I can’t really figure out how this is possible.  If you actually use pinterest it’s hard to imagine it ever driving much traffic.  It’s really only used for posting images, and the full size image is posted right there on pinterest for people to see.  

Now the image DOES technically link back to the site it came from, but the reality is that there’s no reason for anyone to ever click that link because the full image is right there and pinterest users are only interested in that image.

wow on  the  graph….

@joshtyler thats  not  always  true,  as a user i go  back to the url   from a picture a lot…..  thinking  i like  that i wonder what else they have….i also use the little   box,down on the left  of  the pin,  that  says, other pictures from  xxx… 

 and as a business thats  the  reasoning  behind putting my  website on  my  pictures  from the store….

i wouldnt   want to  try to  chart the  traffic  from pinterest….but its   flowing thru   my  customers for sure and they are talking   to me about my   pins….not  sure how   to use it  better tho…so  far its  pretty much    going on  by  itself  for us….

I have been using it most as my own bookmarking and resource site to share information and particulary infographics on social media its great! I have not yet tested it propery to drive traffic back to my website but I am going to give it a whirl with a forthcoming project and see what happens!

@russellallert thanks for sharing!
@samanthagentile @annfurnivall i too often visit the site behind the pic but unfortunately a lot of times it lead to a tumblr page with one image and loads of people who have share and nothing else – looks spammy and is annoying as I can’t often find out what the place is (i guess that is where people just look at images only and move on as per @joshtyler)

There was something that came out called Pintics which was supposed to analyse Pinterest but signed up and heard nothing since so not sure if they are still developing or they were just harvesting email addresses

@joshtyler i agree  completlely….to  me pinterest is  like the icing on the cake… BUT i think  you are right, its not  the place where  folks  would  go  to actually look  for  something…its more like  they  bump into   me…..   ….     the  best stuff  is  coming  from our google to our website, we are on the first page for  antiques indiana,    and  from our  facebook….then   for  keeping in  touch with our  actual  customers   facebook is  the  very  best   thing…..

  but pinterest   is  good   too…its  so new and different…im  thinking  for  me it will  be lots of  folks  who  could never get to m y store…thats  nice but no  real  business, in my regional situation,… so im  not  counting on it  for anything…mainly enjoying and watching…it looks  major  just  because of the huge numbers on there….

@russellallert I’m definitely not disputing the statistics, I’d just like to hear an explanation of how that happens.  It doesn’t make much sense. 

I think if we could understand why/how this is happening we might all be using Pinterest better.

From what I know of pinterest though, those stats don’t fit with the way I know the site is used.

@joshtyler josh, im pretty sure i read that  pinterest  has  changed   etsy  traffic majorly…..  viewers  going  right  from pinterest to the artists   etsy selling page…..  etsy is  all about  art and fashion….big big on on pinterest….

i have  800 followers on  some of my  boards and  hear pinterest talk about everyday in the store….at  the least its   giving me  good  buzz…which  helps  even tho hard to measure…

check out some  women   arty   users if  you know any…or etsy  members  .or wedding planners  and  you will get a  big  happy  view of   pinterest…  

@joshtyler me again….heres an  example for you….lets  pretend  ..you are in the wedding  business~~~, cakes, dresses, catering, photography or??…  you are in one of those  businesses…. you have a bride….   you  can  figure most of your  brides are on pinterest  ,trust me,  they are there, madly   colllecting images,  sharing with family, looking for ideas….

lets  say  you are  CAKES BY JOSH, …..your  business gets involved with her  , YOUR CUSTOMER,  in  2  big ways , … …#1..you are on pinterest   with your  georgous  cakes and all kinds of  wedding  boards, making  you one  of  the   go to places for  planning for her huge  20,000 $$ wedding   day, or more,  and   many of  her   advisors will be on there too……. they will  experience you  , she  might put your cake  on HER   BOARD and   your wevbsite is on it and a link  to your   pinterest  boards,  , she  says” i llke   that  cool  cake on josh’s  pinterest  board”..or “which  cake  looks  better with my  dress”,   .this   could  go on and on  for months and   most of  your  brides   friends    are  also  future  cake  buyers too..you could be  even  more  visited   if  you had other related  boards ,like  tables,centerpieces, ???, ………and #2  you will   get  huge insight into  your  customers   if  you  watch their  boards on pinterest or  any wedding  boards…….  you   will learn  whats  good in cakes  [from  WATCHING    repins]……

now if  you are in  banking or  marketing advice or web work im not  sure if  your  efforts w ould  be  worth it…i doubt it , but  could  be so  wrong…i sure  wouldnt use pinterest to   find   facebook or  web information….

this info  MIGHT  SEEM      kind of indirect if  you  are the kind of  guy who  has to have  perfect   roi proof  from an expert….but just look   on pinterest and   weddings…lots of   real  business going on…

 if  you have business  clients who    deal in the  big pinterest   fields: women, fashion, art, homes, kids  , food,  ,  then i think  you   could   see  some  value in  my   bridal story above…if  you are thinking of web coaching/ marketing  then i  think  you are  right , pinterest might not  be    worth the trouble….

ONE MORE POINT…. i get it that  your  cake   website is  much  better than pinterest in many ways…..  BUT  the planning  is  going on on pinterest….thats where   they are looking at pictures and picking stuff out and  referring  back and forth….they are there,  thats  why   you  should  be  there as well as  your website… and  your website is on  every on e of your pictures….the   wonder of pinterest is the ease of   organizing   pictures…

@marylarson  Thanks for sharing that, Mary. I hvae been meaning to sign up.

@hildaalanisgonzalez Thanks for sharing, Hilda! I am glad to see you are building up your traffic.

@deairby …i havent  thought about  captions  much, guess  i better try that more……..but i do  put  in links  when its  from  my site or  blog…   

@laurachristianson ok….whats a hash tag?  and  what  does that  do on pinterest?  

im getting  a lot of   visits  from  pinterest  too….nothing   has  really  gone  viral   tho….  one of  my pins   got on a  blog   with  my site and i  got about  10  visits   from that…..  this is  so  exciting  and  who  knows  how it  will really work out!!!  

i have  800  followers  on one of  my  boards…

thanks  laura,   thats  wierd, i never knew that..ive heard of them  about  twitter, but i  dont   do twitter..what  would  be an obvious  hash tag  for me?  … @laurachristianson   my pinterest is   so organic. and i  know a lot of people in the junk/recyclinlg/artistic/retail    worlds……it has  really  spread  for me… and  i have my store  customers and  facebook  fans    for a start….who knows  tho…

heres my  board with over 800   http://pinterest.com/annatgreenoak/junk-pile/

  my  other boards  are  .mostly  over  500… …i dont know  these people, like i know  my facebook  fans…. its all about the pictures….my  favorite pinner is in brazil…

@deairby I think these will be as important as blog headlines.

I have a few questions about Pinterest:

Is it a good practice to have many boards and many people following each of these boards? I have 23 boards with an average of about a thousand + following each, but I only have 553 following all my boards.

Am I spreading us (my company) too thin? I never really had a Pinterest strategy, it was more  just sharing cool things as they came up.

If this is too much, is there a way to “merge” boards?

Thanks New here, btw, so I hope this was the appropriate place to post my question.

  @annfurnivall Ann, thanks for your feedback! It is interesting. I like it too

  I Just started  with Pinterest  Love it thanks for the information

I have read quite a few of the posts here and have to disagree with those who say that Pinterest isn’t that good. It all depends on your target audience. My target audience are parents, more often they will be mums with school aged children as I publish a quality education magazines for parents and teachers (k-12) and many of the people on Pinterest fit this audience either as a mum or both teacher and mum. I find that they are very active – my articles are consistently being repinned and my boards followed, so for me although I was sceptical of Pinterest at first because it looks soooo girly and not something that I would belong to personally, but then I thought there maybe some people here who are interested and they are! My next best is Twitter (great for professional links) and least of all Facebook.

@lukaspleva Hi Lukas

I agree that it’s not all about quantity of traffic but the quality of that traffic (as I mentioned in a follow up post), and I have yet to see a direct line from Pinterest to a conversion, but that doesn’t mean it is not happening.

Pinterest for that particular client, at the moment, is more of a branding exercise as the biggest users of Pinterest are the demographic they are after. And as that builds so will visits to the website. 

Hope that helps. 

Russell

@annfurnivall

I am sorry, but how can you not worry about conversions? How do you measure the success of any of your marketing campaigns / branding efforts?

i have to   measure by  comon sense..kind of like a farmer  walking  thru  the farm and   taking in all the  evidence,,,,….. we have so many marketing   things  going on… we are  brick and mortar…we  dont  expect   measuring like  you  can when you sell online…..   we have  word of mouth, billboards, long time email list, long time mailing list,a blog,   2600  facebook  fans,, nice first page    google standing for our  major  words, , 30 +pinterest  boards  several  with   1000  followers…  and  years of business… so how in  the  world  could i  sort  all that out and  tell who  came  from  where?   i still have to judge and  decide where to  put  our marketing     efforts…but  what  you  do and what works  for a  place like mine isnt  the same…..   ..