DIGITAL MARKETING
PINTEREST:
THE NEW SOCIAL
PLATFORM THAT’S MAKING
A MARK ON THE ONLINE MARKET
By Silvina Moschini
Talking about an online social network where
users share interests undoubtedly sounds kind
of redundant nowadays. But it is true that the
great success of Pinterest shows that surfers
apparently have a need that the Web’s most
popular social networks still have not adequately
satisfied.
Pinterest, based on the capacity to share
images and content available on the Web in a
practical and simple way, has just been singled
out by the specialist media site TechCrunch as
the best new startup of 2011, and is threatening
to become the new shining star of the social
networks. According to comScore, the network
recorded an increase in traffic of 2,000 percent
between June and November of last year. Even
so, its co-founder, Ben Silberman, doesn’t want
to talk about the figures that show the growth of
the platform, and prefers to underline its design
and capacity to unite people according to their
interests as the reason for its success.
An Image Is Still Worth a Thousand Words
The new Web that has its finger on the pulse
of the evolution of social media is a platform that
consists mainly of links and images, an eminently
visual tool with an emphasis on photography.
“Pinterest is a site that connects people who
are passionate about the same things,” Silberman
said. “In the same way that people use Facebook
are excited to connec t with people they care
about, people on Pinterest are excited to be
inspired by people with similar tastes.”
Returning to the images, the idea of Pinterest is
very simple. The site is a kind of virtual pin board,
when users pin an image, a product or content
that interests them, then it is published on a kind
of online-advert notice board and can be seen
by other users. The user can pin Web content
or re-pin what other Pinterest users have already
shared so that it forms part of their own interests.
“It’s like storing favorites on your computer,
but in a public way,” explains one fan of the
new platform. There are no walls, no friends, or
anything remotely similar. Images and interests are
shared via theme boards, revealing a common link
between two people, without the need to leave
a message, although you can if you want. With
a simple glance at the home screens of different
44
TACTICS /DESIGNING THE HOLIDAYS
users one can find out about their passions and
interests, and recognize people who have the
same tastes as us.
The new platform’s public is mainly female.
This is what TechCrunch says, detailing that 59
percent of Pinterest users are women between
the ages of 25 and 44, and mainly arts and
design professionals. According to the onlinetraffic measuring site Alexa, Pinterest occupies
the number 26 spot on the list of most-visited
sites in the United States, and number 126 in
the world.
The Value is in the Generation of Traffic
It is true that Pinterest has become more than
just a relevant site for the recommendation of
services, businesses and small companies. Its
simplicity and user-friendliness are undoubtedly
factors that favor its rapid rise and adoption. But
the real value of Pinterest lies in its demonstrated
capacity to send traffic to other websites.
According to a Shareaholic study conducted
last July, 0.17 percent of Internet traffic came
from links shared by Pinterest. By January 2012,
the figure had risen to a surprising 3.6 percent, a
volume that exceeds the total traffic redirected by
sites such as Google+, Linkedin, MySpace and
Tumblr combined.
To all this has to be added the fact that Pinterest
is so far an invitation-only site to which you can
only have access if you either receive an invitation
from another user or request an invitation from the
site itself, which means its expansion potential still
hasn’t reached its peak. Of course, the platform
has already attracted the attention of the big
brands that see the tool as a powerful way of
marketing their goods and services. The idea
of selecting content, filtering, organizing and
sharing it online with a click takes “viralization”
to its maximum simplicity.
If Pinterest manages to consolidate its growth
and continues to be an effective tool for sending
visitors to other websites, it’s possible that it could
convert itself into an essential platform for any
online-marketing and communication strategy.
THE TACTICS TIP
Pinterest might just be the place for your
mall stylist and retailers to shine during the
holidays. Use the platform to share their best
looks of the season, home décor ideas and
gift-wrapping tricks. Once you’ve built a bit
of a following on the platform, you can add
more boards to keep interacting with shoppers
year-round.
WEBSITE
Pinterest website
Silvina Moschini is founder and CEO of Intuic, a
multinational interactive marketing agency specializing in
online visibility and social media.
Moschini founded it in 2003 as part of KMGi, the awardwinning online visibility corporate group that includes
KMGi Studios, Wikiexperts.us, Publicity Guaranteed,
The Syndicated News and All Online Advertisers. It has
offices in Mexico, Argentina, the USA, Italy, Spain, and
England, with significant support in five additional locations.
For more information, visit www.Intuic.com.