Is Pinterest the Next Business Tool?
Hmmm. To be honest with you, my experiences with Pinterest have been irritating – just short of totally annoying. It does not function correctly in Firefox, my preferred browser. It wasn’t able to pin the first three things I tried because there wasn’t an image large enough on the web page. When I went to the help section to figure it out it was like the “See Spot run,” of help guides. One or two sentences with no options, no troubleshooting and if there is a forum I couldn’t find it which is as good as not having one.
Given that my level of enjoyment was that low you may wonder why I gave it another thought. But it was a natural. It fills a niche.
I have long wondered why Facebook has a page for you, a page for your business but no way to create a page about your passions. Where are the Facebook pet pages? The Facebook hobby pages? A large percentage of posts are about pets or hobbies or interests. This is target and niche marketing at its best and Facebook is asleep at the wheel. Or at least slow out of the gate. And Google +, well they don’t even know there is a gate or a wheel.
So here comes Pinterest and it has an app to integrate it with Facebook. Now why am I thinking of the business possibilities? Because our interests are often our businesses. Or we can pretend they are. Can you see the possibilities for a restaurant to create a beautiful board of mostly their own recipes with gorgeous pictures? What about a jewelry designer with a board about gemstones and quite a few pins to their own creations? This doesn’t fit every business in the world but if it fits yours jump on the bandwagon now! Go to Pinterest and request an invite. Create a board. Pin some things from your own website on there. Pin some things from related websites that aren’t direct competitors and then follow a few other people’s boards. Get some buzz going!