Why Pinterest is not a good fit for your small business

There’s no denying Pinterest is huge. People are literally obsessed with Pinterest, spending on average 1 hour and 17 minutes on the site. It would seem to be a mistake to completely write off a platform with over 70 million users worldwide; however, is Pinterest really a good fit for your small business?

Businesses on Pinterest

Pinterest is a visually dominant platform, inherently showcasing and highlighting products, brands and services (typically) of the following:

• Fashion
• Craft
• Design
• Wedding
• Art
• Food & Beverage

What about all the other industries and B2B businesses? It makes sense for a fashion company to invest in building a presence on Pinterest, as they can display new merchandise, advertise sales and provide you with examples of how to wear or use their items. If you own a consulting or professional services company, you can’t necessarily showcase what you sell in a creative way pinners are looking for.

Pinterest demographics

What do the stats actually look like? An overwhelming majority of users are women with children ranging in age from 25-54. Not exactly an equal opportunity demographic to market to.

What’s the ROI?

Alright, let’s talk metrics. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest’s only goal is to drive traffic back to your company’s website. Users can comment, repin or like pins, but there’s really no way to deeply interact or engage with potential customers beyond this.

While there might be 70 million users worldwide, it doesn’t hold a candle to these other social media statistics:

• Facebook: 1.26 billion users
• Twitter: 215 million users
• LinkedIn: 238 million users
• YouTube: 1 billion users
• Google+: 343 million users

Additionally, if the main goal is drive traffic, Pinterest’s bounce rate is extremely high. According to Copyblogger, they experienced a 91.7% bounce rate, meaning users spent less than 10 seconds on their site. This doesn’t allow for much time for a user to subscribe to your blog, e-newsletter or purchase any products or services.

This is not to say that Pinterest doesn’t have merit; it does, for the right business. If your demographics are geared towards the same segments as frequent Pinterest users (and you have something visually appealing to share) then Pinterest can work for you. And if you’re on the fence, use this infographic to see if your small business is a good fit.

Has your small business considered using Pinterest? We invite you to share your comments, below.