Duh. Pinning.

Great article suggesting that "Pinterest now drives more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined." Oh, yeah... here's mine! I have to admit. I think it's pretty cool so far! http://pinterest.com/markmccray

I must admit that two days there has done more for me than months on Google+ or LinkedIn. I'm not alone in my thinking. Here is an article showing major brands are closing their Facebook stores and taking up on Pinterest with a high ROI.

‎1. I'm newer to this business than a lot of people and decided to follow some advice of those more experienced. People like Pamela Lawhorne and Pam Perry and Brendon Burchard always talked about how IT IS EASIER TO SELL TO YOUR AUDIENCE YOU'VE ALREADY CREATED than to try to build a new audience from a new product. Therefore, for me, a lot of it is about branding. My approach was to begin to establish my brand and get my name out there before I even had something to "sell" to the market, so to speak.

Tools like Pinterest have helped MORE in two weeks than I could have imagined in terms of increasing my site visitors, blog traffic, blog subscribers and even twitter followers than anything I've done on other social media (LinkedIn, Google+) over the course of months. People STILL do business with people they like, so showing people more about your interests and who I "am" has been interesting, effective and fun for me!

2. I have it linked to my Twitter. It tweets things that I "pin" on my boards. I have my blogs and business Facebook sites pinned, too, and people have picked up on that after seeing some common interests. For example, "This guy likes Arrested Development, too!? Cool. Let's see what else he likes." It has NO DOUBT made my Twitter presence more valuable instantly. More of what I've tweeted has been seen. I like that.

3. The novelty of it! It's new. Soooooo..... in terms I would whisper if we were talking together... it gives you another new excuse to market yourself. Also, when people adopt a new technology because of you, guess who one of the first people they are going to follow is going to be? YOU! So instead of just joining Pinterest, I chose to make it an "EVENT" and tell a lot of people I'm joining Pinterest.

For people in our business, they will tell you that building your permission-based marketing list is what it's all about. These are people I can market to down the line ad infinitum. My lists have increased more in the last couple of days than a month of begging could buy me. Will it last? Who knows? If you listen to people like my friend, Kamau Austin, it's clear that some big pockets are betting that it will.

Still need more convincing like my friend pictured above? Here is a free guide on how to use Pinterest for Business. There's no reason why you can't make Pinterest a part of your overall winning sales approach!