Pinterest: Not just a social network, it’s a “Catalogue of Ideas”
Founder and CEO Ben Silbermann describes Pinterest as a “catalogue of ideas”, a tool to discover and inspire.
At the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado he stated:
There are recipes to cook, there are products to buy, there are places to visit. And we figure our job is taking this huge catalogue of ideas – there are 50 billion pins – and to show you the right ones at the right time. And I think that’s a different thing than a social network.
Now valued at $11 billion, Pinterest is the go to website for creatives. I myself do a lot of design work for our clients and use Pinterest almost daily as a source of inspiration. It’s a fantastic way to visually map out ideas whilst discovering other talented, like-minded creatives.
Pinterest recently strengthened its ties with the advertising industry by introducing ‘promoted pins’ and adding a ‘buy button’, meaning users can purchase products without leaving the website.
According to Silbermann these new additions have been extremely well received:
That speaks to the fact that the motivation between a person who is there to discover something they love and an advertiser who is there to have their product discovered are very closely aligned.
Simon Jenkins, our Social Media Director here at Tug agrees:
I think other platforms (Facebook, Instagram etc.) will be looking at this move into native commerce with a keen eye. Let’s not beat around the bush; since the platforms have successfully opened up to advertisers, the next biggest challenge is to offer those advertisers an e-commerce platform. The main benefit of on-platform purchasing for users is the ease in customer journey. If Social channels and their functionality can prevent users from opening new windows / applications, then we can expect to see advertisers make full use of this. Think about it from the seller’s / advertiser’s point of view. There are fantastic targeting capabilities through Social channels allowing sellers to hit the right audiences, on the right devices. If a potential purchase is just one click away, we’re on the verge of witnessing the next phase in the Social (Media) revolution.
If you look at very recent advancements in technology (namely something like Apple Pay) you can see a trend towards ‘ease & accessibility’. The phrase ‘disruptive’ technology is a little misleading. Whilst it may ‘disrupt’ the market as a whole, it’s anything but disruptive to our lives; it makes them easier. That’s what’s happening to Social Media. New functionality, partnerships and indeed devices are aiming to make our lives easier… and generate revenue along the way!
Read more about Pinterest’s uniqueness and visual search feature.
