Selling Something Online? Use Pinterest, Not Facebook — Dollars and Sense
Marketers all over the world are using social media more and more to sell their products, but new research shows that it may be more advantageous for them to utilize Pinterest rather than Facebook to lure in clientele.
Bizrate Insights recently conducted a study that indicated more people are turning to Pinterest for things like shopping inspiration and product discovery than they do Facebook. In fact, a whopping 70 percent of online shoppers perusing Pinterest have either discovered an item or purchased merchandise compared to 40 percent of online shoppers using Facebook.
According to the research, more people agree that Pinterest is the social site to visit for determining what to buy and to keep up with the latest trends. Nearly 40 percent of Pinterest users claim they use the site to stay in touch with brand-specific products as opposed to 24 percent on Facebook.
That is because Pinterest provides a better shopping experience, according to Hayley Silver, vice president of Bizrate Insights. "But this is not to say that all social attention should be diverted to Pinterest,” said Silver. "Facebook and Pinterest each serve their online shopping communities with their preferred shopping activities, which vary by platform."
Silver add that for larger businesses, Facebook is still the best solution, as recent statistics show that 60 percent of online customers have a Facebook page, compared to only 15 percent actively on Pinterest.
Still, Pinterest awareness is on the rise: over the summer, 46 percent of online shoppers said they had heard of Pinterest, which was up 10 percent since the spring.