Power Sellers Unite

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

The verdict is still out on whether using Pinterest can help your online sales, but this fairly new "social networking" site is engaging enough to try just for the fun of it. To call it an online bulletin board or collage where you "pin" photos doesn't do Pinterest justice. When Chris Brogan asked on Google Plus how people were using it, the replies from his followers showed how versatile Pinterest is: wish list, scrapbook, photo album, recipe file, inspiration wall, wedding or travel planning, renovation inspiration, and more.

Ecommerce consultant and certified eBay instructor Stephanie Inge of Virtual Training Camp calls Pinterest a "pleasurable escape from mundane daily life" and highly recommends online sellers join Pinterest. "You don't feel like you're shopping or being sold to. That is a huge plus!" (Here is a link to her Pinterest page.)

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m02/i03/s01

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

Related:

"Pinterest Adding Affiliate Links Without Disclosing"

Most people who use Pinterest are there for the cool things they can find and re-pin. Many of those find and pint new items themselves, adding to the experience overall. Lots of people have expressed dismay that someone might want to use Pinterest for anything commercial, while other see no problem with it so long as they don’t wind up feeling “sold to” every time they visit the site.

Some items pinned on Pinterest are for sale. Not necessarily directly by the pinner, but somewhere. And, Pinterest is taking advantage of this to make money. If an item is available through an affiliate marketing arrangement, Pinterest uses a program called SkimLinks to add their unique identifier to the link, thus generating a commission for themselves if you buy the item.

Most people don’t have a problem with this. If they choose to buy something they found on Pinterest, they are fine with the site getting a commission. But, the issue some have with the practice is that Pinterest never told them this was happening.

http://www.webpronews.com/pinterest-affiliate-links-2012-02

Digmen1 · Joined: 12 Feb 2010 Posts: 1007

The thing with all these types of sites from an auction sellers point of view is that

1 If the site is too big, your item will never the seen amongst thousands of others.

2 If the site is too small, your item will never get seen.

The problem is that the internet is now too big.

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

"Pinterest drives shoppers to Gemvara"

Even before custom jewelry retailer Gemvara.com605Gemvara.comJewelryOnline Sales:$8,285,883 Growth:NA See More . became actively engaged on Pinterest about six months ago, the web merchant’s customers were already talking about the brand’s products on the fledgling social network.

In fact, it was those digital conversations that drove Gemvara to begin interacting on the social network, which launched less than two years ago and enables users to ‘Pin’ things on the web that they like, such as a particular piece of jewelry. Those Pins are then gathered together on the user’s Board, which she can organize and share with friends. Consumers can follow other shoppers on the social network, which enables them to see each others’ Boards; that also can help consumers discover brands or products.

Consumers cannot buy Gemvara products directly from Pinterest. Being on the social network, though, helps the retailer to reach an engaged fan base, says Brian Kalma, Gemvara’s chief experience officer. “We want to have a conversation where users are by posting meaningful and inspiring content,” he says.

http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/02/10/pinterest-drives-shoppers-gemvara

angelsolutions

Even writers like me have seen HUGE traffic spike from Pinterest. Use a good picture and description and anyone can "like" it. Better yet, they can "pin it" to their board...where others can see it and pin it. Very nice.

The traffic I've seen from Pinterest is substantial. One has only to be willing to learn & try something new to decide whether it will benefit them or not.

Five Ways Brands Can Leverage Pinterest Now

6 Tips for Tapping Pinterest's Surging Popularity

How to make money with Pinterest

And finally, if Etsy likes it, I love it!

Etsy on Pinterest

Here's me! boutiqueshops on Pinterest

Go for it!
sylvia

caljackscollectibles · Joined: 08 Feb 2011 Posts: 251 Location: California

angelsolutions
Thanks for the helpful information.

timjones · Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 15 Location: Virginia

Pinterest is definitely the next facebook and twitter. I believe businesses and e-commerce will somehow merge with their customers using the pinterest sharing/pinning platform.

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

"Pinterest pins up business for Etsy and Kate Spade"

Etsy.com, the popular e-marketplace for handcrafted goods, reports having more than 35 million unique monthly visitors to its more than 800,000 online shops selling items like jewelry, needlecraft and coffee mugs—and $525 million in gross merchandise sales in 2011.

It’s not surprising, then, that Etsy is also a top player on social discovery site Pinterest.com, where its roughly 46,000 followers “Pin” products from the Etsy marketplace for other consumers to see.

Pinterest, with 12 million actively engaged consumers, offers a ready audience that promises to support further growth at Etsy and other retail sites that take steps to manage their presence on Pinterest, says Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor Corp., a company that helps online retailers engage consumers through e-marketplaces. (An article by Wingo, “Pinterest For Beginners,” appears in the March issue of Internet Retailer.)

http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/03/01/pinterest-pins-business-etsy-and-kate-spade

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

"Pinterest Falls Victim to Spam Attacks"

You cannot deny Pinterest’s inclusion as a major social media player these days. The company cracked the top 30 in pageviews last week and now has over 100 million Monthly Active Users (MAU) in the U.S. alone.

Unfortunately, the features that make this site so popular with users also make it very susceptible to spam. On Facebook, you must friend someone in order for them to spam your newsfeed, and even then you know who it is coming from and you can decide to “defriend.” Pinterest, on the other hand, shows pin of people you are not following yet. While this may help you broaden your horizons, so to speak, it makes it difficult to tell where spam is coming from.

http://www.webpronews.com/pinterest-falls-victim-to-spam-attacks-2012-03

dticorp · Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 1760

Pinterest Now 3rd Most Popular Social Network

Pinterest is now the third most popular social networking site in the U.S. and could help foster "meaningful connections" between retailers and consumers. That's according to a lengthy new 2012 Digital Marketer report from Experian.

Rest of the article here:
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2166550/Pinterest-Now-3rd-Most-Popular-Social-Network-Study?

http://www.DtiCorp.com/

HONEYWELL Thermostats and HVAC Controls

http://www.ListFree.org/

ListFree.org - Free Press Release portal

.

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

"Pinterest Spam: Site Seeing Influx Of Fake Accounts"

As soon as any website starts to gain attention, it invariably becomes a target for spammers and scammers–people who create faux accounts in order to lure users in to their site, whether it’s for hacking purposes or just to get them to click on an offer. Pinterest, a company which is quickly rising in the ranks of social media, is no exception.

Although it’s not your typical social site–users don’t have to be “friends” with one another to see their photo posts–it has nonetheless been the victim of an influx of spam lately and addressed the issue on their blog:

“In most cases, spam accounts on Pinterest create pins with misleading links and follow many people in hopes that you’ll visit their boards. You don’t need to be concerned if a spam account follows you on Pinterest, but you should definitely feel empowered to let us know about it.”

http://www.webpronews.com/pinterest-spam-site-seeing-influx-of-fake-accounts-2012-04

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

"Pinterest May Be a Flash in the Pan"

Nicholas Carlson over at Business Insider is reporting on an interesting phenomenon involving Pinterest’s popularity. It seems the number of Pinterest users has been falling since mid-March. Using information from AppData, a site that measures metrics for apps on different platforms, Business Insider is estimating the app has lost around 3 million monthly active users since March 1st.

Carlson speculates that media coverage spurred a lot of users to try out the app who didn’t stick with it. He points out that Google trends shows searches for Pinterest growing at a pretty crazy rate since late last year. It’s hard to sustain that kind of explosive growth, and I suppose, as does Carlson, that a correction of sorts was inevitable. Take a look at the graph and interpret it for yourself:

http://www.webpronews.com/pinterest-may-be-a-flash-in-the-pan-2012-04

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

"Pinterest leads to sales"

Pinterest isn’t just one of the fastest-growing social networks around. It is also driving shoppers to make purchases.

32% of online shoppers have made a purchase based on what they’ve seen on Pinterest and other image-sharing sites, according to a new survey from Bizrate Insights. These sites focus primarily on enabling consumers to select images and other content from the web, rather than posting original content as shoppers often do on sites like Facebook or Twitter. While Pinterest is the dominant image-sharing site, with 18.2 million unique visitors in March, according to web traffic measurement firm Compete.com, other sites in the category include Polyvore (which had 2.2 million unique visitors in March) and Juxtapost (13,340 unique visitors in March).

The report also found 37% of consumers have seen on image-sharing sites items they want to buy but have not. Bizrate’s report is based on a survey of 3,741 online shoppers conducted in late March. The report gave no similar data for Facebook or other social networks.

http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/04/25/pinterest-leads-sales

ShopSmart · Joined: 18 May 2012 Posts: 5

Piterest definitely have huge potential, due to simple fact: people prefer nice quality image with very small text, much more more than opposite (much text without image)

I don't think that Pinterest will beat or replace FB or Twitter but will make new step in online shopping so all sellers should be there

Izzonet · Joined: 02 May 2012 Posts: 7

Hello,

It early to tell if Pinterest is going to be the next facebook and twitter.
In the future, if Pinterest will work well, it will contribute a lot to the e-commerce platform.