Ever wonder where a viral pin originates? How many people pinned it before it took off? How long did it take for the pin to go viral? We wondered, too! So, we mapped out Dan Ashbach’s most popular pin and found quite the family tree.
Thousands of Pinterest repins, hundreds of sales, dozens of influential brand advocates – Virality can certainly do a lot for a brand’s marketing plan. But where does a viral pin get its start? To answer that question we used Tailwind’s Analytics Suite to trace back, Pinterest Influencer and Tailwind interviewee, Dan Ashbach‘s most repinned pin and mapped its roots:
Click to Enlarge
Verena first shared the image 48 weeks ago to just over 30 followers, where it received four repins. 32 weeks later, Dan found the image and shared it to his 1.5 millions followers.
The “family tree” diverges into two main branches after the four initial repins
One branch, beginning with Shirin’s seven repins, gained 33 repins before coming to a dead end.
The other branch, beginning with Irene’s one repin, gained 41 repins before reaching Dan.
Dan isn’t following the user he repinned from. In fact, none of Suzanne’s 7 repins are from users who are following her.
It took 66 total repins by 68 users to eventually reach Dan.
Since Dan shared the pin, it has garnered 2306 repins, 916 likes, and 19 comments.
Lessons from the “Family Tree”
Content is king. Verena, with only 32 followers, started this entire process by pinning an eye-catching, simple DIY image. Make sure your images pop and maybe Dan, or another Pinterest influencer, will pick it up. I mean, who’s ever seen a boring pin go viral?
Virality takes time. It took 32 weeks between the time this image was pinned and when Dan repinned it to his followers. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, pins on Pinterest continue to gain traction for months after they are originally pinned. Even though Facebook and Twitter have instant gratification from posts, content on Pinterest has staying power.
CHECK YOUR LINKS! Sadly, who ever came up with this image cannot receive credit because the link is broken. If you want traffic from Pinterest to your site, make sure your links work! Test your links by pinning images to your board and clicking through from Pinterest. If you no longer sell a popular product, it’s also a good idea to have the page redirect to something similar. It’s a great way to make sure your site is still able to receive the traffic!
Although there is no magic formula for making a pin go viral, there is a reason some pins are shared more than others. Just remember to make sure your images are eye catching, your links are active and you don’t expect instant gratification. Someday you, too, could have a viral pin.
Melissa Megginson is resident Community Manager and Cat Lady at Tailwind, the leading Pinterest & Instagram tool for brands. Melissa specializes in affiliate marketing, public speaking, and making our members look good. Find her on Twitter and Instagram at @MelMegg.
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[…] Virality is the key to Pinterest marketing, but what makes a viral pin? We trace back the origins of a viral pin to find out in this "family tree". […]
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[…] Pinterest images have the longest lifespan of any social media platform so it’s worth your time to create something you’re proud of. This is key to blog traffic that keeps coming. On Twitter, a tweet has a short lifespan of about twenty minutes, a Facebook post is lucky to survive the newsfeed for two hours and I’d guess that Google+ is about the same. A pin on Pinterest can have traffic for days, weeks, even years after it was first pinned. Amazing, I know! […]
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[…] nicht im Nirvana. Man braucht einen langen Atem aber es ist schon passiert, dass ein genialer Pin 32 Wochen brauchte, bis er die große Masse der Pinterest-User erreichte. Außerdem steht es allen Usern […]
[…] Pinterest images have the longest lifespan of any social media platform so it’s worth your time to create something you’re proud of. This is key to blog traffic that keeps coming. On Twitter, a tweet has a short lifespan of about twenty minutes, a Facebook post is lucky to survive the newsfeed for two hours and I’d guess that Google+ is about the same. A pin on Pinterest can have traffic for days, weeks, even years after it was first pinned. Amazing, I know! […]
[…] The lifespan of a pin is the longest of any social media platform. This one reason alone is worth the time you spend on Pinterest. {click to tweet} […]
[…] bei einer Woche. Bei Twitter sind es 25 Minuten, bei Facebook 80 Minuten. Ein sehr eindrucksvolles Beispiel kann man hier nachlesen. Nach 32 Wochen erreichte ein Pin einen User, der mit seinem Repin 1,5 […]
[…] article on the Tailwind blog shows the viral nature of a pin and how it continues to spread and blossom. “Virality takes time. It took 32 weeks between the […]
[…] article on the Tailwind blog shows the viral nature of a pin and how it continues to spread and blossom. “Virality takes time. It took 32 weeks between […]
[…] by other news and information. When it comes to pinned content, that lifespan is far, far longer. Tailwind Analytics found that one engaging pin was shared 66 times over a 32-week period before it was discovered by a […]
[…] all content is right for Pinterest. Due to Pinterest’s evergreen nature, time-sensitive content might not be a great fit. So maybe you see an expiring deal on some pricy […]
[…] all content is right for Pinterest. Due to Pinterest’s evergreen nature, time-sensitive content might not be a great fit. So maybe you see an expiring deal on some pricy […]
[…] Pinterest images have the longest lifespan of any social media platform so it’s worth your time to create something you’re proud of. This is key to blog traffic that keeps coming. On Twitter, a tweet has a short lifespan of about twenty minutes, a Facebook post is lucky to survive the newsfeed for two hours and I’d guess that Google+ is about the same. A pin on Pinterest can have traffic for days, weeks, even years after it was first pinned. Amazing, I know!Click To Tweet […]
[…] article on the Tailwind blog shows the viral nature of a pin and how it continues to spread and blossom. “Virality takes time. It took 32 weeks between […]
[…] of content on Pinterest? More than one week. To see an example of this phenomenon, check out our Family Tree of a Viral Pin graphic, which shows a pin that took 32 weeks to finally go […]
[…] article on the Tailwind blog shows the viral nature of a pin and how it continues to spread and blossom. “Virality takes time. It took 32 weeks between […]
[…] of content on Pinterest? More than one week. To see an example of this phenomenon, check out our Family Tree of a Viral Pin graphic, which shows a pin that took 32 weeks to finally go […]
[…] Oh lordy, I love the Pinterest! After search engines it is the highest referral source for my website. The reason I love it the most is that the posts stick around much longer than on any other site. The shelf-life for a Twitter tweet is about 20 minutes, Facebook post you might get a day, but a Pinterest post is FOREVER! For example, it took 32 weeks for one pin to “go viral” but after that it was off to the races >> check out A Viral Pin’s Family Tree. […]
Intriguing example. I was wondering, though, did Verena ever know that her pin became viral? Because, doesn’t the pin that she originally pinned, only show 4 repins? And the one that Dan repinned shows 2306 repins? I hope that makes sense.
34 Comments
How many repins has Dan had?
His version of this pin is over 2,300 repins. Or are you asking in total?
[…] likes for this one pin! Even Dan, with his million followers, hasn’t (yet!) managed to have a pin be that viral. By all accounts, this pins is a […]
[…] Virality is the key to Pinterest marketing, but what makes a viral pin? We trace back the origins of a viral pin to find out in this "family tree". […]
[…] Virality is the key to Pinterest marketing, but what makes a viral pin? We trace back the origins of a viral pin to find out in this "family tree". […]
[…] A Viral Pin’s Family Tree (tailwindapp.com) […]
[…] posts or tweets in Facebook and Twitter (both of which are far less than a day). This article, “A Viral Pin’s Family Tree,” uses a specific example to show how an eye-catching Pin became viral and resulted in a long […]
[…] Verliere nicht die Motivation: Ihr habt eine informative Infografik oder eine sehenswerte Plakatkampagne produziert und hochgeladen, die für wenig Resonanz sorgte? Lasst euch davon nicht demotivieren. Viralität ist ein bemerkenswertes Phänomen, das nur schwer vorherzusagen ist. Manche Inhalte floppen, wiederum andere rasen förmlich durch das Netz. Manche Inhalte brauchen auch 32 Wochen und zünden dann erst richtig – alles schon passiert. […]
[…] Pinterest images have the longest lifespan of any social media platform so it’s worth your time to create something you’re proud of. This is key to blog traffic that keeps coming. On Twitter, a tweet has a short lifespan of about twenty minutes, a Facebook post is lucky to survive the newsfeed for two hours and I’d guess that Google+ is about the same. A pin on Pinterest can have traffic for days, weeks, even years after it was first pinned. Amazing, I know! […]
[…] The lifespan of a pin is the longest of any social media platform. This one reason alone is worth the time you spend on Pinterest. […]
[…] might be interested to know that images on Pinterest have the longest lifespan compared to any other social media platform. That is, a pin on Pinterest can have traffic for years […]
[…] will play in your overall marketing mix. The numbers are pretty staggering and recent studies, like this one from TailWindApp, demonstrate that the lifespan of a Pin exceeds what we can expect from content shared on other […]
[…] Tailwind initially took off as the go-to analytics tool for marketers on Pinterest. Today, over 12,000 brands rely on us for insights that inform their campaign strategies. At first our approach was similar to advanced Social analytics tools, but over time we realized that metrics need to be thought of differently for Pinterest. For example, Facebook and Twitter tools tend to focus on recent content, in a real-time feed, to help you understand which posts were more or less successful. For Pinterest, though, immediate analysis of content can lead to incorrect conclusions. Consider this case study of a pin that went viral six months after being posted. […]
[…] nicht im Nirvana. Man braucht einen langen Atem aber es ist schon passiert, dass ein genialer Pin 32 Wochen brauchte, bis er die große Masse der Pinterest-User erreichte. Außerdem steht es allen Usern […]
[…] Pinterest images have the longest lifespan of any social media platform so it’s worth your time to create something you’re proud of. This is key to blog traffic that keeps coming. On Twitter, a tweet has a short lifespan of about twenty minutes, a Facebook post is lucky to survive the newsfeed for two hours and I’d guess that Google+ is about the same. A pin on Pinterest can have traffic for days, weeks, even years after it was first pinned. Amazing, I know! […]
[…] The lifespan of a pin is the longest of any social media platform. This one reason alone is worth the time you spend on Pinterest. {click to tweet} […]
[…] bei einer Woche. Bei Twitter sind es 25 Minuten, bei Facebook 80 Minuten. Ein sehr eindrucksvolles Beispiel kann man hier nachlesen. Nach 32 Wochen erreichte ein Pin einen User, der mit seinem Repin 1,5 […]
[…] pin has a longer life that other social […]
[…] article on the Tailwind blog shows the viral nature of a pin and how it continues to spread and blossom. “Virality takes time. It took 32 weeks between the […]
[…] article on the Tailwind blog shows the viral nature of a pin and how it continues to spread and blossom. “Virality takes time. It took 32 weeks between […]
[…] by other news and information. When it comes to pinned content, that lifespan is far, far longer. Tailwind Analytics found that one engaging pin was shared 66 times over a 32-week period before it was discovered by a […]
[…] all content is right for Pinterest. Due to Pinterest’s evergreen nature, time-sensitive content might not be a great fit. So maybe you see an expiring deal on some pricy […]
[…] all content is right for Pinterest. Due to Pinterest’s evergreen nature, time-sensitive content might not be a great fit. So maybe you see an expiring deal on some pricy […]
[…] Pinterest images have the longest lifespan of any social media platform so it’s worth your time to create something you’re proud of. This is key to blog traffic that keeps coming. On Twitter, a tweet has a short lifespan of about twenty minutes, a Facebook post is lucky to survive the newsfeed for two hours and I’d guess that Google+ is about the same. A pin on Pinterest can have traffic for days, weeks, even years after it was first pinned. Amazing, I know!Click To Tweet […]
[…] article on the Tailwind blog shows the viral nature of a pin and how it continues to spread and blossom. “Virality takes […]
[…] Pinterest is visual and pins have longest lifespan of all social media platforms. […]
[…] a cool “family tree” of a viral Pinterest pin, to help you envisions the […]
[…] a cool “family tree” of a viral Pinterest pin, to help you envisions the […]
[…] article on the Tailwind blog shows the viral nature of a pin and how it continues to spread and blossom. “Virality takes time. It took 32 weeks between […]
[…] of content on Pinterest? More than one week. To see an example of this phenomenon, check out our Family Tree of a Viral Pin graphic, which shows a pin that took 32 weeks to finally go […]
[…] article on the Tailwind blog shows the viral nature of a pin and how it continues to spread and blossom. “Virality takes time. It took 32 weeks between […]
[…] of content on Pinterest? More than one week. To see an example of this phenomenon, check out our Family Tree of a Viral Pin graphic, which shows a pin that took 32 weeks to finally go […]
[…] Oh lordy, I love the Pinterest! After search engines it is the highest referral source for my website. The reason I love it the most is that the posts stick around much longer than on any other site. The shelf-life for a Twitter tweet is about 20 minutes, Facebook post you might get a day, but a Pinterest post is FOREVER! For example, it took 32 weeks for one pin to “go viral” but after that it was off to the races >> check out A Viral Pin’s Family Tree. […]
Hi Melissa,
Intriguing example. I was wondering, though, did Verena ever know that her pin became viral? Because, doesn’t the pin that she originally pinned, only show 4 repins? And the one that Dan repinned shows 2306 repins? I hope that makes sense.
Norma
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