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Is Pinterest Love Enough

The latest #newtool darling of the social media world is clearly Pinterest. For that one person who has not yet been overrun by the hype of the “next” thing, Pinterest defines itself in these words: “Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.” People who use Pinterest love Pinterest. But is love enough?

Pinterest has a beautiful interface and I’m finding it a great inspiration for creative and new ideas. But I’m having a difficult time declaring it a #newtool that will have long-term, mass appeal. Yes, new users are signing up at an alarmingly fast pace. This normally bodes well as a quick adoption rate proved out for other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Even LinkedIn and YouTube have ridden the rocket to social media stardom. But where these established networks really took root was in their ability to serve both consumers and businesses alike.

I know it is is too early to call it for Pinterest, but I don’t see much use for it for a wide variety of marketing, branding, and public relations efforts. Go ahead, attack me now with all of the exceptions to my prior statement. Of course I’m generalizing, as I do see it as very much a service to the “Long Tail” of marketing, where extremely niche communities will find an audience. These communities will most likely be centered on visual and physical elements that can be “pinned” in a meaningful way. I”m also optimistic towards the value of Pinterest for personal and social interests. But as far as a new tool for business, I”m afraid it fails to answer the “why” question. Why would a business use Pinterest in a broad B2B or B2C application? The current research shows that consumers gravitate to only a few social networks, not being able to manage many networks and communities at once. Pinterest may just be too much for most social netizens.

My prediction is that Pinterest does not demonstrate enough of a significant difference over other social networking tools, in reaching a mass audience, and it will only be a niche network like Quora, Foodspotting, Instagram, and Foursquare. The aforementioned sites/networks are all really great tools, but just don’t address the same core, human nature needs like a Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter do. You guessed it, we’re still talking about the #samerules of human nature must be met if any #newtool is to become an integral part of our society. Am I wrong? Tell me where my thoughts left the tracks. I appreciate your comments…really, I do.

5 Comments on “Is Pinterest Love Enough”

  1. 1 Rick said at 1:20 pm on February 23rd, 2012:

    Can user activity be measured by Pinterest? Can brands track, measure and monetize this?

  2. 2 Todd Murphy said at 10:22 am on February 24th, 2012:

    Great questions, Rick. I have not looked into the measurement piece, although I know our Media Analysis department is evaluating Pinterest. I’ll be sure to post the answers when they emerge. Thanks for the comment.

  3. 3 Dee said at 7:08 pm on March 5th, 2012:

    I think that you may be right. Although I do believe that Pinterest will have a loyal following among visual artists, there is a low rumbling around the net in regards to Pinterest and copyright issues. I think that if they don’t address it (I know it is addressed in the terms of use, but they need to address the current problems users are seeing, or think they are seeing, to calm the storm) Pinterest isn’t going to do well for long. I hope it does, I enjoy using it and honestly I don’t use it for the social aspect, More for inspiration.

  4. 4 Todd Murphy said at 8:28 pm on March 5th, 2012:

    Well said. For creative ideas, Pinterest provides a great platform. Since posting this blog many have told me that they understand it is good for some things, but not all. The whole copyright issue has really blown up in the last two weeks. It will be interesting to see if Pinterest can be both compliant AND open at the same time. Thanks for the comments. We will continue to monitor the news on this.

  5. 5 Todd Murphy said at 9:50 am on April 12th, 2012:

    Just as an update to this posting from February, this week Facebook paid crazy money for Instagram. Is the Bubble Burst of 2000 happening all over again? Is $1 Billion too much to pay for a company with 13 employees and no revenue? Will Pinterest be the next to be bought? I’d love to hear your thoughts. As you know, Pinterest past LinkedIn on the list of most used social networking sites.


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