Pinterest. Everyone is using it. I often lose hours of my day pinning crafty projects and event planning ideas to my boards that I tell myself I’ll try later - when I have someone else's time and salary to work with – and I love it! You know what I don't love about Pinterest? Product pushing by companies trying to make this social medium into something it's not.
Pinterest was created to be a virtual scrapbook of sorts. A place for people to "pin" their favorite things, share ideas, etc. Inevitably each pin does serve as a marketing tool for the product it's highlighting, but this "marketing" is the type that happens between friends over drinks. It's someone suggesting a product because of his or her own personal experience with it. It's genuine and real.
Businesses saw this happening and wanted to get in on the action. If they owned the products that were already getting pinned, they wanted to help keep the conversation going. If their competitors were the ones being talked about and shared, they wanted to challenge that and get their name out there too.
Pinterest was created to be a virtual scrapbook of sorts. A place for people to "pin" their favorite things, share ideas, etc. Inevitably each pin does serve as a marketing tool for the product it's highlighting, but this "marketing" is the type that happens between friends over drinks. It's someone suggesting a product because of his or her own personal experience with it. It's genuine and real.
Businesses saw this happening and wanted to get in on the action. If they owned the products that were already getting pinned, they wanted to help keep the conversation going. If their competitors were the ones being talked about and shared, they wanted to challenge that and get their name out there too.
I work in marketing, I understand the want and need to be a part of the conversation. But with that being said, I have yet to see a successful campaign on Pinterest. What I see when I load the main page anymore are staged photos of random products that were obviously put there by someone who doesn’t understand this medium and thus the potential it has when used as intended.
Maybe I’m being naive, but the answer is really quite simple. To run a successful marketing campaign, you need to know what you are working with. For Pinterest to be a viable medium for businesses to push their product, marketers need to use the website as if they weren’t being paid to do it. Look around the site and find what people are sharing the most. I’m willing to bet my entire paycheck that it’s not a stock photo, but something more complex.
Does your company produce a product that people can use for a variety of different projects? Pin a photo of one of those projects and include your product in the description of how it was made, then have the link track back to your company’s website. Are the products your company creates meant to be used for one purpose? How about pinning photos of people actually using the product and then for the description, have a unique customer story? The possibility on Pinterest is there, but it’s going to be unique for every business/product and it’s going to take time.
Does your company produce a product that people can use for a variety of different projects? Pin a photo of one of those projects and include your product in the description of how it was made, then have the link track back to your company’s website. Are the products your company creates meant to be used for one purpose? How about pinning photos of people actually using the product and then for the description, have a unique customer story? The possibility on Pinterest is there, but it’s going to be unique for every business/product and it’s going to take time.
Bottom line: Pinterest is not a place to post photos from an advertising campaign and call it good. It’s annoying for us avid (a.k.a. addicted) users, and even more annoying for those of us that use the site and also understand how a successful marketing campaign should look.
Do you and your company use Pinterest? I want to hear about your experience using the site from a marketing perspective. What seems to work for you and what doesn’t? Have you discovered a way to track follow through from users who discovered your company on Pinterest and wanted to learn more?
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