Pinterest – Very Interesting

I have to say it’s only recently I opened my Pinterest account, it’s my opinion that most of us have only so much time and business has only so much money. Given that most small businesses are or should be involved in developing and building their email marketing lists (first and foremost), and there are a number of social media platforms they should be involved with or at least considering, it seemed (and currently seems) to me to be a bit of overload.

Since we manage our own marketing efforts (and often not as well as we’d like at times) and time is a very real issue. Our team manages Facebook posts & images, Twitter posts, Google+ posts, LinkedIn posts for both the corporate account and my account, as well as slideshare.

Naturally we’d like to include YouTube in that mix, but as a small business, video takes time. Scripting, filming, editing and posting time makes YouTube an expensive option. As such, when Pinterest was launched, we reviewed our client base, their needs as well as our own and decided it was best to “hold off” entry into this platform. Frankly, this is still my personal opinion, although we have a few clients who might be able to utilize this property, they are not yet convinced that this should be part of their marketing mix.

I’ve come across a number of pieces that have me reconsidering our decision to “hold off”, and here are a few reasons and links that I think you should review, give some consideration and really evaluate Pinterest.

Social Score Media provided these FIVE reasons, and twenty more in the attached link:

1. Pinterest has 85 million unique visitors each month
2. Pinterest was the fastest social network to hit the 10 million visitor mark
3. Pinterest is now the third most popular social network (behind Facebook and Google+)
4. The average number of daily article pins is ~five million
5. Pinterest is the 16th most visited website in the United States

I also did a bit of digging (very little really) and thought I’d share this information as well as provided by the Pinterest Website:

1. Consider the Pinners first (I gotta question this one)
2. Create your own boards and content
3. Be creative and inspire your pinners
4. Be authentic (show values, personality & taste)
5. Share

The last two go without saying, open, honest, transparent communications are required with and when dealing with social.

Just to wrap this up, Pinterest has come of age; it’s got a lot of traction notably with females, and can be very interesting. Yet, keep in mind this platform needs to be populated and managed, there’s lots going on. You can see how I’m testing Pinterest out, so login and follow me.

Michael Bickerton, Raven5 Ltd, Oakville, Ontario February 2014