Can Pinterest increase your business?

The quick answer is MAYBE.

If you missed the bandwagon, Pinterest is a virtual “bulletin board,” driven by social image sharing that allows “pinners” to view an image, write their own caption, and then link back to the original source. Users can browse other people’s bulletin boards, “repin” images to their own board, and comment on or “like” other images.

It is obvious that Pinterest can generate referral traffic to you website. However, what can this mean for your business and how do you start using this technology?

There are two approaches to growing your business using Pinterest: active or passive. For instance, if your car is dirty, would you take a passive approach and wait for it to rain, or would you take an active approach and get out a bucket, soap, sponge and hose and wash it yourself?

Of course we all wish it would just rain, but sometimes there is a drought and we need to be proactive and wash the car. The same principle applies to using Pintrest to promote your business. Don’t wait for people to accidentally find you. Instead, create an account, pin some images, gather some followers and start proactively building awareness. Eventually, you will drive more traffic to your website.

Navigating social media and learning how to use the tools to gain awareness and drive traffic takes time, practice and patience. What images are other people repinning? What are people searching for? Follow other people who are interested in similar topics. Just remember to be patient and have fun with it!

Pinterest is one of the easiest social media sources for tracking traffic back to your website. All pins linking back to your website are consolidated by source (whether you set up an account or not) at pinterest.com/source/ + yourdomain.com/. For example, you can see all pins from Apple.com at pinterest.com/source/apple.com/.

Need help navigating social media and understanding how to use it to market your business? Just Design can help!