- Red Pinterest logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
All this talk about Pinterest has me torn. It's been around a few years but interest has heated up lately and I've heard both pros and cons.
Initially, my thought was, Oh, no. Not another social networking platform to learn! I am focused on changes at Facebook and the best use of Google Plus and now this? Marketers I respect warned of copyright issues. Some even predict the pinning frenzy will be gone by the end of the year.
Plus, people who are trying to sell you something – their secret sauce – say Pinterest is "IT" and you are missing a huge opportunity if you don't buy their stuff. That's fine – marketers will market. I get that. I just want to separate hype from reality, in my own mind.
I had read the audience is mostly women and the most successful boards are big on social lifestyle content. I enjoy collecting stuff personally in the real world and like to curate and share online content, but could pinning and re-pinning images help build my business? It just seems like one giant "like" factory and I already have plenty of other social outlets for doing that.
Then, last week I met a successful male author who said his website traffic and online sales took off when he started using Pinterest. Hmmm.
I also attended an excellent meetup at Aweber about Pinterest and heard a lot of positive opinions from women and men using it. In media, we like to stay ahead of the crowd. Pinterest is all about visuals and I'm in visual communication. It wasn't really set up for marketing a business but there's no question, it's getting the eyeballs and driving traffic right now.
Here are my thoughts, if you are on the fence. If you already have a well-defined and established social media plan and Pinterest fits in, let the pinning begin. If you are new to creating an online name for yourself and social media footprint for your business, start by putting up profiles and content on the main platforms first – Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn and Google Plus.
Once your foundation platforms are fleshed out, consider adding a new one to the mix. If Pinterest is still of interest and of course, if it's still around, go for it.
