Sure, in the early days of social you may have added Facebook as a link button, then you might have dabbled with video and extended out to Youtube, of course you realized early that Twitter brought something new to the table and now, what’s out there that is important enough to be called out?
Well if you are in the talent or B-to-B business – Linkedin is an absolute must. And if you are in the tech industry or have tech-fluent stakeholders – Google+ is a natural. But if you are in a consumer business, I have some pretty strong arguments that suggest Pinterest should be on there…NOW…before everybody jumps on. Although it says 69% of the world’s top businesses are on Pinterest (Source: Simply Measured), it is a hobby for most and small to mid-sized businesses have been slower to pick up on it than Twitter.
Some sellable key facts on Pinterest to your management/marketing team and digital staff:
#1 – Growth – Largest year over year increase in any social network +1,047% increase in traffic year over year for the end of 2012 (Source: Nielsen)
#2- Value in $ – Pinterest is only 2nd behind Facebook in driving retail revenues (Source: Shopify)
#3 – Consumer Category Intense – The most popular categories on Pinterest are food and drink, DIY and crafts, home, hair & beauty and fashion with a broad spectrum of other categories (Source: Repinly)
#4 – Users with Money – Pinterest users spend twice as much as Facebook users (Source: Bottica)
#5 – Female and head of household Friendly – 80% of users are women – although I have seen ranges of 63% to 90% in other reports, it’s safely the most female-centric social network in the world (Source: Ignite)
#6 – Viralness – 80% of pins are repins – truly tapping the viral grapevine – as a comparison only 1.4% of Tweets are retweets (Source: RJ Metrics)
#7 – Getting used Around the World – pictures require no translation and although ahead of the game in US and Canada is becoming addicting to most world geographies (Source: App Appeal)
#8 – Engaging – Pinterest users spend 16 minutes on the website each time they visit – more engagement than Facebook, Youtube or Twitter per episode (Source: Modea)
#9 – Trusted – 81% of women trust Pinterest – more than Facebook and Twitter and even with blogs (Source: BlogHer)
#10 – Sharing Prolific – the average pinner has 34 boards with close to 3,000 pins. and follow over 300 pinners (Source: Social School)
#11 – Unique Platform – Pinterest users are there for different reasons than Twitter – they collect things and love the words “use, look, want, and need” and Tweeters want to know the latest stuff and love the words “now, tonight, watching, going” (Source: University of Minnesota/Georgia Tech )
#12 – User-generated friendly – 70% of brand content on Pinterest is generated by users not brands (Source: Digitas)
#13 – High Daily Use and Retention – it now has 48 million users and is growing +145% in daily visitors and three times more retention of users than Twitter (Source: Mashable)
#14 – Brand-friendly – Pinterest is 50% more conducive to people wanting to accessing special offers and 80% more friendly in associating with retailers they like than Facebook (Source: Bizrate)
#15 – Product Friendly – people like to collect things and products on Pinterest, as evidence, the most repinned item ever was Garlic Cheesy Bread – 103,000 repins – have a look (Source: Pinterest Insider)
#16 – eCommerce Friendly – 80% of top 15 categories are connected to commerce – great as ordering online and through mobile ramps up with Mucho (Source: The Store Starter)
#17 – Mobile friendliness – Pinterest lead social networks with 1,698% growth on mobile app usage and 4,225% on mobile app usage (Source: Nielsen)
#18 – Search and New User Inspiration Friendly – 69% of people find an item they wanted to purchase on Pinterest vs. 40% on Faceboo (Source: Bizrate)