Well Isn’t That Pinteresting….

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

I must confess, I am OBSESSED with Pinterest. My fiancé has experienced a sudden improvement in my cooking, my winter wardrobe wish list has grown exponentially and my new apartment has been cleverly decorated; all a result of countless Pinterest-inspired ideas.

But Pinterest isn’t just for the individual – it can also be a powerful marketing and revenue-producing tool for a brand or business. Earlier this year, Shareaholic conducted a study that found Pinterest to drive more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. Let me give you a “real life” example that I recently experienced:

With my June wedding getting closer by the day, I have spent countless hours searching for bridesmaid dresses that would meet my specific criteria (color, style and price point). Upon moving my search to Pinterest, I quickly found the ideal dress. Clicking through the pin took me to the dress’s Etsy shop that is run by an upcoming dress designer. This dress designer, thanks to Pinterest, will now have 6 additional sales under their belt (my bridal party) and has been exposed to countless other potential customers as a result of this one pin. That’s a pretty good return on investment considering Pinterest is FREE and pinning content requires minimal effort. Just image what it might be able to do for YOUR brand or business!

Here at DEMA, our Pinterest boards are aimed at encouraging and supporting the Diving lifestyle as well as sharing Industry news. In an attempt to track how successful our efforts are, I have come across Pinpuff, a free web app that measures your virality and influence on Pinterest.

DEMA is using this as a tool to gauge our influence by tracking and watching our Reach Score, Activity Score, Virality Score and overall Pinfluence Score. Perhaps it will be a handy tool for you as well.

What I appreciate about Pinpuff is that:

• Your score is generated instantly.
• It gives you helpful suggestions to boost your reach.
• It lists the number of likes and repins each of your boards has received (up to 20 boards) which can help you see what sort of content is most likely to be shared.
• It tells you here what is considered a good, average or poor score so you can easily gauge how well you are doing!

By monitoring your Pinterest content, you can track how successful your efforts are, where they might need some additional attention, or, if you are running a campaign/game/contest you can get an idea of how much participation it’s getting. (Doing a quick search online will give you countless ideas for contests, strategies, games and other creative ideas that you can use to drive your Pinterest influence.)

If you aren’t already on Pinterest, take a moment to check it out and think about how you might be able to use it to the benefit of your business or brand. And be sure to connect with DEMA on Pinterest and don’t forget to click follow!

If you have discovered any other useful tools for keeping tabs on your Pinterest influence, or a strategy that you MUST share, please do so here!