Five Ways Brands Can Leverage Pinterest Now. Editor’s Note: Reggie Bradford is the Founder and CEO of Vitrue, a provider of social marketing SaaS solutions.
Follow Reggie on Twitter at @ReggieBradford and Vitrue @Vitrue. Pinterest is hot. White hot. The 2011 Crunchie award winner for Best New Startup has been on a roll lately, hitting almost 12 million monthly unique visitors and crossing the 10 million milestone faster than any previous independent site, according to comScore. And a new report from Shareaholic indicates Pinterest is already generating more referral traffic to websites than YouTube, Reddit, Google+, and LinkedIn combined.
The social content curation service has captured the attention of millions with a unique platform that allows users to express interests and ideas through visually appealing images on virtual bulletin boards. Vitrue has been following Pinterest closely as part of our normal vigilant assessment of the social space. Here are five ways brands can leverage Pinterest now: 1. 7 Examples of Brands That Pop on Pinterest. I’m sitting here next to an empty pan of mini red velvet donuts, and all I want to do is find another recipe to bake this weekend.
No, my first stop won’t be the Food Network, Gourmet, or Cooking Light. What I am dying to do is head over to my new obsession -- Pinterest -- to discover the next pastry to tackle. Currently, I'm using Pinterest to save links to just about everything: recipes I love, clothes I want to buy, or furniture I want to furnish my house with someday. As a 25-year-old graduate student, someday is a little farther off than I’d like, but it’s best to be prepared.
Since you already know how to use Pinterest for marketing, now you're probably craving some inspirational real-life examples of brands using it effectively. Based on this data, it's not surprising that many businesses-focused early adopters have been lifestyle brands like home goods retailer West Elm and Real Simple Magazine. Chobani What They're Doing Right: Oreck Yes, the vacuum cleaner brand. Mashable Etsy. 9 brands taking Pinterest by storm (single page view) Unless you live under a rock, you've already heard something about Pinterest, the remarkable social community built around virtual bulletin boards of photos, videos, and content that members find online.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about Pinterest is that its growth hasn't been driven by millennials or techies or any of the usual suspects. Nielsen reports that 23.7 million U.S. uniques visited Pinterest in February, more than double the traffic from just two months earlier. Further, Nielsen reports that more than 70 percent of the unique are women, and that the highest penetration is among women age 25 to 34. With all that traffic and passion, it's natural that brands are jumping on the bandwagon in some interesting ways.
The key to Pinterest is to communicate the brand's broadest essence and mission. Here are nine examples of brands pinning their way to success.