Or a small study in the effectiveness of social media.
This past weekend I had the most blissful time at ‘Patisserie Camp’.
I was hoping to blog my pastries this week, but with the Minx now home from school for the NEXT. THIRTEEN. WEEKS (heaven help me), and with us heading off for a mummy and daughter long weekend in Victoria tomorrow, the processing of the over 800 photos I took is taking some time.
She’s off to camp next Monday though, so normal blog service will be resumed then.
In the meantime I leave you with a small but intriguing study in the power of social media and Pinterest in particular. Remember the cake I made a week or two back?
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Well ever since I posted it I’ve been getting a small but gratifying bump in traffic to mirrormirror thanks to a few blog readers posting it on Pinterest (thank you whoever you are). Until this weekend, when it absolutely went through the roof.
I checked back on Pinterest (did you know that if you look at something which has been pinned from your site you can see ‘Also From XYZ.com’ to the left?) and this is what I saw. Suddenly the cake had been pinned and repinned literally hundreds of times. It had gone viral.
I’ve been looking back through all the pins and can’t identify the ‘tipping point’ when it all went crazy. Suffice it to say that I yesterday I had 6x the blog traffic I normally get and the craziness shows no signs of abating. To put it into perspective that’s about 3x the traffic I got when Salon.com mentioned my Kelly Wearstler Go Fug Your Room back in 2008and that abated after about a day.
I mention this not to show off – I’ve actually been feeling like a bit of a fraud since I found the original idea on Pinterest, in a picture that had been repinned maybe two or three times – but because now I finally understand why big brands and big bloggers court Pinterest so assiduously.
I’m fascinated to see where my little cake ends up, what happens to blog traffic over time and whether any of the hordes of people stopping by turn into regular readers/commenters.
And you can probably expect a lot more images of photogenic cakes in the weeks and months ahead.
Update: Yay! I don’t feel such a fraud any more. The source of the original idea has been tracked down to I Am Baker. The original pin just said ‘uploaded by user’ so I couldn’t get to the source originally. So happy to be able to credit the right person.
Hi Paola – It *is* a gorgeous cake! 🙂 On Pinterest though, it has been the gift that keeps on giving! A month or two (or more) from now, you might find yourself with another big bump in traffic because of that same cake as more people discover it, at least that’s my experience. There was some interesting discussion around Pinterest at BlogHerFood last week…and there’s a tool called Pinerly that will supposedly give you more insight into your Pinterest traffic. I’m just experimenting with it now, so can’t say how good it is.
@michelle I am very fascinated to see if this quietens down after a few days or whether it just keeps going. I’ve had blogposts on Google and other things on Pinterest that keep bringing traffic after months or even years, but this is another dimension ENTIRELY.
You’re not the first person to mention Pinerly. Must look into it…
Yes, it’ll be interesting to see if it translates into regular readers. And if those readers expect only cakes! Such a crazy business, eh?
PS Am taking the July Scrivani workshop in Seattle.
I found your cute cake via pinterest via Design Mom. Not that ever have time to do anything remotely similar! Anyways, I liked your bl
Curse this iPhone! I liked your blog and your sense of humor, so I added you to my bloglovin favorites. I wish you continued success!
I think it also proves that quality photos like yours translate into lots of pinterest love!
This is a colourful firework- a celebration of colours and cream, a temptation which would enchant all the people who have the luck to see it and taste it.
Well I think I was one of the traffic sources to your blog, I shared it in on my Facebook page, and it was a great success. I fact I am posting a cake just like yours as we speak….I will link to your page!! Thanks from Spain. Bea
I knew this cake was gold! Don’t feel like a fraud, yes you got the idea from Pinterest but you made it and were showing us readers, and clearly we loved it! I’ve seen a little traffic from Pinterest but could never figure out what was pinned?!
Thanks for the information on this! I pinned your pin from someone who pinned, etc. Glad to the the story behind your pin! I made the cake for my grand daughters 2cd birthday. Loved doing it. Then, I entered it on a Pinned It, Made It Party.
Love the pictures you have on your blog! Thanks again for the pin!