Terminology:
Pinterest: noun; an online place where people of all genders and ages go to look at their interests, including but not limited to, food, décor, cars, weddings, sports, DIY projects, memes, animals, exercise, etc.
Pinterest board: noun; a digital category that is organized by interest.
Pins: noun; images with links attached to lead the viewer to a website with more detailed information about the photo.
“Pinner”: noun; a physical person who is constantly on Pinterest pinning posts.
“To pin”: verb; the act of reposting an image that interests a pinner onto his or her Pinterest board.
How Pinterest works as a whole:
The technology behind Pinterest is quite simple. It is just a free, basic website that enables people to share ideas and similar interests among friends and strangers. Pinners log into their profile and have a choice to pin from their newsfeed, which shows the pins their friends are pinning or they can choose to pin from a search by general boards or by keyword. Once the pinner finds something they want to share or save for later use, they pin it to their respective board. Petula Dvorak, a columnist for The Washington Post, calls Pinterest a “photo scrapbook of hopes, dreams and desires for grown-ups.” I completely agree with this statement because I know on my Pinterest I have various boards dedicated to my future self.
Features:
One feature of Pinterest includes a button that you can install in your browser to easily “pin” whatever you want. Also on Pinterest is a direct messaging function so you can send pins specifically to your friends without posting them to your own Pinterest boards.
Industry uses:
Pinterest has gotten to be such a popular social media outlet that there are people addicted to being on the site. There is even a Facebook group for addicted pinners!
Currently, Pinterest has a reputation for being used by women more than men, but I think that could easily change if more content was directed towards men. When companies are deciding whether to use Pinterest as an outlet for their brand, they might consider these demographics below to determine if Pinterest will be beneficial to sales.
I pulled a few examples of businesses using Pinterest well from Pinterest’s list of success stories.
The first example I want to look at is Bank of America. They created boards about how to spend your money wisely. According to the success story Bank of America wanted to reach millennials for first time major life events like buying a car, buying a house, budgeting a wedding, having a baby, traveling abroad, etc.
The second example I want to look at is Kraft Foods.
They created boards with different recipes. According to the success story Pinterest made it easy for people to discover and share every day, achievable meals. They joined Pinterest because the service reached Kraft’s desired audience and had significant scale.
The last example I want to share with you is Ziploc. They have created boards that show their audience how to efficiently use their product. According to the success story Ziploc decided to use Pinterest to share unique tips and tricks with its audience, helping people get more organized, efficient and creative around the home. And it didn’t hurt that Ziploc products are so often used in cooking, crafting and organization—all topics popular on Pinterest.
So my question for you is, do you think companies should be able to use Pinterest to promote their business or do you think users should use Pinterest as a place for organic discovery of products and services?