Are you using Pinterest?

Whether Pinterest is going to be useful for your biz or not largely depends on what you do tho! like, if you are making something cute like cupcakes or handmade jewelery or you cook or you got the point - you can just go ahead and post the pictures of your stuff around without worrying to much if those get repined. they will. if you are selling something not so obvious, like ideas, consulting and the like - you can still figure out your Target Audience's values and make photographs/quotes/graphics accordingly. just make sure you don't post something totally unrelated to your biz if you think you can't come up with an idea of something relating

 

I've been playing around with it for about a month. I've gotten some traffic to my blogs but haven't really figured out how to monetize it. Women outnumber men on the site 4 or 5 to one, so I guess it helps to be in a niche that targets women.

 

Pinterest, like any other social media program, takes time to build up your followers and your presence.

If you keep with it, you can get quite a lot of traffic. Wether that converts is a different matter.

 

I am completely new to Pinterest. How do you attach a web url to it and if someone repins it does it "multiply"? Also, how do you even repin? I'll admit it all seemed confusing the one time I got on but it would be nice to use for SEO and PR if nothing else. Whoever commented about multiples of the same thing had a good point. I need to do some images that are spiced up some more from everyone else's.

Also, I know when people pin something it can go on FB somehow. How does that work? My pinterest account is through my personal e-mail so how would I repin stuff on my Scentsy and Velata pages? Thanks for the info and I find it informative reading about the rest of your experiences, too.

 

I enjoy Pinterest, and have had people "re-pinning" my pins. Just follow or write good content with photos and people will follow.

Here's to your success!

Brian

 

Yes, Pinterest is actually a great social network which would also work well with businesses.

 

Yeah I use it quite regularly, it's great

 

Hi Robin,

Though you started this thread a few months ago, Pinterest is still all the new rage in Social Marketing.

I have yet to try it out but I will.

So, I will echo the sentiments of most of those who replied to this thread by saying that I've also heard that it can generate a lot of traffic but conversions are reported to be tricky.

I suppose that if you are marketing to women with crafts or something else that is big on Pinterest, you should do well.

Other than that, I would imagine that it would make sense to think of who the Pinterest crowd is, why they view pins, and what they would likely do if they clicked through to your site.

My guess is that it would be like a lot of social bookmarking sites - those who are killing time and looking strictly for entertainment value.

Sum Yung Ho!

 

Pinterest is the next big thing in social bookmarking sites, i think. I've recently set up my account and now i'm trying to get started. If you are thinking on start you might find this usefull... <Snip>

[Post edited. Link removed - Admin]

 

I don't use it, but my wife has an account. I don't know if it would be applicable for what I do.

 

Any mor einformation about pinterest would be appreciated. I started using it and it seems fun , but not sure if it is great for traffic ( conversion traffic that is ) : )

 

Pinterest is very targetted towards women as 80% of the users are, as said, women.

 

I too thought that pinterest was a great site and I spent a lot of time pinning up stuff and learning how to use the site. However, some cool cat just came along and hijacked my links making them her own - after all the hours I put in. I wrote to Pinterest about it but they did nothing, in fact they did not even bother to answer. So I went in and pulled out all my pins.
After that I have read in a few places that others have run into the same problem. I'm was still wavering between going back and trying again or just giving it up as a bad joke.
Anyway, a few days later I ran into another site called Apsense which is join by invite only - as is Pinterest and it has another part of its site called PinOpps which works on similar lines with Pinterest. I am in the process of learning how to use that instead of Pinterest. At least, there I hope that my hard work will not go waste. If anyone is interested in joining please contact me or check out my signature. So maybe I will just give Pinterest a skip and go with PinOpps instead.

 

I just joined and I haven't done anything yet but I plan to soon. I received an email about a woman who generates a lot of money there and I have to admit I'm interested.

 

Hi, so I am a total "newbie" when it comes to being computer know how & I have decided to jump into the marketing game. So does anyone know of any spots for real, to post affiliate banners? I have pretty much exhausted my funds so solo ads are not going work for me. I am also into E-commerce and would like to get a head start on promoting for the up coming holiday season. Pinterest is a great start along with the other social medias sites , and I even heard forums and blogs work, but if we cant self promote here where do we go?

 

Well, you could try free classified ads. They probably will not allow free banners but definitely they will allow you to put in free classified ads. Each site has its rules as to how many free ads they will allow so just check it out and make a note of it. My advice to you is to open up a spreadsheet and if you have access to hit tracking, then mark each site you visit with a special no. so you know which one is working for you. In one column write down the name of the site, copy the link then you won't have problems finding it each time and also mark any special things, eg. how many free ads they allow per day or per week, etc. And when you are tracking the hits make a note of it as you won't remember it otherwise. All the best.)

 

Wow, I heard of Pinterest a few times recently and after reading your comments I really want to look into it!
Thanks!

 

Not yet. I have read some on how Pinterest can be used for business and have a few ideas on how it might be helpful. But I'm not the kind to jump onto a new marketing fad just because it's new. I'd rather see if what I'm doing can actually add any value to the Pinterest community before I jump in if that makes sense.

I do think those with e-commerce type sites (product-based sites with lots of product images) stand to gain from using Pinterest. Also those who are photographers or any other kind of profession that uses visual portfolios. If your business doesn't deal so much in images then you might have to dig a little deeper to figure out how best to use it.

 

I'll be figuring it out with you Ina! I still have to look into it!

 

I subscribe to a blog called Social Media Examiner and they had a great article back in May of this year about using Pintrest for business. I think it was something like 6 Tips , so you could probably Google their site and then search it for Pintrest articles.

They had 1 idea about a picture contest where you set a prize based on the best photo or illustration around your topic of choice. I've been working on a contest for my industry that I had though about unveiling at the next local health fare but Pintrest might work just as well. Will have to see how images can fit in with the prize we were planning.

But yeah, just Googling for "using pintrest for business" brings up a whole slew of white papers and blog posts and all kinds of stuff. Been perusing the list through the day...