A childhood friend, Janie, and I exchanged metal bandage boxes when we were six years old. What does that have to do with Pinterest? Stay with me, please. We exchanged the metal boxes filled with “goodies” that we liked to share. My box might contain glittered fabric, a Cracker Jack toy, a picture of a pretty doll from the Sears Toy Catalog etc. (Yes, I am dating myself.) Janie’s box might contain a plastic purse for Barbie, a picture of a Lego set etc. The boxes evolved into scrapbooks, then charm bracelets and as adults—magazine clippings, photo albums, and scrapbooks. Get it?
Kids, aging kids and I like to show “mine” if you show “yours.” So now we have a very sophisticated “show me” tool called Pinterest. When 11 million unique visitors visit a site, you know that it is meeting some basic need…the “show me” need. People have a lot of time on their hands since Business Insider reported that nearly 100 minutes is the average on the site versus just 19 minutes on LinkedIn. The numbers are staggering. On the Business Insider comment section, people questioned the number of recent articles about Pinterest. The comments suggested that Pinterest and the magazine have a mutual financial investment. BI stated emphatically “no.” The Pinterest articles are everywhere so, this social media dabbler, checked it out.
Through Tweetdeck I mentioned that I was interested and received several invites (needed to use Pinterest). When questioned about its value, the comments were mixed. I jumped into Pinterest enthusiastically.
Conclusion: It was fun! Really fun….my childhood memories and “show me” need resurfaced immediately. I spent time….not 100 minutes….but more time than normal, checking it out. OK, so I slipped into the bath pics since that is one of my top-of-mind home projects. Wait, wait! What about work and business and my role to find profitable revenue activities and streams for our members? OK, from a work- related point of view, I say “monitor” this site. I have seen and heard of clever ideas for Pinterest’s use such as: designers’ projects and special printing campaigns uploaded for browsing; job seekers portfolios; photographers’ pictures. Other issues related to copyright and use are also cropping up such as from for-sale stock photo companies claiming “foul.” There are no businesses that are immune to the impact of new upstarts on the Internet! Are they making money? The Wall Street Journal article says it all, “The Rite of Web Passage—Huge Traffic, No Revenue.” Wait and see on revenue—the referrals to products from the Pins have increased tremendously. Advertisers are claiming more from Pinterest than other social media sites. Outsiders value the upstart at $200 million now. Targeted advertising is all the rage. So, if I start getting bathtub ads as a result of viewing Pinterest “pins,” we will have further evidence of how the revenue stream to advertisers will emerge. Don’t check out my pins, though–just don’t have the 100 minutes time to develop boards for review–yet. My “show me” need is not as strong as “get it done” need for work, family, and life.
Check out the Wall Street Journal article: http://prnt.in/ZgH Or the over 70 million entries about Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/ Here is one of the Business Insider articles: http://prnt.in/ZgV about the growth of Pinterest.
Let me know what you think! Mary Garnett