The Emergence of Pinterest: Why So Important?

Pinterest is a focal point because of its uniqueness and versatility but why is it so important? With the evolution into visual social media, Pinterest is a pioneer for this trend. This article will discuss many aspects of Pinterest, including how media outlets are utilizing it, the marketing interest (or disinterest), and the growth of the site. As in many other social media websites, users use Pinterest for a variety of reasons. This article will explore some those uses.

Many media outlets have found Pinterest and have created ways to utilize the technology for their benefit. Journalists and news organizations are finding a role for Pinterest and using the site for hard news and features. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal both have successful Pinterest pages that correspond so stories they’ve done including popular Pinterest board topics, fashion and weddings (Tenore). There are lots of fun events that new organizations cover that could be converted into a Pinterest board to keep the information top of mind to the consumer and to make the information more accessible and available to the user to be saved for a later time.

News organizations can also extend the shelf life of articles and features by resurfacing old content (like holiday recipes, and events like the Olympics) on their Pinterest pages (Tenore). Picture story boards can be created linking back to the old information, as far as an archive goes: organizations could use Pinterest to keep the information relevant. Pinterest is also a good organizational tool news organizations can use to respond to an event. The Dallas Morning News created a board to post all of the pictures viewers were sending in after a hail storm in their area. They needed a way to show the importance of the event and they did this by pinning all of the photos to be viewed at once (Tenore). All of these uses of Pinterest keeps the news organizations’ stories top of mind to viewers and keeps them in the presence of the viewers. The Today Show as well as the Weather Channel both find Pinterest to be a tool that fit naturally into their lifestyle type of content, fitting in with what they did already but giving them a new avenue to share the information with the followers (Rubino, 14). If viewers have the ability to pin that information to their own boards it becomes something that they want to keep and save for later, not just another passing news story.

Even though the platform is working for some news organizations, not all of them are excited to have another social medium to have access to, while others want to see the copywriting issues settled, some say it is too female audience skewed, while others don’t believe it is a good fit for hard news (Malone, 15). These are all valid concerns that happen with many social media platforms.

Because of the curating nature of Pinterest, marketers are finding this medium an interesting one for branding and promotion. Marketers are also using Pinterest as a tool to boost their website traffic and Pinterest is fast becoming an important part of referral traffic (Schlereth). Pinterest can also give marketers insights into the interests and inspirations of their audiences and not just insights into what users are up to, that other social media websites are useful for (Schlereth). This information can be an invaluable tool to advertisers and their media plans. Marketers do need to utilize this medium correctly, not just for promotions; the site should be organized around “passion points” that personify brands and evoke emotions. (Schlereth). Users like to be able to follow the content they crave and having too many promotional pins may lead the pinner to un-follow the brand or company. It is always important to make sure, for marketers, that their content doesn’t clutter their followers’ with junk.

Pinterest is a fast growing social media website with more than a 4000 percent growth between May 2011 and February 2012 with users spending an average of 64.4 minutes on the site (Schlereth). With the huge amount of success Pinterest has found, other websites are out their copying the format.

The Pinterest community is a majority of females leaving an open market for male audiences. With sites skewed more toward men, like dartitup.com, gentlemint.com, and manteresting.com, the virtual pin-board style of curating information does not appear to be going anywhere. There are also websites like Pinterest that cater to specific categories; trippy.com is devoted to travel, learnist.com is devoted to education and dropula.com is devoted to graphic arts, etc. Although Pinterest has sections for this type of content, other sites have created a space devoted to specific topics allowing users to focus their time on certain posts. These sites, however, don’t share the huge following that Pinterest does.

It will be exciting to see new ways Pinterest can be utilized and to see where Pinterest takes the brand. They are creating new features for the site as needed and seem to be dedicated to creating a satisfying user experience. As social media and as Pinterest evolve the importance of the media will evolve with it. Where do we go from here?

Sources

• Malone, Michael. “Stations Show Some Interest in Pinterest”. “Broadcasting & Cable, 12 Mar. 2012, 15. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.
• Rubino, Lindsay. “New Organizations Pin Hopes on Social Media”. Broadcasting & Cable, 12 Mar. 2012, 14-15. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.
• Schlereth, Laura. “Marketers’ Interest in Pinterest; The Buzz-worthy Virtual Scrapbook is Helping Brands Large and Small Project Their Personalities in the Social Sphere.” Marketing News 46.5 (2012): 8. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.
• Tenore, Mallary Jean. “5 Ways Journalists are Using Pinterest”. The Poynter Institute, 2012. 10 Dec. 2012. Web. 12 Dec 2012.  

Sharing Aspect of Social Media

This article will look at the sharing aspect of social media and what it means/has done to the culture in the United States. For me, there are two different types of sharing on social media. One: the exchange between the “poster” or author of the blog/tweet/post and anyone who may comment on that blog/tweet/post. The sharing aspect here has to do with the sharing of ideas (communication) between the participants. The second has to do with the content the author is posting. The sharing is anything they decide to post, whether they are sharing parts of their day/life or sharing something that is important to them like an article/cause/video/etc.

For me, the first concept is not a new one; people communicating and exchanging ideas. This concept is still an important one and it will be discussed a little bit later when talking about co-created online content. To a certain extent, the second type of sharing is also not completely new (people could write letters to their friends sharing aspects of their day), but the idea of sharing these thoughts with the world (and to the extent some people share) is a new idea brought about by social media.

For the purpose of this article, the second type of sharing will be the focus. Humans have always wanted to connect with one another, and social media has given them a new medium in which to do this. The ease of communication has given way to what Jari Multisilta and Marcelo Milrad have dubbed “life publishing” (1). With the available mobile technology available today, users can share their experiences from anywhere that has network access (Multisilta, 2). This sharing could be in the form of a picture, a video, a post or a combination of those elements and uploaded to any number of social media websites. These shared experiences can be uploaded instantaneously by the user, in real time as the event is happening.

Social media has created a hybridized creation that is a combination of the user/author and the audience. Messages are no longer created solely by the author/owner; messages can be contributed to by other users on the medium, whether they are “friends” with the author or not. Other users can “write statements and post pictures on each other’s profiles, essentially co-creating self-presentation” of the author (DeAndrea, 510). Often, particularly on Facebook, “friends” are not intimately familiar with each other (DeAndrea, 525).

The cultural significance of the occurrence of co-creating could be the perception others have about the owners’ content on their social media pages, whether it was written by the owner or not. Will viewers perceive that all content on the page is the owners’ is reflective of their views or will there be a separation of owner generated material and material generated by others? DeAndrea’s study on this matter seems to indicate that if viewers of a social media site think the owner has full control of the page and updates it frequently, then they are responsible for all content on the page, favorable or not, because they have the ability to delete unwanted co-created content (524). This study brings to light some of the possible implications social media could have on relationships people have with others, whether they know them personally or not.

On a different note, moving away from interpersonal communications, marketers are beginning to understand the benefits of the sharing culture on social media sites. Modiv Media launched Modiv Social, which allows users to share coupons with their friends via Facebook. Not only are the retailer’s coupons being distributed and shoppers are being rewarded for their behavior with savings, Motiv Media is able to gather data about the sharers. Who are they and why are they influential in their social group? (Modiv Media). As all social media users know, this company is not the only one to post coupons on social media sites with the ability of sharing.

As a cultural phenomenon, the concept of sharing is changing the way people talk to each other on social media. Facebook has added a “share” button so certain posts can be shared very easily. With the frequency social media users update with new pictures and posts about their personal lives, it seems as though “personal lives” are diminishing in importance to these users. Getting the approval from peers and strangers would seem to be more important an endeavor than keeping what was once personal to yourself. Where can we go from here?

Sources

• DeAndrea, David. Participatory Social Media and the Evolution of Online Behavior. Human Communication Research, 38 (2012) 510-528. Web. 30 October 2012.
• "Modiv Media Launches Mobile-Social Coupon Sharing Feature." Professional Services Close - Up (2012)ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 4 December 2012.
• Multisilta, Jari & Marcelo Milrad. “Sharing Experiences with Social Mobile Media”. Proceedings of the 11th international Conference on Human-Computer interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (2009). Web. 4 December 2012.