Pinterest Updates: What Businesses and Brands Should Know
By
Jessica Oaks
Pinning things has become the new de rigueur for a large swath of the Internet population. Gone is the day of the bookmark. Gone is the day of the RSS feed. In today’s Internet environment, it’s all about pinning things, using Pinterest. While this simple task may seem on the surface somewhat trivial, the opposite is true. Put simply, pinning is as strong an indicator of what’s hot and what’s not as hashtags or what’s trending on Twitter are. Understanding this can allow businesses to more effectively market their products and build their online reputations.
The Social World’s Impact on Brick and Mortar You’ve likely seen it. A Yelp sticker in the window of your favorite restaurant. Stickers that say, in a nutshell, “We’re liked online so give us a try in real life!” That philosophy is beginning to find its way beyond the confines of review sites and into the broader digital realm. In fact, Nordstrom recently made the decision to base its product displays on which items had the most “pins” on Pinterest. A common sense, no-duh strategy when you think about it, but one that was seemingly forward thinking. Think about it: how many stores, especially stores as reputable and large as Nordstrom, have you seen do such a thing? And yet, it could represent a tidal shift in the way that businesses market their products and interact with consumers.
What Businesses Can Do to Capitalize on Pinterest
Perhaps most importantly, businesses need to be on Pinterest. Businesses have already adopted other social platforms; in fact, businesses large and small have all but universally joined Facebook and Twitter. The next logical step for many is to join Pinterest. This holds particularly true for businesses that sell a product, as for many of its users, Pinterest is a sort of giant wish list. Instead of bookmarking pages or adding a blog to an RSS feed, a user will pin a specific pair of shoes, dress, or pair of pants. If your products aren’t listed on the site, they can’t be pinned.
Perhaps more importantly, you can’t gain invaluable data on consumer interest and demand.
The Internet Experience in a Mobile World
It could be argued that Pinterest has caught on in such a big way because it is tailored to the mobile experience. The website interface is mobile friendly (with a recent redesign, the mobile site now looks and functions in much the same way as the company’s native app), the user experience is interactive, and there’s no shortage of stimuli to keep people engaged.
With people accessing the Internet increasingly from their smart devices – iPhones, Androids, Samsung LG2s and tablets – Pinterest is increasingly looking like the website of the moment. It provides search functionality, a browsing experience, and archiving and sharing apparatus all in one. In other words, Pinterest is Google and Facebook all at once. And, with wireless service providers such as T-Mobile offering free 4G LTE data for certain plans, the opportunity to access Pinterest anywhere, anytime is now a reality among many customers. To learn more about devices with free 4G LTE, check this out.
In 2014, “The Year of Mobile,” there are many online outlets for businesses to interact with consumers, but perhaps none better than Pinterest, what may be the most mobile-friendly platform of them all. Brands need to ask themselves: can they risk not having a presence going forward? Is Pinterest merely a fad or is it destined to have a real impact on consumer behavior and marketing?
Pinterest Can Help Improve the Bottom Line
There can be little doubt that Pinterest is destined to join the ranks of Facebook and Twitter as the next big name in the tech world. Some would argue that the company has already achieved this. Regardless of how one would value the success of Pinterest, it is likely safe to say that businesses looking to engage with their customer base should consider joining now, before they fall too far behind the curve.
Jessica Oaks is a freelance journalist who loves to cover technology news and the ways that technology makes life easier. She also blogs at FreshlyTechy.com. Check her out on Twitter @TechyJessy.
