On Thursday, September 19th, CEO and Co-Founder of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann announced plans for promoted pins in the future. For those of you who are not familiar with Pinterest, it is essentially a site dedicated to the visual sharing of ideas, products, and services and has become wildly popular. Now valued at 2.5 Billion, Silbermann stated that is is important to make sure that “Pinterest will be a service that is here to stay” and now will be available for businesses to promote themselves and their products. While this can be alarming to some users who prefer that Pinterest remains untouched by annoying advertisements, Silbermann also ensures that the new promoted pins will be:
—Tasteful. No flashy banners or pop-up ads.
—Transparent. We’ll always let you know if someone paid for what you see, or where you see it.
—Relevant. These pins should be about stuff you’re actually interested in, like a delicious recipe, or a jacket that’s your style.
—Improved based on your feedback. Keep letting us know what you think, and we’ll keep working to make things better.
So, How Does This Effect Your Social Media Marketing?
While at first, Pinterest plans to only display promoted pins within their distinctive category (Wedding, Home Decor, Technology, etc.) and will be doing a limited test group of businesses, this could mean great potential for social media marketing. One of the powers of Pinterest is that it has elements of visual marketing paired with “word-of mouth” because each member has the choice to “follow” their friends and family. By being referred to a product or service from friends via Pinterest, a trust is built almost instantly.
For those of you who are interested in being a part of the new promoted pins on Pinterest, you will want to start thinking about where your product or service falls within the categories available on the site as well as how each would represent your brand. Remember that users will still be able to tell which pins are organic and which are promoted so stick with the companies mission to remain transparent and not “spam”. You want users to not only see your post, but share the post as well.
For more information on Social Media Marketing contact us at 763-548-2297.