Will You Be Jumping on the Pinterest Craze?
Headlines from the Internet last week about Pinterest: “How Pinterest is Changing Website Design Forever” Mashable.com. “How Pinterest is Secretly Profiting From Your Links”
Venturebeat.com. “Holy SMOKE! Pinterest is the Fastest Growing Site Ever” Businessinsider.com. “Pinterest Hits 10 Million U.S. Monthly Uniques Faster Than Any Standalone Site Ever” Techcrunch.com. Gosh that’s a lot of headlines…
Know what my chosen headline would be? Pinterest Schminterest.
I have, so far, refused to get involved with Pinterest. I have a friend who is planning a wedding, and is using the site to create inspiration boards for ideas to implement in her big day. That’s swell, but I’m already married.
I am not at all interested in having another social media outlet-type-thing suck any more time away from my work time or non-work time. Plus, I hate shopping, and I feel like the way I would use Pinterest is to collect all the material things I want in the world in one great big shopping window.
If you are not familiar with Pinterest, here’s how it works. You apply for an invitation. I have no idea how long this takes. Note: I am still waiting for my invitation back from Contently.com.
Once you are given access, you start “pin”ing things on the web to collect as a sticky-note-type square on your Pinterest board. You can share it with friends, family members, whoever.
The interesting thing about Pinterest is that it’s a very simple website design, and people are copying it left and right. I personally love a clean website design with lots of white space—which is Pinterest to a tee. People organize their stuff on Pinterest not by chronological order (like Facebook or Twitter) but on different boards, lumping ideas together in a cohesive unit. Which makes it easy if you are gathering inspiration for something like, say, a wedding or the remodeling of your bedroom.
Pinterest and How We Work
But how is Pinterest changing the way we work? For a freelance writer, I’m not sure yet. But for a freelance photographer who loves creating inspiration board on things such as colors, nature, or…whatever, it might be useful to sign up for Pinterest. Graphic designers could probably get some use out of the site, too. Of course, what you pin on Pinterest isn’t necessarily your own work but inspiration you gleen from othrers. So while it might be a good way to organize your own thought processes, I still wonder what others will get from it.
If you are looking to build your brand, what you pin can be important. Anyone that visits you on Pinterst will see the sorts of things you associate with or think are cool. People like to do business and work with people that they share commonalities with.
Pinterest has also been hailed as a community building tool. It gives people the means for sharing their interest with other people. And the people who will follow you on Pinterest have the same interests. It’s a good way to gather demographic information, too, as you can find out the age groups of those following you.
What gets me is that Pinterest holds your followers at an arms reach. Unlike LinkedIn or Facebook, it’s not personal. The only way I can see to engage with your followers is to take time to ask questions or comment on other peoples’ pins. I don’t see a lot of engagement fostering here.
Here are some tips from Techcrunch.com on how brands can leverage Pinterest now:
1. Add Pinterest content to your existing Facebook presence.
2. Optimize your web priorities to draw people to your Pinterest content.
Put a “Follow Me on Pinterest” button on your website.
3. Tell your existing social audiences about what’s happening on Pinterest.
Make sure you periodically post Pinterest content to your Facebook, Twitter, and Google +.
4. Make your Pins work harder for you.
This means using a URL shortening and redirection strategy, preferably one that aggregates your Pinterest analytics (views, Repins, etc.) in a central location.
Right now, I’m not sure Pinterest is a hugely useful tool for most freelancers. The ones I really see using it to their advantage are wedding and event planners and photographers. For me, at least, I see it as a time sucker that keeps me from doing what I should be doing—my work. But I’m open to argument.
Do you use Pinterest? How is it helping your freelance career?
Leave a Comment
I am a graphic designer who has had a Pinterest account for about 6 months. I was introduced to the site by a client. It took me a little while to warm up to using the site, but I’ve grown to love it. For me personally, the focus isn’t on socializing, but on gathering thoughts. Although I admit that perusing Pinterest’s main site can certainly become another way to waste time; it’s only one facet of Pinterest. The main benefit of using Pinterest in my eyes is that that the site provides you with a tool which allows you to collect ideas/inspiration while perusing the sites you already enjoy wasting time on. I argue that it can actually make your time-wasting more useful! Plus, it sure beats bookmarking in my web browser. If it’s been more than a couple of weeks since I bookmarked something with my browser it might as well be forgotten because I’ll never find it again in my ever-growing bookmarks list! With Pinterest, I have boards of images that I can quickly scan and find what I am looking for. Considering humans are visual by nature – it just makes sense! I create”general” boards for things such as Art & Design I admire or DIY projects. And I also create boards for specific projects I am working on – whether for myself or a client. For specific projects, Pinterest has replaced creating images boards in Photoshop. It just seems redundant! And if I happen to be zapped on ideas for my next project, I can peruse through my general boards for inspiration.
I’ll bypass this message board.
• Search for “speed” and notice:
» duplicate content
» infinite pagination (really?)
» unable to mute retarded comments
» crap copywrong policy
A bunch of user-submitted “content” with repeat garbage – no thanks. Why would anyone request an invitation?
Been using Pinterest for months now and i have to admit, i am addicted to it. Everyday, 2 hours. Every morning. Grrr ~
EXACTLY why I don’t want to engage….
I like Pinterest.
As a freelance writer, I could probably Pin my published articles and drive traffic there, but I’m currently not too bothered about squeezing every last penny from it. It’s just a fun website I enjoy browsing. It’s a storage place for things that I like and may need to dig back up at an unspecified point in the future.
I thought this was an interesting point, though:
“What gets me is that Pinterest holds your followers at an arms reach. It’s not personal.”
For me, that’s a positive. I might like the same sort of things as you, but I don’t need to be your best friend.
> Know what my chosen headline would be? Pinterest Schminterest.
I’m wary of people posting reviews or commentary on a site or service when the reviewer hasn’t actually even used the site. It’s not like it’s that hard to come by an invite, especially if you’re planning to do a blog post about the service.
I’m with you on how I don’t need yet another social site to track and manage stuff – but there’s no denying the popularity and ease of use of Pinterest compared to other past services. And the referring traffic sites that appeal to the demographic of Pinterest is growing at an incredible rate.
For cooking, crafty/design sites and just about any sort of visual based website, it’s a site to be aware of and encourage your readers to be involved with in my opinion.
Pinterest is great for my own personal gains: DIY projects I want to do for example. But for my freelance writing, I don’t see much benefit.
I am all for Pinterest, and I was glad you covered some of the ways it benefits the user.
I use Pinterest as on online vision board, as everyone needs visual reminders of what they are attaining to achieve! Collecting images, articles, and inspiration on such a clean background has made Pinterest my favorite online site of the moment.
I recently attended a business conference where the key speaker urged the entire audience to go out and get a stylist. Everybody thinks they know how to dress, but most people don’t have a clue how to put an outfit together! Pinterest has become my free stylist. My board “Love the Look” teaches me how to complete a look, accessorize, and put flattering outfits together.
And don’t even get me started on the business side of things! I own the Energy Shop on Etsy (www.energyshop.etsy.com) and Pinterest is currently one of my best referrers.
I could go on and on, give Pinterest a try! You’ll love it. All the best, Lisa
As a freelance digital artist I feel that copyrights are trampled already and pinterest just perpetuates the attitude that if it’s on the internet it belongs to everyone. The hypocrisy by other designers who create products vs. artwork is astounding. I understand their dmca process is very proficient. well of course it is. They are clearly awar
e of the abuse they are inviting leaving it up to artists to find their content all they have to do is comply with the lettet of the law.
I have an account, but decided not to use it.
Not because I don’t like it (can’t really tell without using it), but because I just have no time for it. All of my time is already consumed by other social networks, and I decided that if I can’t spend time to use Pinterest on a regular basis and build something interesting, then I rather miss the fun and catch up when the right moment comes.
Theres a million online places to store that stuff. Why another site?
I still rock Del.icio.us for crying out loud, and it works great.
pinterest is the new term for procrastination.
I like the visual aspects of Pinterest and I use it for personal stuff mostly.
My daughter has a Concierge Maternity Consulting business which uses Pinterest for things that would be of interest to clients and potential clients: baby gear, nursery design, baby food “recipes”, etc. That seems to be a good use as it offers ideas to her target audience and hopefully will drawn in new clients.
In another arena, one of my boards is Spirit & Life — that’s not consumer goods, but a way to keep track of various websites that feed my spiritual life. One of my friends pins things to keep her inspired for running and bodybuilding. I often check her boards to help me stay on track for my marathon training.
Maybe it is another time waster, but it’s one I really enjoy.
Everyone has times when his term runs out of ideas and need to see the world from a different perspective and Pinterest an easy way for new inspiration.
What really angered me is the attempted registration login via Twitter and login via Facebook will force you to activate your timeline which is no longer possible to go back!
*yawns*, the internet has been boring since 2004, maybe even 2003
I miss chat… a/s/l anyone?
This comment made me laugh. I used to go on chatrooms, but rightfully they were for outcasts. Normal people still interacted face to face. Now you’re considered weird if you would rather meet someone the old fashioned way.
I despise social networking for the sole reason that everyone has been duped into believing that when you use it you’re being productive and “bleeding edge” (gag). When social networking was called chatrooms, we were honest enough to admit it was mindless entertainment.
I wrote up a blogpost on this subject last week that became really popular. I think the code to crack in pinterest is to become “pinteresting”.. anyway you can check it out here: http://henrietteweber.com/2012/02/17/yes-you-can-market-on-pinterest-if-your-pinteresting/
I agree that this is probably another time-sucking craze and am wary about investing more time away from family and work. I have an account now but haven’t pinned any yet because I’m unsure which one of my niche sites I want to associate it with. I’ll probably use it for DIY projects like you had commented.
I’ve also briefly considered whether or not I could use Pinterest to my advantage as a web designer, but I really can’t see any profitable use for it at this point. I see my wife spending hours on it, and it’s just not clear how I could use it. I suppose I could manufacture a way if I really wanted to, but as others have mentioned, there are already so many places for compiling ideas and inspiration that I don’t really want to add yet another account to my list.
It does seem like a nice idea for, say, photographers and graphic designers though.
I’ve had a Pinterest account for quite a while, but I don’t the see how it is better for me as a graphic designer than, say, Evernote.
I’m a web designer and although I don’t have an account and don’t plan on getting one either, I have had a few clients send me their “pinterest board” to show me their style, I have to admit it’s really good for that but that’s about it..