3 Reasons Why Your Spa Needs to be on Pinterest

 

Pinterest is the hottest new social media tool on the web. Pinterest’s ease of use for visually bookmarking, organizing and sharing the things people love has made it a hit among individuals and businesses alike. People use pinboards for things like planning a wedding, dream vacations and fashion. Browsing others’ pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

Admittedly, social media can be frustrating because it is constantly changing – what’s hot and what’s not is quickly determined by usability and critical mass. But the bottom line is you need to go where your customers are “hanging out” online. And right now, Pinterest is where it’s at. Here are three reasons why your spa needs to have an active Pinterest account.

Reason #1: Skyrocketing Popularity

Pinterest isstaggering in its growth. Inthe past six months, visits to Pinterest grew by 4000%,receiving an amazing 11 million hits in just one week. According to Techcrunch, Pinterest recently hit 10 million U.S. monthly unique visitors, faster than any standalone site ever. Over 9 million Facebook users connect their Pinterest account to their Facebook account monthly, and over 2 million users connect every day. Approximately 97% of Pinterest usersare women. Now this is something worth paying attention to. In January 2012, Pinterest drove more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined.

Reason #2: Build Referral Traffic and SEO Value

Pinterest is not only a great visual representation of your spa’s brand, it also has the extra bonus of having SEO value! As Search Engine Landpointed out, it’s because you can link back to your own site and it has the ultimate viral potential because of the nature of user interaction.

Each pin comes with accessible embed code for users that want to add that image on their own website, blog or social profile. According to Location3 Media, “Other large social media sites—Facebook, Wikipedia, etc.—started out with Do Follow links, but eventually implemented No-Follows in an effort to deter spamming. While we cannot predict whether Pinterest will also make this change as they grow… the current setup provides legitimate SEO value.” Learn how to do this here. This is another reason not to wait!

Reason #3: Easily Promote Products and Services

Pinterest has a section called “gifts” which shows information on products categorized by price and also with links through to purchase. If you have products and want to easily list them you can by simply including the price in your tags. Just add your price in to the description and tags and @ mention the product line if applicable. Check out these spa brands on Pinterest: Bliss Spaand Organic Spa Magazine.

When it comes to spa services, you can use Pinterest as a marketing tool. You can add in professional photos of spa treatments, destination area images, testimonials…it’s all about being creative. However, be warned if you don’t post interesting material related to your market or niche in addition, then don’t expect much interaction.

Remember: The hallmark of successful social media is engagement: sharing quality, relevant, timely information in an authentic way to your target market. Much like Facebook, Pinterest users receive a notification every time another user comments, repins or likes. Pinterest is a great way to stay top of mind! So ask yourself: what do your customers want to see? What images will they be inclined to repin and comment on? How can you support your clientele by repining and commenting on their images?

Read more about Pinterest Ideas and Best Practices in the May issue of American Spa Magazine.  And check out the Spatrade.com Pinterest page!

 

 

Stacy Conlon has been in the sales and marketing field for over a decade. Currently, she is Chief Strategy Officer with Contento Marketing Group serving the spa and wellness industries. In addition, Stacy is a Certified Wellness Inventory Coach and is the in-house Wellness Coach at Senspa in San Francisco. She is known as The Zen Girl in the social media world.

Stacy is passionate about developing and implementing effective marketing strategies as well as wellness coaching because both avenues support companies and individuals in reaching their full potential. Combining her unique skill set as a marketer, educator and coach, Stacy is also a professional blogger and speaker.

Stacy lives in San Francisco, California and in her spare time loves to dance, practice yoga and rock climb.

Twitter:TheZenGirl