Source: ivke32 at pixabay.com
When someone mentions social media, the giants of the field usually come to mind: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. They’re sites where people come together to collectively share and discuss their interests while connecting with others who are like them, but does that really apply to Pinterest?
Stephen Jeske argues that it’s not. Instead, we should think of it as a visual discovery tool. It allows its users (or “pinners” as they’re called) to collect images that inspire them and save them for later. Those pins will stay with the pinner until they unpin them. Pinners don’t go onto the site to message/communicate with each other like they would Facebook or Twitter. They can share their boards with others, but how many other sites like Amazon or Steam have the same feature? We don’t consider them social media sites, do we?
And that is where Pinterest should be very interesting to marketers. In joint survey between Millward Brown Digital and Pinterest, they discovered that 93% of pinners use Pinterest to plan a purchase. Let me repeat that, nearly 19 of 20 pinners are using the platform to plan a purchase. This isn’t like Facebook where users are distracted by messaging their friends or playing a social game. They’re actively looking for information on their next major purchase.
With that in mind, Pinterest becomes a richer environment for leads than a Google search, but is your brand taking advantage of it? Have you thought about your Pinterest strategy for building brand awareness, brand information, and providing an easy way for pinners to buy your products?
Leave a Reply