Is Pinterest the yellow brick road to web traffic and gold?

Eve Mayer Orsburn | @LinkedInQueen

When it comes to social media platforms, is Pinterest simply the dead-end, newest flavor of the month? Maybe so, but many indicators tell me otherwise. Before you assume there is no point exploring Pinterest for your organization, let’s have a quick look at what makes it so promising.

Many people are visual, and that characteristic is what Pinterest is relying on. For those of you who respond well to images, Pinterest is anticipating that a picture will not only make you feel strongly enough to pass it on others, but more importantly – to CLICK it yourself.

This infographic gives some fast facts about the basics of Pinterest.

Next, check out the cold hard facts and figures, and see if you get the “picture.”

Visitors increased 4,000% from June-December 2011, with 7 million in December alone. (Baltimore Sun)
There were 17.8 million U.S. visitors in February of 2012 month, up about 50% from 11.7 million in January and nearly four times the 4.9 million in November. (ComScore)
Users stay on Pinterest for an average 15.8 minutes; YouTube – 16.4 minutes; Facebook – 12.1 minutes per session (AGBeat)
16th most-visited site in the U.S, a higher rank than CNN.com. (Alexa)
Named 2012’s hottest website by Pete Cashmore, CEO and founder of Mashable.
In February it beat Twitter and Google for 3rd place in online referral traffic, more than Google Plus, LinkedIn and YouTube combined. (shareholic)

In addition to these striking stats, have a look at Pinterest’s demographics (pulled from Google Ad Planner)

About 80% of Pinterest’s user base worldwide is female.
85% of users have Some College, Bachelor’s Degree, or Graduate Degree.
Over 75% of users are between ages 25 and 54.
Estimates indicate users’ average annual household income is $50,000 to $70,000.

Does this look anything like your ideal customer? If so, it may be time to start taking advantage of this yellow brick road to your organization’s target market. All you have to do is create the pinboards that direct new consumers straight to you.