Everyone is raving about Pinterest.
It’s so cool, it’ll drive loads of traffic to your site, every business and organization should be on Pinterest.
Why is Pinterest supposedly so interesting?
Where lies the power of Pinterest?
I’ve been doing some experimenting with Pinterest myself and to be honest, it didn’t do much for me or for my blog. Sure, the pictures of the stuff everyone posts look really nice and every once in a while I’ll click through to see what’s it about. I’ve gotten some cool ideas for youth ministry games and a load of recipes, but overall it just doesn’t do it for me.
It also hasn’t brought any traffic worth speaking of to my site. I’m posting my blog posts on Pinterest faithfully, every single one of them. And though I don’t do it as often as I perhaps should, I do my share of repinning and liking what others have posted. My boards are well organized, well categorized and I stay well within my focus of youth ministry (with the exception of a few more hobby related boards). People have repinned my pins, but mostly those I repinned from others. My blog post-pins however haven’t received much attention.
I’ve been thinking about why Pinterest doesn’t work for me. There have been more infographics on Pinterest, even one on the Power of Pinterest, but it never hit me. Until I saw this one (or actually it’s two that belong together). Let’s have a look at some key findings and then I’ll share my thoughts on why Pinterest doesn’t work for my site.
[Click for Larger]
Let’s review some facts from this infographic:
- 79% of Pinterest users is female, 21% is male
- design matters a great deal here, it has to look beautiful, be aesthetically attractive
- popular topics are recipes, interior design, crafts, etc. (not surprisingly, these all all topics women are interested in)
This second infographic is what made it click for me:
[Click for Larger]
Pinterest is the future of e-commerce, because its categories are closely connected to commerce and because it creates a desire to buy (which is logical – it’s basically a visually attractive shopping guide, annotated by friends and trusted strangers). That’s why Pinterest is the dream-come-true for every company that has something to sell, especially a product that’s aimed at women.
Which brings me back to my question:
Why doesn’t Pinterest work for me?
I think this is why:
- My targeted audience with my blog are youth leaders and youth pastors and women are a huge minority here;
- My blog is heavily oriented on content and isn’t that visually attractive except for the picture I add to each post and the overall design (but you can’t show that on a pin);
- I don’t fall with any of the categories that are popular on Pinterest;
- I don’t sell stuff, I aim to train, inspire, and encourage.
I would love to hear how other content-oriented bloggers are doing on Pinterest to see if my theory is right.
What are your thoughts on Pinterest?
Do you agree with my analysis?
[Via FastCoDesign]
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