Pinterest Strategies

[UlsterGooner]

I've had a pinterest account for quite a while. A couple of my products went viral on it...luck I suppose. I've no idea how the pinterest algorithms work, so I have a few questions?

What is the lifespan of a pin in search results? The older the better or does it become obsolete and dead?

Should I be deleting old pins which haven't been repinned and re-pin the products keeping them fresh?

 

[Hospitality_king]

Never used pinterest - according to their website its a:

Pinterest is the world’s catalogue of ideas.

and not a promotion tool, at least we never saw it as one and its not set up as one either it seems.

After using Twitter, it does seem to be working to some level, although our traffic logs don't record traffic from any of these social networks, tis a problem we feel and why not set up to do this - with all their cash flow, kind of crazy yes?

 

[UlsterGooner]

It's very much a promotion tool! Pinterest images link directly to a product using your pinterest business account. Instant sale! You can buy promoted pins all designed to drive traffic to your site/ product.

When some genius adds a 'pinterest buy now' button on those images, I'll sign up right away.

 

[Hospitality_king]

It's very much a promotion tool!

No its not - learn to tell the difference between a site that's set up to draw in specific users compared to social sites - big difference.

btw - its easy to get a site built that houses images, links etc - even basic blogs do this very thing, unless you are now going to tell me that a blog is now a social network?

Like to see that one - it will never happen cos the sites are too different. To promote a specific product range needs a site designed to do exactly that, cant just get a blog and think the promotion job is taken care of.

 

[UlsterGooner]

So you don't like it. Well believe it or not, people use pinterest to window shop and buy. It drives traffic and sales directly to my store.

 

[Hospitality_king]

When some genius adds a 'pinterest buy now' button on those images, I'll sign up right away.

just means - many are easily sold on yet another spammer who thinks sociial untargeting is the way to do things. Mass spam is uncool man.

 

[StevePoster]

Pinterest is not as influential as Facebook and Twitter but as an effective alternate medium for reaching your target audience.

 

[fisicx]

Pinterest works best when someone else pins an image. It doesn't work so well if you are promoting your own images.

However, when your images went viral, how many extra sales did you make? Was there a direct correlation between views and conversions?

 

[UlsterGooner]

However, when your images went viral, how many extra sales did you make? Was there a direct correlation between views and conversions?

I have a stats page which tells me where the traffic is coming from and which landing page they arrived at. 300 products and then one in particular is selling every ten minutes, you know something has caught on.

I've tried twitter for a few products, but I really did feel like a spammer doing that. Keeping topical by watching the trending hashtags and promoting a funny product related to that theme...it wasn't successful. Then twitter users trend off somewhere else whereas with pinterest your image can be there for months waiting to be unearthed and repinned.

 

[fisicx]

I have a stats page which tells me where the traffic is coming from and which landing page they arrived at. 300 products and then one in particular is selling every ten minutes, you know something has caught on.

Excellent!

But was it something you pinned or something other people have pinned? It's the latter that usually brings in all the traffic.

 

[UlsterGooner]

I pinned it from my product page, it sat there for months, then got repinned thousands of times within a short space of time. Not sure why though, might have been luck or perhaps got featured on Buzzfeed or something similar.

 

[fisicx]

And that's exactly what I suggested. It's not what YOU pin, it's what other people do that makes social media work.

 

[UlsterGooner]

It depends where people find the image in the first place. They find it online themselves, pin it, all their followers repin it etc or they did a pinterest search and found my pin.

It's showing up on my board as being pinned thousands of times, then it must have been me who started it.

 

[Spock]

And that's exactly what I suggested. It's not what YOU pin, it's what other people do that makes social media work.

But in this case it all began because he pinned his own image. Sometimes you have to start the ball rolling yourself.

 

[fisicx]

I agree, but the strength of social media is what others then do with your content. You could post a thousand images on Pinterest and get nothing. But if one influencer likes something the rewards can be very lucrative. It's why you tubers make so much money, it's because they market the products others want them to do.

 

[UlsterGooner]

I get weekly emails from bloggers and social media types wanting to promote my product for a freebie. Are all of these influencers chancers? Is there someone worth paying for?

 

[fisicx]

Influencers are those who have a following. For example, a film star might tweet about an item of clothing or a book they are reading. This will generate interest from their followers and can boost sales. So if these people have a big following with lots of people buying the stuff they blog about then it can work. But most of them aren't worth talking to.

 

[McHenzy]

Yea, pinterest is definitely a medium to promote. Its an avenue to get direct sales cos generally people seems to love getting advice from reputable pinterest members. Why not buy a pin from these people and bank on it?