Pinterest Rocks and This is Why You Should Care
It’s been said that pictures are quicker to read than words. In fact, the use of a picture to express an idea, an emotion or a moment in time can sometimes deliver a deeper impact than words. Keep this in mind as the basis of why Pinterest is such an important social network.
Wait a second; what does Pinterest have to do with apps or app marketing in general you ask? For one, Pinterest has a very slick app that I’ll go into detail about in just a moment. But first, follow me through this post because you simply cannot neglect this social network.
Launched back in 2009, Pinterest was among the first web services to offer push button content generation (via a bookmarklet) and allow users to structure it into sets of curated corkboards. In other words, Pinterest is a great way to bookmark (pin) the things you’re into using images and videos. The one thing you can’t use pin are articles without pictures or sites built on Flash.
Pinterest recently experienced its growth spurt with a 40% user increase over the past six months, reaching 11 million visitors in one week in December. To put that into perspective, it’s now within the top 10 most active social networks and it’s growing at a faster pace than Facebook did in its early days.
So why is a site that launched at the tail end of 2009 suddenly making waves? Personally, I believe this is due to Pinterest simply pushing ahead and crossing the chasm. When it comes to the social web, short form content creation is increasingly on the rise and the same can also be said about content consumption. What’s so refreshing about Pinterest is that witty comments aren’t necessary, although you can always add them for your audience’s satisfaction.
Forget Viral think Visual
Brands and businesses have long been blinded by the eagerness to create viral content. The problem with “viral” is that it can be a very slippery creature. The more you try to create it, the further slips away. At its deepest level, but people share things that spark an emotion, one way or another. It’s very human. It’s what we do.
Pinterest designer and co-founder Evan Sharp sums it up well: “For most consumer brands, the idea behind your brand makes sense on Pinterest.” Since you’re not supposed to blast pictures of your products on Pinterest, try to think outside the box and pin images that capture a lifestyle and/or the essence of your brand. Pinterest calls for a more holistic approach to marketing, and it can be more effective and engaging than traditional advertising because the consumers can really see how your brand fits into their lives. For example, Bon Appetit can’t just pin pictures from the website or magazine, but it can pin images of cooking appliances, beautiful kitchen decor, cutlery, dinner parties and delicious creations or recipes–basically anything related to cooking and food. Seeing these culinary items will continually drive home the Bon Appetit brand, thus making pinners more familiar with and more likely to trust the brand, visit the website and maybe even subscribe to the magazine.
Brands Rocking the Pin
At first glance, Pinterest may seem too much of a “niche” social network to create a real benefit for mainstream users, let alone big name brands, except that the exact opposite is true. Sure the site leans heavily towards the Martha Stewart, Whole Foods, West eld type brands right now, but make no mistake, top tech brands are also jumping on board. AMD for example maintains a very active board and has even used it to showcase products from CES 2012.
As with any respecable social network, we’re bound to see Pinterest develop features specifically for businesses or better yet, an API letting developers create an eco-system of services based on Pinterest. For the time being, expressing a little creativity never hurt anyone.
A Look at the Pinterest App
OK, time to tune back into our regularly scheduled program. As I mentioned at the start of this post, just like the service’s charm took me by surprise, Pinterest’s iPhone app doesn’t disappoint. Unless you own an Android, which in that case, you’re fresh out of luck, for now.
Pinterest has just released version 1.4 of their iPhone app which allows its users to search and view the pins being shared, follow other Pinteresting users and share pictures from the iPhone’s camera or straight from your camera roll. So far, it does exactly what you would expect from a service like Pinterest, but here’s where the app gets interesting…
The Pinterest iPhone app also lets you touch up your pictures, but not with filters or effects as one would expect from a photo sharing type app. They’ve gone about this with what they call Touch Up. The Touch Up feature lets you adjust your picture’s saturation levels simply by sliding your finger over the image.
In Conclusion – Napoleon was right; A Picture is worth a thousand words, or in Pinterest’s case, at least 11 million visitors. Pinterest’s charm stems from it’s ultra minimalistic design and ever changing value. Needless to say, I’ve already set up my Pinterest profile where I share anything from funny pictures to awesome iPhone apps. Follow me up and start pinning the stuff that inspires you!
