Source: DecalsForTheWalls
We all know how much time can be enjoyed within Pinterest. Plenty of time is ‘invested’ in Pinterest but what if you are running a business? You need results.
Why Measure Results?
Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The legendary football coach Vince Lombardi said ‘Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will all be judged by only one thing – the result.’
When you are running a small business (or any organisation for that matter) you should aim for maximum results from minimum input. This is true whether you’re focused on profit, brand awareness or social responsibility.
To be able to measure results you must first set goals otherwise you won’t know where you are going. How can you know you’ve achieved something if you aren’t sure what you’re aiming for?
Source: Whachuneed Supply Co.
What To Measure
Knowing what to measure depends on your goals. For example, if you are seeking to improve brand awareness by 20% you’ll want to focus on content types that are shared the most and the best time of day to post.
If you want to attract a particular target audience you will need to identify where that audience is currently found and the keywords they use to find the type of products and services you offer.
Other results you may want to measure include:
- Community engagement
- Quantity of traffic referred to your website
- Quality of traffic to website
Tools To Help You
To find out which images people are pinning from your website use the following URL:
http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com
For example, Create & Thrive would type:
http://pinterest.com/source/createandthrive.com
You can also use Google Analytics to measure traffic from Pinterest reaching your website:
“If your goal is to drive traffic from Pinterest back to your website, you can use Google Analytics to see how much traffic you are receiving from Pinterest compared to other social networks.
You can click on Pinterest in Google Analytics to see which pages on your website have drawn the most Pinterest traffic.” – Social Media Examiner
Of course, just like the proliferation of app development following the introduction of smartphones, Facebook and Twitter the success of Pinterest has seen rapid release of apps to the market. Let’s take a look at four that will help you analyse your results and generally save you pinning time.
The number one challenge for small business owners is time. That is, time to get everything they want done, which is why they love Pingraphy and you will too.
Pingraphy enables you to upload multiple pins at once and schedule them for future periods. You can track the clicks, repins and reach for each pin as well as find out your best performing boards. This allows you to analyse the data and pin based on the image types receiving the desired response from your audience.
Curalate is one of the more recent additions to the marketplace and offers a range of functions. In addition to general analytics you’ll be able to refine future campaigns by identifying trends of a viral nature. Curalate offers competitor monitoring and a contest platform.
Where Curalate differentiates itself from the competition is the ability to monitor keywords. Curalate finds pins and gives you details about them such as the pin’s descriptions and the number of followers for that pinner.
Repinly helps you identify the trending content and habits of top pinners. You can leverage this by pinning around these themes, capturing some of the traffic and engagement for your own account.
Pinfluencer (This site/resource is no longer available)
Pinfluencer is not a free a pp but does offer a 60 day trial to help you decide it’s worthiness for investment. It tracks your most influential pinners, most engaged users and compares your Pinfluence against other brands.
Pinfluencer has the added benefit of being a contest and sweepstakes platform. These promotions can be hosted on your website and have specified entry requirements such as hashtag use or number of pins from a specific website.
Actions
You’ve learned about the importance of measuring your pinning effort and the tools available to help you.
Now it’s time to test, evaluate, refine, test, evaluate, refine, test, evaluate, refine. Yep, rinse and repeat.
Start with one goal, one tactic to achieve that goal and one app to measure performance. When you are happy with the results from this tactic move onto another that will assist with achieving your goals.
Wishing you every pinning success!
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Caylie Price is the founder of Better Business Better Life.
A social strategist, copywriter, SEO consultant and all round great chick, Caylie helps you blast your business to success so you can live the life you want.
Sign up now to be first to know when she releases her new Pinterest For Business ebook!
