Searchmetrics US and UK Studies Find Newspapers Missing the Boat on Pinterest Traffic

    TORONTO, ON, October 24, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Searchmetrics has released 2 studies on US and UK newspapers use of Pinterest the Social Media bookmarking and content sharing site with a growing engaged audience and very desirable demographic for marketers.

Marcus Tober, founder and CTO of Searchmetrics, which collects data including an analysis of links shared on Pinterest and other social networks as part of its search social analytics software explained:

"Pinterest has the power to put publishers' content in front of new people and drive traffic back to their sites. While it's relatively new, Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social sites - increasing its share of all visits to social sites in the UK by 1489 per cent since last year1. The site has over 10 million registered users2 and in the USA high profile news sites such as the WSJ and New York and LA Times are among those that are successfully using it."

The studies show that neither US nor UK newspapers have made good use of Pinterest even though most of the US sites show interest in older bookmarking sites like delicious, newsvine, stumbleupon and reddit. 7 of the 26 Publishers had no Pinterest Page and only 1 used the Pinterest button with 6 having it in a generic share button often with the Pinterest option buried deep within a long dropdown list.

The UK study discovered links to Web pages from the Dailymail.co.uk were found to have been shared or 'pinned' by Pinterest users most (1,963,999 times), with the Telegraph.co.uk attracting 429,13 shares (called pins) to come second. The Guardian.co.uk takes third place with a total of 329,720 pins of its pages.

The US study found the NY Times was first with 537,850 pins and the LA times came in with 324,848 for second place. The Wall street Journal rounded out the top 3 sites with 262,262 pins identified in the research by search and social analytics company, Searchmetrics.

Searchmetrics also looked at pins/week as a metric finding that in the UK Dailymail.co.uk generates the most average Pins per week (163,574 ) followed by Telegraph.co.uk (42,476 ) and Guardian.co.uk (32,174 ) in the UK. In the US the NY Times led the way with 45,739 pins and the LA Times was second with 28,567 pins. The third place finisher was the Wall Street Journal with 25,140 pins.

Comparing the averages of the two regions indicates that pinning is more viral in the US whereas the UK seems to either have a more engaged audience and/or quality content indicated by Dailymail.co.uk average being 3X higher and having nearly as many followers as newspapers in the US despite servicing a much smaller population. This is another stat that supports the bookmarking hypothesis that has been recently circulating in the Pinterest marketing community.

Data in the UK study indicate the UK sites are doing well in comparison to its US counterparts with the Dailymail.co.UK leading the way with a weekly average of 163,574. The 3rd place Guardian has a higher average than the 2nd and 3rd in the US and the Telegraph is just behind the NY Times with the highest avg weekly total in the US.

The disparity in population between the US and UK sites should result in far fewer pins for UK sites but it is possible that the quality of the content drives more bookmarks in this limited study.

Most Pinned pages on UK national newspaper web sites
1. Guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/mar/06/how-to-make-a-swaddle-blanket (53,638 pins)
2. DailyMail.co.uk
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2143134/Kate-Middleton-Duchess-Cambridge-stunning-teal-dress-London-Olympic-gala-concert.html (52,813 pins)
3. DailyMail.co.uk
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1347777/How-rid-cellulite-Thin-thighs-30-days-exercise-tips.html (45,811 pins)

Most Pinned pages on US newspaper web sites

1. Wall Street Jounal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303627104576410234039258092.html#project%3DDOC110702%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive (174,682 pins)
2. Chicago Sun Times http://specialsections.suntimes.com/yourregion/12752003-555/10-homemade-natural-beauty-and-spa-treatments-found-right-in-your-kitchen.html (156,450 pins)
3. San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Shady-Dell-deal-preserves-majestic-redwood-forest-2324634.php (79,847 pins)

The pins (or shares) of web page URLs analysed in Searchmetrics' study are those pins that users of Pinterest share on their own Pinterest boards. They are not the same as - and do not rely on - the pins being shared by the newspaper sites themselves on their own Pinterest boards (if they have them).

The studies verify a few facts that Pinterest marketers have felt for some time but had no real way to verify the information before Searchmetrics added the Social Module to its enterprise software.

1. Pinterest is known as a sharing site but the bookmarklet feature has made bookmarking content by users as big as or a bigger factor than the sharing of content by Pinterest followers.

2. Pinterest can be an all or nothing marketing activity in the US with a large % of the pins coming from a single article.

Consider that the Chicago Sun Times had the second highest number of pins on a single page despite no button or Pinterest presence. The article "10 homemade natural beauty and spa treatments found right in your kitchen" is tailor made for young woman the demographic of the site is known for having (began as a social site for brides).

Further verifying the bookmarking activity is the images on the Sun Times article are not humorous or high quality they are just what you would expect for this article in the newspaper. The fact there are no buttons on the site or Pinterest Page for the Sun Times and it still managed to attract more pins than papers with much higher circulation, followers and a Pinterest presence is another clear indicator of the bookmarking activity.

The other 2 top pinned pages from the US study were classic Pinterest content consisting of an infographic (the 25 Documents you need before you die) from WSJ and a beautiful slideshow of the "Shady Dell" area in Usal Ca. from the San Francisco Chronicle. The WSJ activity could be more about followers and engagement whereas the Chronicle has only 165 followers and low engagement indicating the pin activity was at least partially a result of bookmarking activity.

Another interesting fact from the study is that it seems the UK enjoy a more stable flow of pins when compared to the US where the top pins were a considerable portion of the total pins reaching the 90 percentile plateau whereas in the UK the top pin never accounted for more than roughly 10% of all pins for a site including those with no Pinterest page. The non-viral pins in the US study also seem to be roughly 10% of total Pins verifying the US may be more viral (hit or miss) than the UK as indicated by the much higher % of total pins in the top 3 articles in the US.

About the Searchmetrics study
The data for the study was collated in w/e 12 October 2012. It included an analysis of Pinterest activity for the 13 newspaper web sites using data from the global social media database which Searchmetrics operates to power its online software tools. The pins (or shares) of web page URLs analysed in Searchmetrics' study are those pins that users of Pinterest share on their own Pinterest boards. They are not the same as - and do not rely on - the pins being shared by the newspaper sites themselves on their own Pinterest boards (if they have them). The list of newspapers analysed. The study was based on 13 of the top US and UK newspapers listed by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. More details on the blog:
http://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/2012/10/22/pinterest-metrics-a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-visitors/

About Searchmetrics
Searchmetrics is the global expert in search and social analytics software, empowering marketers to increase visibility and market share on the world's leading search engines. We create value by providing the best quality data on a global scale. Clients and partners worldwide rely on Searchmetrics to maximize return from search investments with actionable insights that help better manage, improve and scale search marketing campaigns

Searchmetrics' robust search marketing tool, Searchmetrics Suite, is supported by a unique server infrastructure that offers monitoring of over 100 search engines in over 30 countries worldwide. Searchmetrics Suite is also home to the Searchmetrics Essentials data modules, SEO+SEM and Social, encompassing the largest, fastest databases for search and social media available.

Headquartered in Berlin, with subsidiaries and offices in New York, London and Paris, the company delivers real web intelligence to a growing international customer base. In 2011 Searchmetrics was named as Best Technology Partner, EMEA by Adobe and is listed in the 2012 Always-On Media 100 companies. You can follow Searchmetrics on Twitter @Searchmetrics or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Searchmetrics. For more information, please visit: www.searchmetrics.com

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