Pinterest Fail: 70% of Brand Engagement is Generated by Users [Study]

Approximately 70 percent of brand engagement on Pinterest is generated by users, according to a recent study by Digitas and Curalate.

The study found that Pinterest use in the fashion retail and automotive industries is lacking. According to Digitas, the lack of brands using Pinterest leaves a gap in overall marketing strategies.

"Brands need to go forth and pin," said senior vice president of social, mobile, and content lead at Digitas Jordan Bitterman. "This study reveals the opportunity for brands to drive the conversation on visual platforms like Pinterest. By leveraging rich consumer insight, brands can take the guesswork out of their visual content strategy, and share the types of images their audience wants to see."

Digitas and Curalate found that only 18 percent of fashion retail brands pin items on Pinterest. The study found that the average retail fashion pin by a brand receives about 46 repins.

The automotive industry was also reported to be lacking in Pinterest engagement. According to the study, over 75 percent of Pinterest engagement for the industry is driven by users.

For automotive brands, more repins were made on community posting than brand postings. The study found that brands received only three repins on average. That is compared to about the 10 repins that users received for posting automotive products.

"Aspirational products such as cars should do well on Pinterest. It's unfortunate to see the auto industry stuck in first gear," said chief executive of Curalate Apu Gupta. "The industry needs to leverage the heritage of their brands to tell compelling visual stories that create emotional connections with consumers."

One industry that was found to be very active in the Pinterest community was electronic brands. Digitas and Curalate found that 47 percent of electronic industry pins were made by brands. The study found that pictures of e-health devices proved to be very popular on the site.

The study was created using statistics from over 10 million Pinterest pins, comments, and likes. Digitas and Curalate examined Pinterest data from over 120 brands for the study.

Pinterest use for marketing purposes has been gaining momentum in the past few years. Last month, Pinterest introduced analytics for verified brands in a bid to improve marketers' experience with the social network.

This article was originally published on ClickZ.