Pinterest Made Easy for Entrepreneurs through ViralTag…And Why We Recommend It

**As a small business, we are always looking for ways to make our lives easier and more productive given our limited time and resources. This review on ViralTag is about one of the new tools we have implemented in our social media strategy.  While the content may be specific to other entrepreneurs, we think the information may also be of value to our customers who may find this tool useful for a reason we haven't identified or as a referral to friends/family who have businesses.**

Written by PJ Valenciano - JJ Caprices' Pinterest Manager

Social Media is the “IT” thing this century. Over the years, social media has grown exponentially! Almost all the people we know have at least one social media account, and we’re sure you are one of them too. Brands, from small to large enterprises, have taken a shine to technology and are using social media to promote, connect, and to discover. This has become the foremost platform, as well the most cost-efficient way to get their message across the globe through the digital sphere. Sharing content has never been easier. 

More than 2 billion people embody the global Internet. That amounts to about 42% of the world’s population, this according to We Social’s Digital Report. The average adult spends more than 20 hours online on a weekly basis. Every second millions of new content and information are shared virtually; wherein social media plays a very important part serving as vessels. Information travels at such high speed and can be as uncontrollable as the ocean. You don’t go against it. You navigate through the tides, by discovering and networking, with a specific purpose. To get the majority of people to become interested, you must also give individuals a unique experience online. 

In a study conducted by IPSOS, Americans are said to “feel more connected than ever”. However, their research also reveals that sustaining demand for such advancements “are more demanding and complex.” Apparently, social media is considered as a means to de-stress from the hectic world they live in.  The most used and with the most members are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, being the rising star. 

From a mere 5,000 users in August of 2010, to a whopping 17 million after two years, Pinterest continues to grow in popularity. They have wowed the digital world of social media as being the fastest site ever to breakthrough the 10 million unique visitor mark.  According to Ebiz MBA, Pinterest is estimated to have unique monthly visitors of 255,000,000! And unlike other social networking websites, Pinterest--- by a great margin--- is considered the most effective platform for e-commerce businesses. 

What’s the Deal with Pinterest? 

Pinterest has been around for quite sometime. It was launched in 2009, and has grown to about 75 million registered users at present! In the past, you had to be “invited” to be able to signup an account, but nowadays you can easily register by merely connecting via your Facebook account. 

In a nutshell, what you have is an arena of visual content and stimulation, a virtual place to source inspiration and resources. To put it simply, it’s a vision board actualized in digital format. It’s also a convenient way to organize your thoughts similar to placing objects inside your house. In lieu of words, you make use of images and graphics. We see crafters and artists pinning their inspirations to plan the next big project. Fashion bloggers share not only their look books for their followers; they also create boards reflecting their other interests such as travel, do-it-yourself projects, and guides for the home. Wanderlust fanatics share their latest conquests through captivating images, as well as their plans for next-destination trips. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, whose main purpose is to connect people with other people, Pinterest was intended to connect people with things they are interested in online.

What’s in it then for your e-commerce business? Here are interesting facts that you might want to know.

• Pinterest pin have the longest lifespan, 1,600 times longer than a Facebook post, which means your pin will most likely live for a longer duration (while Facebook posts survive a lifespan of two hours, tweets lasts for mere 20 minutes!)

• On an average, 14.2 minutes are spent by users pinning every time they log in

• Pinterest is content visual driven; a piece of content with a visual 94% more views on average than that same text shared without a visual

• Images are linked to the original source of the image, boosting website traffic 

• 75 million are registered users of Pinterest

• Almost 80% of Pinterest users are women (in relation to this, did you know that women dominate, manage and control more than $20 trillion in spending globally?)

• Consumers progressively use Pinterest to find relevant products with 10% more likely to buy your products

Pinterest is not only a great place to share visual content; it’s also a great way to be discovered by others who share the same interests with your brand’s vision.  If you are an entrepreneur, you can build your branding while establishing yourself as a credible source. This process also has the benefit of reaching out to more potential customers building a positive association with your trademark. 

Making Your Life Easier…

Now that we have an idea of how much Pinterest can affect your e-commerce presence, how can you then make the most out of it? Last year, to boost traffic for our website and build brand awareness for JJ Caprices, we had a Pinterest consultant on board to help us maximize the potential of our Pinterest account. To name a few, one of our best practices is to pin images spread out throughout the course of a twenty-four hour day. This way our followers get to view fresh content on their home feeds, resulting to JJ Caprices pins becoming more likely to be discovered. On top of this, we had a pin quota everyday, of 15- 25 pins per day. Sounds overwhelming, but we were up to the challenge. 

We had to find a solution on how we could schedule pins throughout the day. We came across several automated digital marketing platform during the course of our search, chief among which is Viraltag. This platform has made our tasks exponentially much easier as well as more time efficient! 

So what exactly is Viraltag? Well, Viraltag is an all-in-one marketing platform that supports scheduling for Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn. Depending on the plan you get, you can connect multiple social media accounts. With Viraltag, you can do the following functions:

1. Find quality visual content to share

2. Improve your own photos and create original graphics,

3. Schedule it all to post at the best times on social media

What We Love about Viraltag? 

JJ Caprices blossomed from a woman’s love for travel, collecting delightful treasures throughout her many journeys. The vision of JJ Caprices is to share stories encapsulated in every piece of curated jewelry or home accent to other women. E-commerce has played an important part in sharing these treasures to different people across the globe. However it never stops with just the development of a website. It is a continuous process, and luckily we have tools to make our visions happen! 

Here are the top reasons why we are sticking to Viraltag…

• Being non-techie people, the interface of Viraltag was not complicated. It’s navigable. There are even video tutorials to get you started. If the video tutorials are not enough for you, you can always schedule a walk through with one of their teams. They’re very accommodating and will definitely encourage you to maximize the platform’s potential.  

• Viraltag allows you to find content and add the feeds from your favorite websites to pin. You can also search from the popular images shared by other Viraltag users. Once you’ve chosen the visual content you’d like to share, you can post right on the spot, schedule the image for another day, or save it as draft for later.

 

• When your Pinterest account is connected to Viraltag, your boards are also automatically shown. You can also manage them by creating a board list.  

• Last but not the least, Viraltag helps you track results of your scheduled pin! They will provide you analytics on recommended time to post for optimum engagement for everything you share.  

Final Thoughts…

If you have decided to include Pinterest in your social E-commerce strategy, you must capitalize on it to grow your brand. We highly recommend using a marketing-aid platform that supports scheduling for your social media campaign . Remember that Viraltag is not limited to Pinterest alone, and in case you’d like to touch on other social media platforms, you are able to do so. 

The best reward of having Viraltag on board is time saved from manually posting pins throughout the day. Time is the best value, resource, commodity; whatever you want to call it, that every entrepreneur needs. Time is a huge factor in growing other aspects of your business. 

Viraltag has a 14-day free trial period. Before you hop on the bandwagon, review the platform by using it in your social media campaigns. In that manner, you can be the better judge, if it’s the right fit! 

**Learn more about ViralTag and get your 14-day free trail here.**