Pinterest Overview for new bloggers

Last Updated on September 12, 2020 by scottkandh

Purpose: 

Pinterest is social media network that allows users to share images associated with project, goods, and services, and to visually discover new interests by browsing images others have posted. You can think of Pinterest like a web-based pin-board or bulletin board — but with greater organizational functionality.

How do you use Pinterest?

Pinterest is a highly visual virtual pin-board site that lets you “pin” or collect images from the Web. You create boards to help you categorize your images and add descriptions to remind you why you bookmarked them in the first place.

How does Pinterest work?

How Pinterest works is it lets its users post or “pin” original visuals, and as well as bookmark or “pin” them from across the Internet. These pins make up a theme-based virtual photo album or gallery known as a “board”. When a user saves a visual (image or video) to their Pinterest account, it becomes a Pin.

Is Pinterest free to use?

Pinterest is free to use for both individual people and businesses.   A business account, which includes special promotion and analytics functions, is free as well. If you want a little more information, read below to learn about the different types of accounts you can sign up for.

How safe is Pinterest?

Pinterest is as safe to use as most other social media websites because users must sign in, and password protect their accounts. It also does not require you to enter personal or financial information, so you have little to compromise by signing up. You biggest concerns are spam or scams from other users.

Who uses Pinterest the most?

42% US women adults who uses Pinterest. 80% of US mothers who use the internet uses Pinterest. 1 out of 2 US millennial’s use Pinterest every month. The median age of a Pinterest user is 40, however, the majority of active pinners are below 40.

Why should a new blogger consider using Pinterest? 

Simple.  Look at the Pinterest Demographics, Financials, and Fun Facts listed below.   It should be clear that Pinterest is a way to help you raise revenue.  Hardly a time goes by that when I was doing an Internet search (before blogging), that I would see Pinterest and didn’t know anything about it.  But I was thought to myself, Pinterest has the best-looking graphics that I have seen, they’ve got to be expensive so I’m not going to sign up to use them.  Low and behold I start using Pinterest and I was hooked in a relatively short amount of time.  I’ve always like graphics and what better place to use than Pinterest to create a website with no experience that will catalog graphics for me that I can pull when I need them or look for ideas on projects that I want to create, products that I want to buy, and the list goes on and on. 

Pinterest Demographics

Half of Pinterest users earn $50K or greater per year, with 10 percent of Pinteresting households making greater than $125K.

71% or Pinterest users are actually Females, 40% of new users are men; 60% of new users are women; men account for 7% of total pins on Pinterest.

40% of US Dads use Pinterest; 80% of US mothers use Pinterest, more than 50% of pinners live outside the US.

34% of users 18 – 29 in the US uses Pinterest

The median age of a Pinterest user is 40, however, the majority of active pinners are below 40; 28% of marketers are already using Pinterest.

Number of people that Pinterest reports can be reached with adverts on Pinterest – 144.5 million.

Pinterest Financials

• In 2019, Pinterest generated 1.03 billion U.S. dollars in advertising.
• Pinterest went public on  April 18, 2019, pricing its shares at $19 each for its initial public offering.
• Global revenue of Pinterest Q4 2019 is $400 million with 46% growth year-over-year.
• 2019 revenue grew 51% year over year to $1,143 million.

Pinterest Fun Facts

• There are over 175 billion ideas on Pinterest.
• 83% of weekly Pinners have made a purchase based on content they saw from brands on Pinterest.
• 72% of pinners use Pinterest to decide what to buy offline.
• Six out of every 10 millennials use Pinterest to discover new products.
• Over 5% of all referral traffic to websites comes from Pinterest.
• Two-thirds of pins represent brands and products.
• Food & Drink & Technology are the most popular categories for men.
• An average Pins made by an Active Female user is 158.
• Top Categories in the US are: Art, Art Supplies & Hobbies.
• Recipes: There are more than 1.7 billion recipe Pins.
• Shopping: Every day nearly 2 million people pin and 50% of people make a purchase after seeing a promoted pin.
• Articles: More than 14 million articles are Pinned each day.
• The average time spent on Pinterest per visit is 14.2 minutes.
• 85% of users look to start new projects
• 47% of the users are using it as a platform for discovering and shopping for products.
• Average number of monthly searches on Pinterest is 2 billion.

Interested now? How do I start using Pinterest?

Fortunately, there’s a ton of information out there on how to use Pinterest. 

1. Go to www.pinterest.com
2. Click on the Sign-up button (to the far right).
3. You’ll need to enter three items:
   a. Put in your e-mail address
   b. Create a password
   c. Enter your age
   
   Lastly, press the Continue button.

• Do a search on:  Beginner’s Guide to Pinterest. Then narrow your search to videos or images.  Most of the videos will provide step by step instructions.  But for a short overview, if you select images you can hunt and peck to get a feel. 

• I haven’t done it yet myself because I’m still working on putting the finishing touches to my logo (but it’s nearly complete).  I’m going to sign up for a business account (it’s free too) to take advantage of some of the free analytical reports within the program.  In short, three things are needed:  1) Business type     2) Company logo    3) Description.