Why Pinterest Drives Way More Traffic to Martha Stewart Than Facebook

We forget how recent are all of these phenomena we now take for granted. Laptops, smartphones, social media, even the internet have emerged within the lifetime of almost everyone reading this post.

And so we also tend to discount the unpredictability of these forces as commercial drivers of value or personal inspirations for behavior.

It has long been the contention of statisticians that 'facts' generated during times of great change are predictive of nothing. Because, of course, the changes will, in all likelihood, continue. This means that the way we use, rely upon, devote ourselves to various devices and lifestyles may be transitory. In the geography of New York, Brooklyn's ascension to iconic hipness followed the Upper West Side and then the Lower East Side.

In technology, we were focused on Facebook, until the reality of markets and finances brought home how the world had wearied of stories and, in an era of financial challenges, demanded something more tangible, like the immediate prospect of profits and a credible growth strategy. Twitter learned from this, and its IPO went swimmingly, until the second day, when its stock price fell. Pundits attempt to read meaning into this, but the fact that those who got in early often take profits (eg, sell) quickly before the hype wears off is the probable explanation.

But as the following story reminds us, there is churning even within the narrow confines of social media. Pinterest, a company of some general interest but not yet of popular renown may emerge as a more significant force than its older and better known brethren because it enables those with followers to convert their concepts into sales better than does Facebook's likes or Twitter's tweets. Some, due to their design, are truly commercial vehicles; some are more adept at communicating. They may all have their place in our lives but for different reasons, some distinctly not commercial or at least not directly so. Rather than decrying the alleged failure, our time is better spent understanding why this might be and how to optimize whatever value we can generate from it. JL

Jeff Roberts reports in GigaOm:

Social media giants like Twitter and Facebook have become successful advertising platforms, but neither has done well as a place to shop — presumably because people don’t want to leave the chatter to go buy something. The story is shaping up to be different with Pinterest
The social scrapbooking site, which lets users create “boards” of their favorite pictures, is already driving large amounts of visitors to e-commerce sites, and has recently become the primary driver to one of America’s best known retailers.
According to SimilarWeb, an Israeli analytics firm, 58 percent of social traffic to Martha Stewart’s website came from Pinterest in the last six months, compared to 23 percent from Facebook. The Pinterest traffic amounted to 6.5% of the 5 million visits Martha receives every month.
SimilarWeb added that AllRecipes.com was another site where Pinterest referrals had surpassed Facebook.
The Martha Stewart numbers are yet another indication of how Pinterest is poised to become a business behemoth, by selling its new “promoted Pins” or by simply taking an affiliates’ cut when a retailer makes a sale.
For retailers, Pinterest’s marketing potential is already obvious. Companies are already leaking Black Friday ads to Pinterest and, as Venture Beat reported in May, cosmetics maker Sephora said its Pinterest followers spend 15 times more than one from Facebook.
All of this likely explains why Pinterest is receiving waves of investment, even as the site receives relatively little attention in the media compared to other social media sites. (The lack of media hype may be due to Pinterest’s quiet PR strategy or, possibly, because the tech press is mostly male, and few guys are on Pinterest).
Finally, it’s interesting to see who else is getting traffic from Pinterest. Facebook is at the top (suggesting the relationship between the companies may be symbiotic more than competitive), but it’s also worth noting names like Etsy and BuzzFeed, both of which could cash in if they get the e-commerce thing right.
Here’s the list of the top 12. This figures were provided to me by Daniel Buchuk, who is SimilarWeb’s Head of Brand and Strategy.

1. Facebook.com 14.7%
2. Pinimg.com 9.1%
3. Twitter.com 3.9%
4. Etsy.com 3.9%
5. Buzzfeed.com 2.4%
6. Flickr.com 1.9%
7. YouTube.com 1.7%
8. Tumblr.com 1.5%
9. Behance.net 1.4%
10. Google.com 1.2%
11. Fitsugar.com 0.7%
12. Marthastewart.com 0.7%