Everywhere you turn these days, there are hordes of blog posts about why Pinterest is the hottest new social network and why your business should join it ASAP.
While some of these posts are a little too effusive, none of them are totally off the mark.
Pinterest is awfully awesome…
- It does drive a lot of traffic to websites.
- People spend loads of time there.
- It is growing like wildfire.
But, before you decide to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon too, I’d caution you to think twice.
(And really that should be true of any new social network you encounter.)
Ask yourself, is Pinterest right for YOU?
For many clients I work with, the answer is “no,” and here’s why.
1. Your clients or customers are not there.
This sounds like a no brainer, but you’d be surprised by the number of companies who never actually answer the question of, “Is our target market there?” before they join a social network.
Pinterest has a very distinct demographic focus. Currently its users are predominately women (though in the UK, they are predominately male) who are mainly from the Midwest.
So before you dive in, start doing some research on Pinterest to see if this demographic is a good match for your company.
- Are people already pinning things related to your business’ focus?
- How are they categorizing these pins? (Are these “dream boards” or “I want to buy” boards?)
- How often are they pinning?
Basically, answer this question: “Are the people we want to reach here and does it seem like they want us to be here, too?”
2. What your business does is not visually interesting.
I read a post recently on a blog for marketers in the financial industry, which was recommending that banks get on Pinterest. They theorized that, “If a woman is going to pin pics of her dream wedding, why wouldn’t she also pin pics of how she can finance that wedding?
Um…maybe because pictures of people financing a wedding are boring?
The reality is that not every business can be well represented in visual form. For many B2B or service companies, Pinterest just isn’t going to be a great fit. On the other hand, it can work really well for consumer products and, in particular, products that are interesting to look at.
(Although, companies that make less pretty consumer goods, such as Kotex, are having some success on this platform, too.)
If you’re thinking of setting up an account and find yourself really straining to coming up with any images in-house that you can pin, take this as a sign. Maybe a blog or another text-based social network might be a better fit.
3. You could get into legal trouble by pinning other people’s stuff that IS visually interesting.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I pulled down our Kane Consulting Pinterest boards because of legal concerns. Most of what I had pinned was content/imagery other people created, and I had not received permission from these people or these companies before I pinned it.
“So what?” You may be thinking, “Everyone on Pinterest does that.”
You’re right, except, my company was on Pinterest to build business and ultimately make money. As a consequence, we might ultimately derive a profit from the intellectual property of someone else. And that made me uncomfortable.
Many artists, illustrators and photographers are none too pleased about their IP being used and traded as a commodity on Pinterest. If any of them decide to sue, they’re not going to go after Sue in Montana who pinned the pic they took of an eagle for National Geographic, they’re going to go after XYZ Corp. that pinned that same picture on the “inspiration for our logo” board and has potentially much deeper pockets.
If that were to happen, as the terms of service currently stand, XYZ Corp. would be liable for the costs associated with the lawsuit, and not Pinterest. Be aware of this risk before you start sticking “found treasures” on your boards willy nilly.
4. You don’t have the time to commit to maintaining the account.
Pinterest is not an advertising platform. It is a social network. And, as with any social network, maintaining a presence there will take effort.
You can’t just set up some boards, stick up some pics and expect the traffic to start pouring in to your website. You will need to build a community — and interact with the members of that community — just like you would on any other social network.
Also, you will need to build your presence SLOWLY. I cannot stress that enough.
I’m seeing many companies set up their entire Pinterest presence in one afternoon. And that’s not a wise move.
This isn’t like building a website, folks. Each time you add a pin, it goes into a public feed (which an astonishing number of people seem to be monitoring in its “everything” form). If you add dozens of pins all at once, you’re going to flood the network with your promotional content and look like an ass right from the get go.
5. Your company is freaked out by breasts.
If you’re going to be a class act on Pinterest, you’ll need to track down the source of the pictures you pin and cite them, and that means you are going to be clicking around a lot of photo and illustrations sites or on other boards within Pinterest. And when you do this, you’re going to run into breasts…at work.
How do I know this?
Because photos of breasts are everywhere on photo-centric sites.
And, unlike having a new Twitter follower who made an off color joke that you can easily delete before your boss walks by, a photo of a topless lady on the screen in your cube is going to be far more difficult to explain as “work-related,” no matter how social-friendly your company is.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with breasts (I even have some), but I work in a home office, so they don’t cause any ruckus for me. You, on the other hand, may have a very different experience in store for you.
Even if you ultimately decide not to set up a Pinterest account for your company, that doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on all the fun…
- Consider setting up an account for yourself to get to know your potential clients and customers as an individual first. They might actually be more receptive to this type of relationship than one with your brand.
- Make sure the information and images on your company’s website are pinable.
- If people do start pinning info from your site, track that traffic to learn if you should adjust your strategy and set up a business presence on Pinterest, too.
No matter what level you decide to get involved in, I invite you to connect with me on Pinterest and tell me how your experience goes. Has Pinterest been a boon or a bust (ahem…no pun intended) for your business?
Are your customers or clients there? Is your target market in this new platform? How refreshing!! Sometimes the obvious question is the one that doesn’t get asked!
I would add another question: Is your target market going to be there? Sometimes we have to anticipate the Facebooks and Twitters and their growth.
That said, thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Love your blog. You are my hero.
Kay
Thanks Kay! I always appreciate hearing your point of view on things. Thanks for mentioning the audience anticipation factor. On Pinterest, the vast majority of the people I interact with are men (cause I kinda suck at the girlie stuff ):) So I do see that as a market that is emerging. It will be interesting to see how it develops. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t adding to all of the hype and was instead giving some practical advice.
Another great blog post, Jen! Thank you for your commentary!
Thank you for, again, taking the time to stop by, read it, and comment. I’m glad you found it interesting and I appreciate hearing what you have to say.
Very insightful post. Thanks for offering a rational perspective – especially about taking it slow! As a personal Pinterest user, I am more than happy to follow brands but will swiftly unfollow those who post a bunch of pins at one time. It’s awful to sift through. Not to mention most of the pins aren’t visually appealing, which is another of your points. Pinterest is definitely not for every brand – nor is it designed to be.
Great to hear your perspective. I’d love to hear your recommendations of any brands you follow whom you think are doing it well.
Jennifer:
This is a very interesting post.
Your example of breasts showing up on your computer screen at work is an interesting one. It also made me think about the fact that what a business pins on Pinterest is going to show up next to other user’s pins when their customers and potential customers are using the site. Businesses that don’t want to be associated with images that they deem inappropriate might want to think twice about using the site. (This is usually an issue with display advertising, but it could be a concern here, as well.)
I somewhat disagree with the second point, though. HubSpot teaches businesses to focus on non-branded keyword content when blogging. That is, they suggest not only blogging about the business itself, but topics that are related to the business that its customers and potential customers would be interested in. I think this concept could be used on Pinterest, as well. By pinning things on the business’s Pinterest pinboards that are related to the business and that their customers and potential customers find interesting, it gives the business another chance to interact with these consumers. (However, then businesses need to keep your third point in mind and make sure that they are not pinning copyrighted images that they shouldn’t be.)
Using the example that you gave, financial institutions could create pinboards that focus on things that could be financed through the bank, credit union, etc. I’m thinking about pinboards that focus on cars (auto loans), homes (mortgages), vacations (signature loans), or other items that people want to purchase such as iPads, televisions, furniture, etc. (credit card loans). They could also focus on community-centric or cause-related content that can help boost the image of the business in the minds of its customers and potential customers. These are just some thoughts.
Again, I enjoyed the post, as you got me thinking about some of the potential pitfalls to Pinterest that I hadn’t thought about.
Chad
Interesting points, Chad. Thanks for chiming in. I hadn’t thought about the fact that business pins will be in a feed with other (perhaps less appropriate ones). You’re right, that could make for some dicey internal challenges as well. The analogy with display advertising is a great one. I see where you’re coming from with the second point. That actually was my focus in my company’s Pinterest boards — sharing images related to what my audience might be interested in, but not necessarily all directly tied to my business (social media). But then I ran into the trouble of pinning images that were not my own and opening that whole other copyright can of worms. I’m thinking there must be a work around here, but wasn’t able to figure out one (or maybe I’m just too worried about breaking rules :).
It would be intriguing to think about how, say financial institutions could do this in a way that’s not relying on stock photos of banking stuff. Because, indeed there are a lot of “dream boards” on PInterest. How might a bank host or facilitate the posting of images of these dream products when the products are not ones they produce? Maybe it’s a non issue. But it just seems to me like if I were Apple, and I saw, say, Wells Fargo hosting a board of dream Apple products people might like to buy someday, that might be upsetting? Maybe not, though. Maybe they’d just appreciate the free plug. Hard to say.
Lots of interesting things to explore with this platform. I appreciate you taking the time to comment and share your thoughts.