Pinterest is the newest internet sensation. A combination of social media and photography swapping, Pinterest is something bold and new and also profitable. Between January and February of this year, its traffic increased by 52 percent. That’s quite a leap, and tells a lot about the growing popularity of the application. But what does Pinterest have to do with business? Isn’t it just for scrap-bookers, wedding planners, and fashionistas?
What you have to realize is that Pinterest has the potential to revolutionize the way you promote your business and sell your products or services. Unlike the content-counts world of Twitter or the sensationalism of Facebook, Pinterest relies on visual appeal. Does it look interesting, cute, or beautiful? Admittedly, it’s a shallow determination of viability, and yet people are strongly visually driven.
How does that work for your site? You have to get them interested enough to click on your photo. Well, first you have to have photos, then you have to get them Pinned, and THEN you have to get them to click. Sounds like it is getting harder, right? Well, that’s true. There are a lot of forces that must come into play to make Pinterest a viable advertisement opportunity, but in reality it is not that hard. You just have to know the audience and get your product out there in an interesting way.
Finally, all those infographics and photos you invested in don’t seem so useless. But wait, there is more. Pinterest recently updated its terms of service, which means, starting April 6th, Pinning gets a new set of rules. Previously, the site had rules against posting your own stuff. But they also said not to post things you didn’t have the copyright for. Mixed messages, anyone? Thankfully, they’ve update this to take a YouTube-esque play on copyright laws. They have the option of taking down images… But they don’t have to.
They made Pinterest more family-friendly also. By banning anything Pinterest finds “to be hateful, violent, harmful, abusive, racially or ethnically offensive, defamatory, etc.”If your business doesn’t fall into one of these categories (I hope not!) then these changes make your site even more viable. By keeping it open to all ages, Pinterest is increasing the number of people willing to peruse the site, thus bringing in more potential customers for you.
Since it is so new, the full impact of Pinterest and the best ways to exploit it are not yet known. It will take some time for spammers to get a choke hold on the site, so take this opportunity to get in early and avoid the chaos. Pinterest has the potential to be huge.
About Brandon Leibowitz
