Facebook and Instagram are the heavyweights when it comes to social media. So if you use social media to promote your business or blog, you may tend to focus on these platforms. But there’s another platform you should be on: Pinterest. (Yup. You read that right.)
You may dismiss Pinterest as a platform that’s good only for collecting dinner recipes or building a mood board for your upcoming wedding. But the reality is that Pinterest drives a ton of traffic to business websites across a variety of niches. Not convinced the platform is worth your time? Here are 7 reasons why you should use Pinterest to promote your brand.
Want to skyrocket traffic to your website so you can grow your email list and make more sales?
Download my free cheat sheet on creating the perfect Pinterest account profile.
1. It has a large, growing audience
You may not hear people talk about Pinterest as much as you hear them talk about Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. But this doesn’t mean that Pinterest is on its way out. Instead, it’s a rapidly growing platform with over 175 million active monthly users. This may be in part because millennials are just as likely to use Pinterest as Instagram. And although women still dominate Pinterest’s user base, about 40% of new users are men.
In sum, when you use Pinterest to promote your brand, you have the opportunity to connect with lots of people who may be looking for a business or blog just like you.
Related: The 5 best social media platforms for promoting your blog
2. It drives lots of traffic to your website
I mentioned this at the beginning of this post, but it’s such a huge benefit that it’s worth repeating. If you want more traffic on your website or blog, you need to use Pinterest. Pinterest is more effective than any other social media platform at driving traffic to sites and blogs. In fact, it’s not hard to find entrepreneurs in a variety of niches who get most of their web traffic from Pinterest.
Of course, just being on Pinterest won’t boost your traffic. Pinterest users are looking for good content that provides lots of value. So if you want to see results on Pinterest, you’ll have to create attractive pins that link to valuable content.
Related: How to increase blog traffic without Google + free email list cheat sheet
3. It gives you more inbound links
One key way to drive more traffic to your website or blog is to create more inbound links to it. Inbound links are links that direct people from other websites and blogs to yours. Every pin you post on Pinterest contains a link back to your website or blog. As a result, each time you create an original pin on Pinterest, you create a new inbound link for your website or blog.
Inbound links increase traffic to your website or blog in two ways: First, they create more links people can use to find your website or blog. Second, they boost your SEO juice, which raises your profile in search engine rankings. So even if your goal is simply to boost traffic to your site, it’s worth your time to use Pinterest for your brand.
Related: How to properly add links to your blog posts + free worksheet
4. It converts better than other social platforms
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter may have more active monthly users than Pinterest does, but Pinterest outperforms them all in converting visitors into customers. In fact, it’s 3x more effective than Twitter at generating leads. In addition, more than 87% of users report that they bought a product because they saw it on Pinterest. And the average order size is $50, which is more than that of other social platforms. Want to get more leads or make more sales? Think about how you can use Pinterest to grow your brand.
Related: 11 tips for writing landing page copy that converts + free template
Want to skyrocket traffic to your website so you can grow your email list and make more sales?
Download my free cheat sheet on creating the perfect Pinterest account profile.
5. People use it purposefully
Most people view Pinterest as a social media platform. But it’s really more of a visual search engine. As a result, it elicits different behaviour from users. Facebook and Instagram are primarily communication tools that users casually browse. In comparison, Pinterest is a place people go to search for ideas, information, and tips, whether they’re related to going on vacation, running a business, or writing a novel. So just like they do with Google, people search with purpose when they’re on Pinterest.
Want to reach the very people who are looking for tips, products, or services you provide? Use Pinterest to find them.
6. It has great user engagement
The most common ways to engage with content on Facebook or Instagram is to like or comment on a post. Likes and comments are great, but these forms of engagement only indirectly boost the reach of your content on these platforms.
In comparison, on Pinterest, shares or “repins” are a more common form of engagement. Each share or repin puts your content in front of someone else’s audience, which makes it more likely to go viral. And you know what viral traffic leads to: a spike in traffic and conversions.
7. It can give you an edge
Unless your competitors are social media laggards, they’re probably on Facebook or Instagram (or both). But because Pinterest is a platform that’s still underused by brands, it’s less likely that they use Pinterest to market themselves. As a result, you can gain an advantage over at least some of your competitors by experimenting with Pinterest and taking advantage of the traffic and conversions it can give you.
Use Pinterest and watch your brand grow
Because they have so many active users, Facebook and Instagram may seem like the best social media platforms to be on. But if you want to tap into an underused platform that boosts your SEO, increases traffic to your site, and converts better than its competitors do, you’ve got to use Pinterest to promote your brand. All the savvy entrepreneurs are doing it, so what do you have to lose?
