A couple months ago I heard about Pinterest. I was going to BlogHer and Pinterest was the topic in one of their technology breakouts. Before leaving for the social media and blogging conference I created my Pinterest account and then did nothing with it for four months.
It wasn’t until over the New Year’s holiday that I sat down and evaluated all of my social media platforms. By then Pinterest had built up lots of buzz and some of the perks that I had initially dismissed seemed interesting and helpful for various aspects of social media.
What is Pinterest?
Think of Pinterest as a very large bulletin board. On this bulletin board you can share a variety of things, social media news, photos, arts, crafts, whimsical sayings, recipes and more. A quick look over who is “pinning” and what will lead you to think that it’s mainly women who use Pinterest.
80% of Pinterest users are women. The bulk of those are 25-34, closely followed by the 35-44 age group.
Guys who aren’t into cooking or arts and crafts shouldn’t be scared of Pinterest. The community is very engaging and the software hooks up seamlessly with Facebook and Twitter. If you’re a photographer then Pinterest is mandatory. The initial images are sized small, but readers can easily click through to your blog where the full size image is located.
Here’s a great example of the power of Pinterest. Julie the Baker has a Blogspot cooking blog. On October 10, 2010 she published a tasty looking recipe for Carmelitas. Julie received a nice amount of blog comments shortly after her initial post. Then, shortly after December 26, 2011, more than one year later, she received more than 3 dozen comments!
Factor in that only 2-4% of people will actually comment on a blog and Julie the Baker is receiving a massive spike in traffic. And that is just on this one post!! I discovered Julie the Baker’s blog through a friend of mine that re-pinned it and I then saw it on one of her boards.
Pinterest isn’t for everybody, but it can be a huge source of blog traffic. Of course you’re not going to simply “Pin” your own blog posts and hope to get thousands of hits. That’s where the “real” aspect of social media comes in. People, especially your friends, will smell something fishy if all of your pins are from your blog.
My wife uses Pinterest much more than I do, but I’m getting in the habit of using it every other day and liking it. There isn’t an effective app for the iPhone yet and that could be one reason Pinterest hasn’t really exploded yet. Having said that, it’s a fun sharing platform that’s quickly becoming cooler than Facebook; according to some female friends of mine.
