Pinterest, Advertisements, a Perfect Match

A month and a half ago the word ‘Pinterest’ was not in my vocabulary. The thought of ‘pinning’ something online had never passed through my head.

Then, all of a sudden, everything changed. First my girlfriend signed up. Then I discovered many of my friends had joined. And soon I was reading class wikis about how libraries can use Pinterest to promote events and resources. All of this in a little over a month. I admit I am usually a little behind on innovations in social media but I feel like Pinterest has exploded on to the scene quite quickly. (So fast that it still shows up on my spell check as a misspelled word.)

As I became more and more aware of what Pinterest was and how it worked, it became more and more apparent that it is a perfect platform for advertisement exploitation. As far as I could tell, however, advertisers weren’t exploiting it. How could this be!? While businesses are able to promote their products and services with Pinterest, there is no dedicated advertisement section on the website. Basically, businesses wishing to promote themselves on Pinterest are restricted to using it in, virtually, the same way as you or I.

Meg’s social media blog helped me understand why Pinterest isn’t a giant advertising board. I find it very refreshing that a website with such potential for commercialization is taking the high ground and not selling out to businesses. Instead, Pinterest is remaining loyal to their users and keeping their website as a place to share interests and connect people with similar tastes.

Reality Check

Well, maybe not… Nick Cicero’s blog on socialfresh explores how a new redesign of the Pinterest website could be paving the way for sponsored pins and advertisements. By increasing the size and content of each pin as well as adding a related pin widget, Pinterest could be opening the door for advertisers. Cicero points out that, in particular, the related pins aspect looks like a perfect place to start adding sponsored pins and boards.

So will Pinterest go the way of Facebook and start adding permanent advertisements? It’s hard to say. It is undeniable, however, that the potential for commercialization and profits on this website is huge.

The ‘Cool’ Cost of Advertising

So, if Pinterest (or any social media site for that matter) can make a bunch more money by allowing advertisers on to their site, why don’t they? While this is a topic that warrants in depth research (and perhaps a future blog post…) it seems like one central reason is the ‘cool’ factor of not becoming a slave to business. Much like how people abhor musical groups for ‘selling out’, user comments on Cicero’s blog indicate that people don’t like advertisements (surprise, surprise) and they don’t like when their favourite websites start catering to advertising companies. While I’m sure there are many angles to this story, maintaining integrity and a clean image is important for user-based social media sites. As quickly as social media sites can rise, they can also fall (ahem, MySpace). As tempting as profits are, the risk of alienating one’s user base cannot be ignored.

Further Reading

http://socialfresh.com/pinterest-users/ – Stats on Pinterest users

http://adage.com/article/digital/pinterest-launches-business-pages-cozy-brands/238295/ – signs that Pinterest is inching closer and closer to brands and businesses