When was the last time you went to a store and bought a big ticket without researching online?

If you’re like the 93 percent of Pinterest users who use the social media platform to plan their purchases, you really can’t remember.

Pinterest is the number one shopping destination for millennials, making it a network for top social media influencers. As a leading driver of website traffic, an online shopping mall and a powerful search engine, these influencers know that Pinterest is much more than just a fun social network – it’s an unbeatable business tool.

Read on to find out:

  • Successful Pinterest strategies from leading social media influencers
  • How can you increase website traffic with a smart Pinterest approach?
  • Expert tips for optimizing Pinterest as a search engine for your brand

Justina Blakeney

Today’s popular bohemian aesthetic owes a lot to designer and artist Justina Blakeney. As creator of TheJungalow.com blog and author of the bestselling book New BohemiansBlakeney’s 1.5 million social media followers see his word as gospel when it comes to the more-in-design approach.

Part of his success has come from creating an approachable and immediately recognizable brand. The rest is just insightful analytics strategy.

“I give myself the freedom to have fun [social], try and try new things. This allows me to easily turn around when things on the platform change,” Blakeney told Forbes. “However, I tend to watch my stats pretty carefully. If a photo is performing particularly well (or particularly badly), I try to identify why. Over time I notice patterns and use these patterns to help me grow.”

When it comes to your Pinterest strategy, you can’t ignore your analytics. With your Pinterest business account, use the available local analytics tools to see which Pins are performing best, how much traffic your website is getting from Pinterest, key metrics about your audience, and actionable insights to help improve your strategy.

Pay attention to your Pinterest analytics like Justina Blakeney:

  • Knowing which metrics to monitor. Key Pinterest metrics include impressions (the number of times your Pin appears in the Home Feed, search results, and category areas), clicks (the number of times someone clicks on your website through a Pin), and savings (the number of your Pin). How many times someone has saved your content.) Learn more with our Pinterest Analytics Tools and Tips for Measuring Success article.
  • Using results to guide your strategy. If you’re not really doing anything with that data, tracking metrics are useless. As Blakeney mentioned above, it’s important to use catchy patterns in your followers’ activities to influence your content strategy. If your audience isn’t saving or clicking through to your recipes but loves your DIY content, it may be time to slow down on food-centric posts.
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Hand Luggage Only

With 4.4 million monthly Pinterest profile visitors, it’s fair to say that Lloyd and Yaya from the Hand Luggage Only travel blog are doing something right.

With Pinterest now reaching twice as many travelers as the top online travel agency sites, creating a strategy for networking has never been easy.

“Travellers continue to make trips around major vacations, despite an increase in breaks and long weekend trips,” explains Pinterest’s Talia Parnass. “Our Contingency Planner reveals that people on Pinterest start searching for your travel ideas much sooner than on other platforms.”

In addition to pre-planning, Yaya and Lloyd ensure website content is optimized for Pinterest. Every post they share is equipped with a Save button that helps website visitors easily post content from the site to their Pinterest profile.

As Pinterest explains, “The Save button is the best way for your business to be discovered on Pinterest. When you add the Save button to your site’s pages, your customers can save things they like on Pinterest, which means more people can find those things.” Learn how to add the Save button to your own website with Pinterest’s help article.

Yaya and Lloyd make their visual content work for Pinterest with the Save button on their site. Every blog post they share includes an image specifically designed to share on Pinterest. It is usually a scenic travel attraction with the name of the country or geographic region and a short description. This way, viewers can save the website page and travel guide on their Pinterest board, including a clear and aesthetically pleasing cover.

  • Plan your content ahead of time. Whether you’re a travel-oriented business or not, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re aware of related holidays or other events where you can post content. Pinterest Pins have a half-life of 151,200 minutes (compared to 90 minutes for a Facebook post), so the sooner you share your content, the better.
  • Optimize your website for Pinterest. Add the save button and you’ll always have a Pinterest-worthy cover image your audience can use for their boards. You want to make it as easy as possible for your website visitors to share your content with Pinterest and then drive traffic back to your site.
  • Consider each stage of your audience’s journey. Yaya and Lloyd create content that addresses the imagination and booking stages of their target audiences, as well as the planning stage of the research process. Pinterest shares helpful guidelines for helping travel brands stay relevant at every stage of the customer journey, but these tips can apply to most businesses.

Lauren Toyota

Growing awareness of health issues, the environment, and sustainability is seeing vegan bloggers like Hot for Food’s Lauren Toyota grow in popularity.

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Pinterest is an excellent platform for recipe sharing, thanks to the network’s visual emphasis and primary discoverability functions.

“Pinterest is more of a search engine than a social network,” said Brian Monahan, Head of Vertical Strategy at Pinterest. The network saw a 40 percent year-over-year increase in mobile searches; this growth is one that shows no signs of slowing down.

Pinterest’s visual discovery tools also played a big part in this search evolution. The lens search feature allows Pinterest app users to search for objects they’ve photographed in the real world. For example, you can take a photo of a tomato or other food item and Pinterest will show you recipe ideas with the ingredients. Learn more about the new image search features in Pinterest’s newsletter here.

When it comes to Lauren Toyota’s Pinterest strategy, it’s clear that search and discoverability play a big role. Brands can’t ignore SEO because users search on Pinterest the same way they search on Google.

Toyota’s Pinterest account is a testament to the importance of smart keywords and content descriptions. Its target audience is looking for vegan recipes as well as more specific ingredients like vegan comfort food, vegan desserts, and vegan brunch. Toyota’s Pinterest boards are tagged with relevant key search terms, and each Pin – whether it’s its own original content or shared from another influencer – includes a clear, keyworded description.

To make sure your content is as discoverable and search-friendly as Lauren Toyota’s:

  • Make sure you use the right keywords. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to get ideas and pay attention to keywords used by other influencers in your industry. Optimizing your profile with your business name, website and an identifier of what you do will also show Pinterest’s search functions that you are a reliable source.
  • Consider images. With Pinterest’s focus on image search tools, it’s important to make sure you’re sharing high-quality photos and images. If someone is searching for a recipe or product using image search, you want to make sure your Pin shows up in results.
  • Use hashtags. Hashtags are a relatively new development for Pinterest, but they can be very helpful when it comes to discovering content. Use one or two relevant hashtags in post descriptions to help your audience find your content more easily.

For more on Lauren Toyota’s social media strategy, check out the latest Hootcast episode.

Pinterest is a dynamic marketing tool for businesses of all sizes. With these tips from top influencers, you’ll have no problem keeping your boards beautiful and helping your customers discover the products they love.

Save time managing your Pinterest presence using Moyens I/O. You can create, schedule and post Pins, create new boards, pin to multiple boards at once, and run all your other social media profiles from a single board. Try it for free today.

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