Pinterest Reported the 3rd Most-Visited Social Site: What That Means for You

According to a new report released by Experian Marketing Services, Pinterest is now the third most-visited social networking site in the U.S., falling just behind Facebook and Twitter.

This standing is pretty impressive considering that the sites traffic just started to grow exponentially in October 2011. In fact, between January and February of this year, traffic jumped 50%.

The figures from this report show it’s obvious that Pinterest is becoming an important tool for social media marketing. If you haven’t considered Pinterest as part of your web marketing strategy yet, here are a few things to get you thinking about it.

What is Pinterest Anyway?

Pinterest is a social networking site that allows users to “pin” or images to virtual idea, or “pin” boards. These pinned images automatically link back to the original site when clicked on by a viewer.

Users are highly connected with their Facebook and Twitter and can also “follow” other users and their pin boards. Users can view a live feed of everything that is being pinned by their followers, or they can browse through various categories of pins that are being posted to the pin market by other users throughout the site.

Additionally, users can even use Pinterest as a search engine to find other related pins to their search query. Pinterest is an extremely valuable tool for referral marketing because of both the visual appeal and the credibility created by its social nature.

Reaching Your Target Audience

Pinterest has an overwhelming majority of female users, specifically in the 25-34 age group, but its male demographic is certainly increases as more people join the network. Your content doesn’t just have to appeal to women, but it will certainly have a better chance of gaining popularity and providing referral traffic to your site if it does.

Visual Appeal

One of the most important things you need to consider before creating your Pinterest strategy is making sure you can not only provide great content on your blog or site, but that you create visual appeal for that content as well. Catchy visuals will be the first key in getting people interested in your pins.

Great content will keep your referral traffic interested in your site. Infographics are a great way to combine both of those elements, and many marketers have had great success with infographics on Pinterest. Memes are also another great way to generate interest in your content.

Outreach

Just like any other social media site, the secret to success is to create content that people will share. Add a “pin it” button to your site or blog so people can easily add your content and visuals to their pin boards. Let your other social media followers know that you now have a presence on Pinterest, too.

One of the best ways to get visibility for your pins, and ultimately for your site, is to get people to “re-pin” your content. Find opinion leaders, or those with a large number of Pinterest followers, in your niche and reach out to them with your content. Your pins could get thousands of exposures if they are re-pinned by an opinion leader.

Stick With It

As much as we hope it will, not every video, blog post, or infographic we create will go viral. Viral content typically isn’t planned, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work toward it.

Your success with generating traffic from Pinterest might not seem too successful in the beginning stages, but if you stick with it, you’ll be able to acquire a base of followers that will help generate more traffic to your site.

Have you tried Pinterest to promote your products and services ?