Our Thinking

108 Blog Carnival: How Pinteresting

The social site Pinterest is an unusual place to be – a virtual bulletin board of various pictures and images sorted by theme. Scanning people’s pictures on their virtual boards and pinning images to your own boards can leave you lost in a swirl of aesthetically pleasing photos. But this is not a frivolous game or a passing fancy! How popular is Pinterest?

As a teenager, my bedroom walls were plastered with magazine pages, perfectly torn out and taped on all four walls from floor to ceiling. This act of collecting and displaying has evolved over the years to my current obsession with books.  But I see a parallel between these actions and what we do on Pinterest. We collect and display. Even our organization and cataloging of Pinterest images are thought through.

The psychology of Pinterest can be examined in many contexts such as materialism of the individual or commercialism of society as a whole, etc.  It’s been called The Art Deco of the Social Space, and us users as Digital Pack Rats. Very conflicting images. And once you delve into the ‘why’s and abandon the ‘how’s, you begin to see things a little differently.

A personality can be seen from the hours of painstaking crafting of visual boards. And though it’s all about other people’s images, it speaks volumes about you as the ‘curator’. It shows what trends appeal to you, what hobbies and interests you have, what you think is ‘fun’ or ‘beautiful’, and so on. For example, I don’t have to actual say that I have children, but from my many boards on toys, children’s books, birthday party decor, etc., you may be able to guess! It offers a wealth of information for marketers.

So how do you use Pinterest for business or attract new customers? How do you utilize this incredible network?  Though there has been some incredible success stories, we all know that social networks are for socializing. Social business is more often a byproduct of people interacting well with both the individual and the organization. Of course, a lot can be said for audience targeting.

If you haven’t tried Pinterest yet, go check it out. It’s not for everyone. And certainly not for every industry. But you’ll never know until to take a look.

Visit our Pinterest site to see what inspires and motivates us!