’s be honest) mostly girls with excess time to share recipes and plan phantom weddings, Pinterest has grown into a global community of millions and one of the top three most popular social networks in the U.S. – in the past 2 years!

Knowing that most social networks today offer some form of value to SEO, it’s a smart idea to at least consider the benefits of adding Pinterest to your social strategy. While it may not be for everyone, the more creatively you can think the greater your potential for brand exposure and engagement among customers.

So What is Pinterest?

At the risk of sounding vague, it’s whatever you want it to be. This invite-only platform allows users to organize and share things; from health and fitness tips to technology, even DIY and crafts. Users create boards focused around a certain interest by easily uploading an image or video from a website, which is then published for followers to see and re-pin. While the majority of users are female, the ratio is slowly becoming more gender balanced among an increasing age range.

What Other Brands are Using it?

Whole Foods Market, The Wall Street Journal and Nordstrom are just a few of the brands caught up in the obsession. Through Pinterest, Whole Foods has found a platform to successfully promote its brand by publishing diverse content related to food and health, living green, cool kitchens and much more to 52,235 followers and growing. They also actively follow and repin other members. All of this brand exposure is free; all it takes is some time and creative thinking. See Whole Foods on Pinterest.

Pinterest for SEO

Don’t count on your Pinterest strategy to bring you massive rankings on competitive keywords, but it is an easy way to share fresh content, drive referral traffic and diversify your backlink profile. One thing we do know is that this platform provides an opportunity for marketers to define their brand creatively in an interactive community. What do you think? Has your business tried out Pinterest and experienced any benefits?

For a further breakdown, check out this infographic by Pinterest SEO.