Pinterest in 4 Hours Over 4 Days or Less Part I

Welcome to the fastest-growing website in the history of the web. (Sorry, Twitter.) And while you may have heard about Pinterest, it is what lies behind its curtain that has the most crazy potential for your business. Users shifted to visual content in 2012 because a picture is worth a thousand words and Pinterest figured out how to take advantage of this simple fact in an elegant way.

Pinterest is likely to be the hottest social media platform for business marketers in 2013, according to Forbes. Get familiar with what makes it tick as soon as possible. It’s time to ride the visual wave.

What Is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections (“pinboards”) about events, interests, hobbies, and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, “re-pin” images to their own collections, or “like” photos. Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” via a global platform of inspiration and idea-sharing. “Pinners” can create, share, collect, and repost information in picture, image, or video format. Pinterest may not be right for everyone, but it may be easier, more fun, and more beneficial to your business to make visual versions of your content than you think.

Pinterest Is Driven by Photos

We are sitting at a crossroads of content right now and the marketplace is telling us that people are tired of reading all day long and like a visual break. No matter what business you are in, there is a visual aspect to it that you must tap into.

People love sharing images and video more than ever. The bright minds at Pinterest saw this coming. Pinterest users are predominantly women, and 70% have a household income of $100,000 or more. And yes, that is the sweet spot.

With Pinterest, you can create a visual library of your goods and services, and putting a call to action in your “pin” will help you increase people’s engagement with you.

On Pinterest, one of the quickest ways to go viral is to “repin” the photos of others. That will bring you some great attention. Some 80% of all pins are repins.