MomCrunch
Clutch Your Mason Jars Close, Folks: Marketing Is Ruining Pinterest!
They infiltrated our forums, and then they came for our blogs. For a brief while, Facebook was just a place for awkward chatting with high school friends, and then it was taken over by contests. Twitter has nearly been swallowed whole. Google+ placed rules in an attempt to prevent it. And now? Pinterest. Poor, pretty little Pinterest is being flooded by self-promoters.
Oh dear.
Look. I’ve been kicking around social media for a while now, starting with hanging out in public forums. I have watched this cycle countless times. No matter what the gathering of people online is, someone shows up with something to sell.
So honestly: why does this surprise anyone?
If you Google “marketing on Pinterest” you will get hundreds – nay, THOUSANDS – of helpful articles. With 3.2 million users, of course Pinterest has come to the attention of marketers. In fact, I’d say that of all the social networks I’ve seen develop over the last fourteen years, Pinterest is likely the MOST natural fit for marketers because it’s visually based and everyone on there is talking about their dream items, whether it’s kitchens or crafts or food. Those dream items all require things that need to be purchased in order to complete them. In other words: Pinterest lock, meet marketing key.
It’s not that I don’t understand the desire to hold precious something you value. I remember a beautifully quiet blogosphere, when the only social element happened on the blog itself. You didn’t promote your blog, because there was nowhere to do so – no Facebook, no Twitter, no LinkedIn. There was nothing but you and the page, and you wrote and hoped people read. Those few comments you got were precious relationships with actual people, not a gauge of your influence or your engagement or your value as a blogger. I won’t lie. It was a beautiful time.
But guess what? I think now is a beautiful time in the blogosphere, too. It’s a fascinating space to watch, and it’s a glorious field to play in. I won’t lie – I absolutely LOVE earning a living in this space. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been professionally, even if it does mean that I’m muddying up waters that used to be pure.
Pinterest is just going through the growing phase that happens to every social network. Remember, too, that you have the power when it comes to social engagement: if you feel someone is selling your something and you aren’t interested? UNFOLLOW. The power of social media, after all, lies in CURATION. You get to choose who is in your stream. You can’t just follow the universe and then complain when assholes show up.
This pattern goes back throughout human history. There’s a reason the market was in the village square, folks, and social media is just another village. We’ll get used to it. I promise Pinterest will still be pretty. Really.
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9 Comments
AmyWindsor commented on Jan 27 12 at 2:40 pmOMG! I literally just posted one of my articles on a new pinterest board about 15 minutes ago. I feel so ashamed that I’m going to delete it.
**hides under rock**
Rockceptionist commented on Jan 27 12 at 3:17 pmAs someone in the real estate field, I’ve been waiting to read an article like this. As Pinterest started gaining ground, so did the articles on “how to use Pinterest for real estate.” I haven’t logged on to Pinterest and I probably won’t, but I’m definitely not excited about the prospect of the waves of agents that are probably heading your way. My industry loves self-promotion (as well as promotion of the actual houses) and many want to be everywhere. I think there’s some places where real estate doesn’t quite fit, so I’ll do my best to leave you all alone to enjoy Pinterest without my interjections of my latest listings. ;)
daisybones commented on Jan 27 12 at 3:23 pmI think it’s a perfect forum for promoting small, crafty businesses. Etsy sellers LOVE the traffic from Pinterest, and their products are prettifying our boards like crazy. I post very judiciously from my own shop or blog, and I think that’s OK. I just make sure my interactions and other activities far outweigh any self promotion. What are your thoughts on this take on self promotion?
Danielle commented on Jan 27 12 at 3:40 pmI’m going to pin this. :)
mommabrown commented on Jan 27 12 at 5:46 pmYour ‘UNFOLLOW’ thinking is flawed. The point of Pinterest is to explore and expand. In order to get the true Pinterest experience, you don’t just view the pins of those you follow. You use the ‘everything’ option or one of its sub-categories. Until Pinterest introduces a block, mute or ignore function, curating will only help those that stick to viewing just those that they follow.
Marian Cates commented on Jan 27 12 at 7:40 pmI love Pinterest. It’s so much fun to explore what other people have posted. I have online shops and studios, and I use social media daily to market them on facebook and twitter, trying to keep to to 3-1 rule — share three interesting things you run across online for each one marketing post. On Pinterest, I devote one board to my shop Animal Lane and the rest of my 16 boards are for sharing fun stuff I find online. So I think that’s a fair use of Pinterest. When I run across a total promotion account, I’m turned off, just like you.
Nancy commented on Jan 27 12 at 9:53 pmPinterest… I avoided it…I was busy…in fact I was swamped! But slowly and surely somehow I found my way onto someone’s pins… and it was the beginning of the end. I admit, I ADORE Pinterest. I don’t just like it. I don’t just spend a few minutes there, I am a pin addict. Now I have to ration my Pin-reading–just like reading OPB’s.(other people’s blogs) or I get NOTHING done. Do I think we should be regretting the marketplace finding Pinterest? No, like everything else promotion is going to happen. Some of us will like it, some hate it, some feel it is just evolution. You can control what you look at, you can control if you want to use Pinterest as a ‘pure’ form of contact, but in the end your village will grow into a city, and the city into a state, and so on. Or it will be taken over by other countries(or in this case by other forms of social media will take it’s reader/participants to the newer and bigger and stronger village.)
Amber commented on Jan 27 12 at 10:05 pmI wrote one of those “how to market on pinterest” posts. It’s my job. On the one hand, it’s nice to see a pure social media space, but most companies who are serious about engaging in social media try to do just that – engage. I trust that as marketers come on board they’ll do their best to respect the rules of the platform.
Lori Zambito commented on Jan 29 12 at 9:35 amI don’t think it’s bad for a blogger to put their ideas or pins on Pinterest like the first commenter here said she did. Don’t hide under a rock! I think the ideas have to come from somewhere and if I see something I like a lot on Pinterest (or in that case many ideas from one place whether it’s a blogger or a website) I WANT to go to their page and I WANT to know more about the person and what they are doing. I really do think that is part of the point of Pinterest. I agree that every single pin should not be about shameless self promotion, but there is a place for marketing there and it is another forum like Facebook and Twitter and the like. Pinterest is an amazing concept. I hope we won’t start seeing ads or commercials, but backlinks to home decorating websites or opinion pieces on people’s blogs about a topic – to me- that’s a good thing.
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