There’s a reason so many brands and businesses are creating a marketing strategy just for Pinterest. It’s a huge traffic driver. Recent statistics show it provides more referral traffic to other websites than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.
Whether you’re a blogger, a retail boutique, or a radio station, traffic to your website is important. Web traffic makes advertisers happy, and your station may gain new listeners both within and outside your market from Pinterest referrals. If your website content is good, those visitors may become regulars. They might listen online, and again in the car when they head to work the next morning. They might even pin your content, increasing your reach yet again.
Almost 70% of Pinterest users are female. 50% have children. The age demographic is varied, with 27% 25-34, 29% 35-44, 24% 45-54. The site receives almost 1.5 million visitors every day, with users spending an average of almost 16 minutes per visit (which exceeds Facebook at 12.1 minutes). See the infographic below for a visual display of these Pinterest stats and more.
Both the demographics and the power of Pinterest as a referral source for websites make it perfect for Top 40 radio.
However, the nature of Pinterest is different than other platforms. Show up and do what you do on Facebook or Twitter and you’re destined to fail. Treat Pinterest as a “what’s in it for her” experience, and you’ll be rewarded with the virality of repins, an increase in web traffic, engaged listeners and happy clients.
Embrace The Top 40 Lifestyle: Get In Her Head
Define your station’s target listener. Go beyond the age and gender to determine what she does during a typical day. What are her interests? What are her problems? Defining these will help you create a content strategy for your station’s Pinterest account.
80% of pins are repins, meaning Pinterest users are browsing to curate content from pinners they follow (and not always to create organic pins from the web). This could be thrilling or damaging, depending on the strength of your station’s content. The pro: There is a strong chance your content will be repinned if it’s good, expanding your reach and website traffic. The con: Station-centric content can’t be your focus. You won’t gain any followers, as only the most devoted P1s will repin a promotional image or DJ blog.
Users are looking for content they can identify with to repin as a form of self-expression or content they can come back to later like household tips, recipes, or products to purchase.
The most popular categories on Pinterest are Home, Arts and Crafts, Fashion, and Food. Use your listener profile to expand your strategy beyond these.
If 50% of Pinterest users have kids, and many Top 40 listeners do too, create content for Moms. For example, pin family-friendly events from your website’s event calendar to a Pinterest board for your Mama listeners. Or create a fitness board to help new Moms lose weight. Follow the example of Star 94/Atlanta and pin cute kid pics.
Use Pinterest to engage listeners on topics they enjoy. Use it to drive traffic back to your website, too. Create boards that represent features on your website. For example, a Sleaze board where you can pin entertainment and pop culture news from the station website, and other sources, too.
Add content to your website with the Pinterest mindset to ensure stories, promotions and events have an attractive image to pin. Use teases to ensure your followers will read the full story on your site.
While it’s essential to pin like a listener, don’t forget to include content expected from a radio station. Create boards for music you play, concerts in your market, personality blogs, and more.
Need help? An intern (ahem, ‘pintern’) in your demo might not be a bad idea.
Source for statistics and image: medianewsinpics.com
Image created by Modea