Knowing which social network to harness for your business can be tricky. While everyone runs a Facebook page, what else to use for your business can feel like a difficult choice and not one always made with your business’ goals at the forefront. Do you opt for two traditional challengers to Facebook’s omnipresence, Twitter or Instagram? Jump on the new trends of TikTok or Snapchat? How do you know which of these is right for your business and not just the done thing?
One social network is almost purposefully built to benefit business, which very few companies are utilising effectively. It’s not the most immediately apparent social channel, but it is perhaps best modified for business. And it’s not owned by Mark Zuckerberg or a brand new upstart you don’t know the name of.
That social network is Pinterest.
Pinterest remains one of the most incisive networks to use as a business. And that’s because it is much more efficient at helping its users discover not only things they are interested in but also how to purchase them. Unconvinced? Here are five reasons why you should consider Pinterest for your business.
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It Outperforms Its Rivals
Pinterest’s biggest benefit is how it reduces the number of steps from discovery to conversion. Users search for pins they like and if the pin has a link attached, they can then go on and find the item and purchase pretty much instantaneously. This rapid process is considerably more effective than the big three (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook), who rely on users being interested in posts or ads served in their feed.
On average, a pin is 100 times more spreadable than your average tweet. It has a considerably larger lifespan, close to a week compared to Instagram posts’ 2 days, Facebook’s 6 hours and a tweet’s measly 25 minutes. Best of all, 98% of users go out and try the ideas they find on Pinterest. That’s a very real engagement stat that blows any other social out the water.
It’s More Than Its Cliches
There’s a common perception that Pinterest is mainly used by people planning weddings, collating recipes and renovating their house. These are definitely some of the most well-established and well-known of its uses, but people use Pinterest for a huge variety of reasons. Generally speaking, it’s a platform used to discover exciting trends and products, which means you need to have yours advertised there. This is the case whether you sell protein shakes or holidays.
Also, don’t believe the gender bias myth, that Pinterest is only for women. While it’s true that there is a more significant percentage of female users than males, the truth has greatly been skewered, with now 40% of users male. And the amount of new male users is growing all the time, with 50% YoY growth.
It Drives Traffic And Helps With Link Building
As each pin can have a link to it, Pinterest is an excellent way of driving traffic to your site. With every pin you create you can attribute a weblink to it, which means as soon as users find something they are into, they can then go directly to that site. It’s why Pinterest has been labelled by many as a visual search engine. And on top of that, each pin also counts as an inbound link, which helps improve your SEO.
It’s Not Driven By Vanity In The Way Other Social Networks Are
The key metrics on social media platforms are about garnering as much visible engagement as possible. Driving conversation, harvesting reactions and collating likes; all these have figures which the audience can see. While Instagram has started allowing users to hide these stats, these networks are all a numbers game which means you can end up wasting time on posts that get a reaction from your audience but don’t further your goals.
Pinterest isn’t the same, which means there’s no reason to create posts that get loads of likes but do nothing to push conversions. Good Pinterest activity is about showcasing your products in the best possible way; you don’t need to focus as much on beating the algorithm.
Its Users Are Very Much In The Buying Mindset
The final reason is probably the most important of all. When customers scroll through their Facebook, Twitter or Instagram feeds, they’re not always in the buying mindset. People use social networks to connect with friends and family, which means ads or sales content on these platforms always runs the risk of being intrusive for the user.
Pinterest users specifically use the platform to locate and find things and will be much more likely to purchase what they discover. This not only increases the success of your pins, it means ads feel more natural. Being served an ad for something you’re into on a social network isn’t always a good thing, even if it is a product or service you’d consider purchasing. Seeing the same ad when you’re actively searching for that item is a much more valuable experience.
Author Bio: Jimmy Coultas works for UK-based digital agency Soap Media. You can read more about their social media marketing.
If you are interested in even more social media-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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