No social media platform exists merely to serve people and make a name. Without monetization of some sort, all are doomed. Therefore it was only a matter of time before Pinterest would begin experimenting with promoted pins. Without this Pinterest’s future seemed bleak.
So, what value do users find in Pinterest?
Well, Pinterest is a place where you keep your ideas of dream homes, vacation plans, and other wishlists. It is essentially a place where you pin all your plans for the future. This move of experimenting with promoted pins may give an impression that Pinterest is in dire straits, which is quiet natural. Today Pinterest is valued at over $2.5 billion, and it needs to have a revenue generating proposition.
Pinterest’s journey to monetization began when it hired a former Facebook employee Tim Kendall. Tim earlier served as director of monetization at Facebook. His new responsibilities at Pinterest include monetizing and helping Pinterest grow as a business.
Promoted pins will be tested in category fields and search results. For example a search for Halloween will dish out promoted pins in the holiday category and so on and so forth. We are just speculating as Pinterest is pretty tightlipped about its plans. However, they have made it clear that testing of promoted pins will begin in a couple of weeks.
According to insiders some of the salient features of promoted pins will be:
- Transparency – Pinterest will make sure that viewers know a pin is being promoted when they see one.
- Tasteful – Pins will be tasteful and not flashy like banners or pop-up ads.
- Relevance – Viewers/users will only get those pins that are relevant to their interests. If you are food enthusiast, you will get pins on delicious recipes and if you are fitness freak you get pins on fitness equipments, accessories, or other stuff related to fitness.
- Engagement – Pinterest has made it clear that they will actively engage with users and act on feedback received. They have indicated a willingness to work together with users to provide the best value.
As of now nobody is paying for anything. Pinterest would likely go this way for some time to see how things progress and meanwhile take in feedback from users.
So, what is your reaction to Pinterest’s experimentation with promoted pins? Write back and we will take this discussion forward.