Pinterest is a social media platform revolving around the ability to pin photos to specific areas of the site and share them with friends and other contacts. It quickly rose to popularity, causing many marketers to consider it a possible platform as powerful as Facebook or Twitter, but the absence of powerful Pinterest strategies is noticeable. Some professionals have completely forgotten that it even exists. So is Pinterest even worth considering as a platform for social media marketing?
How Pinterest Works
Pinterest images become popular when many users “re-pin” them, circulating them around the Internet. But unlike posts from Facebook or Twitter, these images tend to have a specific theme. The most popular images are the ones that are hotly desired by users, rather than being driven by shock value or humor like other forms of social media. This makes the platform great if you can capitalize on images that people desire, but this isn’t always possible.
Is It Worth the Time?
Consider your type of business. Do you provide new products on a regular basis or provide services with a visual element? If so, Pinterest could be a powerful platform. But if your business does not have a means to continually offer new, desirable images, Pinterest might simply not be worth the time.
Why It Will Always Be Secondary
Pinterest is likely to remain one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, but that doesn’t mean it should become a focal point for your marketing strategy. Twitter and Facebook are the primary avenues that will drive new traffic to your business, so don’t get lost in trying to do too much else. Pinterest will always be secondary, because if an image has the potential to go viral, it will go viral no matter the source. So if you have hot images to circulate, put them on Facebook and they’ll naturally appear on Pinterest eventually, rendering your account more or less negligible.
Pinterest is still very popular but it will never be the powerful marketing tool that Facebook and Twitter have become. Use your strategy wisely, and don’t waste time on it unless it could really work.
