What Happened?
So, last week, Pinterest released The Media Agency’s Guide to Pinterest, a 46-page presentation loaded with stats, strategies, creative ideas and insights to help media agencies hit those important KPIs for their clients on the platform. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to get the most out of Pinterest, this guide will help you connect the dots.
Pinterest is one of those platforms that people have loved for years. Take a look at just a few key stats:
There are 367 million global monthly active users on Pinterest
80% of US moms and 40% of US dads use the platform
97% of the searches on Pinterest are unbranded (hello, keyword strategy)
85% of Pinners use the site when they want to start a new project
6 in 10 Millennials use the platform for product discover
Why Did They Do It?
As you may or may not be aware, Pinterest has been doing some work behind the scenes lately. Earlier this year, Pinterest updated its algorithm to favor fresh pins over repins and show users more content from the pinners they're following. You may recall that the previous algo favored the most popular content, which meant that similar searches could turn up the same content pinned (and repinned and repinned) to different boards across the platform. Great for bloggers with viral content. Not so great if you need a few more fresh ideas to start putting together a project).
The update to the algorithm came on the heels of an announcement by the company last year that its updated UI would favor pins that contained more actionable content.
And that’s the name of the game now. The platform is favoring newer content that is relevant, beautiful, actionable, and positive in focus.
Pinterest is doing a few more really cool things, including incorporate location into a user’s activity so that local businesses that are on the platform can actually show up in product search results. As well as including representation as part of the criteria for search queries to include a more diverse collective of creators, brands, bloggers, and users in users’ feeds.
Very cool.
What Does This Mean For You?
I spent my weekend studying this little guide, and in addition to a load of really great stats and creative ideas, this book shows that Pinterest is focused on the same thing we are - showing marketers how to reframe their marketing efforts (or in our case, their social media marketing efforts) to work within the context of a larger digital campaign that meets buyers at pivotal points along the path to purchase.
That means being able to react to trends as they emerge in real-time.
It means finding wonderfully creative ways to share ideas and messages in a way that resonates with your core audience.
It means partnering with influencers who are trusted experts and world-class creators.
And it means creating pins with the understanding that future-focused Pinners are literally on that platform to find the resources and suppliers to make their dreams - however big, however small - come true.
#myhappyplace