Pinterest is my new Facebook. I’d rather find new recipes than new friends. I’d rather “like” a great kitchen layout than a picture of a beer pong game. So why then, I ask, are people complaining?
Apparently there’s an issue with advertisers on Pinterest doing CRAZY things… like posting photos of their products.
But wait. Isn’t that what Pinterest is for?
For starters, you, and only you, have the power to decide which images to click and which ones to pass. You get to choose whether or not you look at “DIY & Crafts” or “Humor.” So according to this theory, one could logically assume you have the power to click or not to click on advertisements. You can actually just ignore them (Surprise! Surprise!), and continue scrolling through the hundreds of other, so-called “non-advertising” pins.
I really have to question the credentials of said complainers. You know that really cute knitted baby hat with the flower on top? You know the one you saw on Pinterest and re-pinned to your own “Craft Ideas” board? Yea, THAT hat. Well that hat originally came from Etsy, yet another social media site allowing you to buy and sell crafts and other items. This, my friends, is what we call marketing. It’s positioning your products and services in front of your audience and asking them to buy, use, support; whatever.
When looking at recipes, there are HUNDREDS of recipes that pop up. I’m not sorting through them one by one. I’m scrolling through to see what catches my eye. IF one catches my eye that just so happens to be linked to Kraft’s website, then by golly I guess I fell into the advertising trap. But at this point, who cares? That advertiser got me intrigued without paying a CENT. They didn’t plaster their brand all over the image (that would most certainly ensure I ignore it). All they did was trust their product to sell itself. And that, in my opinion, gives proof to the quality of a product and an audience’s desire for a product.
So I ask you this: Why is it SUCH a bad thing for advertisers to openly participate in Pinterest? It’s free. They have an ever-growing, captive audience. “Pins” spread like a wildfire and before you know it, one single picture is pinned to 37 other boards and “liked” by 5,000 other Pinterest enthusiasts. No harm, no foul, no Pin-overload (because, let’s be honest, it’s ALWAYS overload).
Take from this one thing: Any advertiser who has made Pinterest part of their marketing plan gets an A+ in my grade book. Following trends is rule #1 in Marketing 101. So get out there, Mr. and Mrs. Business Owner—get on Pinterest and find out what it’s all about!
Photo courtesy of Geoff Peters 604