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How do you react when you come across a bright red sweater on a fashion blog? We 'bookmark' the page. Why? Because we like it. In March 2010, a new social network was launched to 'pin down' images or ideas onto a 'board' that can be visited later. Pinterest - "the image-bearer" simply helps you to save images in one spot and share them. These images may be uploaded or saved from anywhere around the web or from devices. They include photos, infographics, gifs, and videos. It is similar to pinning a note on the noticeboard. In other words, it's an online (virtual) bulletin board.

Look at this Story

Someone famous once wrote - 'A picture is worth a thousand words,' however, the truth is, a picture can actually tell a story. Though the power of words cannot be undermined, the visual senses have always been upheld by the young and the old since the beginning of time. Even the cavemen communicated through pictorial representation. Probably that's where the offline mode of a pinboard got its inspiration from. Fast-forward to the 21st century we don't have to carry pin boards with us (or stone tablets).

Something for Everyone

There is something very fascinating about colors, patterns, designs, textures, shapes, and sizes. The visual sensory perceptions have high regard to aesthetic beauty. Hence, people who go by pictorial expression rather than verbal find it convenient to use this platform. But Pinterest has something for all! The categories that largely dominate the website are style & fashion, food, interior decor, photography & paintings (obviously!), art & craftwork, beauty & grooming, places & traveling, health & fitness and jewelry & accessories.

The users on this channel (called ‘pinners’) are a smaller community as opposed to networks like Facebook and Twitter. In two years’ time since its launch, it reportedly became the third largest social network behind the two. You can enjoy your interests with greater privacy maintained. With its entry into the sphere of social media, things have enlivened from overcrowded statuses and tweets - to beautiful, visually engaging images that are solely dedicated to specific interests.

Customization at its Best

In other words, pinners can bring life to ideas from the offline space to the online. We can have numerous images of different interests, those images can be organized and custom-name them in boards. For instance, you can have a board dedicated to footwear. And if you have specific interests within the category of footwear, you can create a board each for boots, pumps, stilettoes, sneakers, ballet shoes, flats, etc. You can play around and organize your boards as well as sections within a board. The fun part is that you can create secret boards – which is not shown on your profile - and extend that fun by inviting other members to it. Furthermore, you can archive a board if you don’t use it anymore but don’t want to delete it either. You can have up to 500 boards!

Purchases Made Easy

Like other social channels, Pinterest also allows brands and entrepreneurs to promote their products and services. Through this platform, people use ideas or get information before purchasing. About 93% referred to products on the website, before making a purchase, while 87% have actually made a purchase after doing so. To make it more relevant to its purpose, in 2015 a new feature was introduced that allows users to search with images instead of words.

Success Stories

A furniture and home decor seller, Crate & Kids deals with exclusive furniture that is designed for children as well as for other home redesigning purposes. The firm looks out for new parents (or seasoned ones) who wants to set up their kids’ rooms or purchase child-friendly furniture. As this is a never-ending business, Crate & Kids wanted to be able to catch parents’ attention well in advance. Through this fabulous platform and some marketing techniques, they were able to get eager parents to visit their website. “One day you don’t have kids, and the next day you find out there’s a baby on the way. If we’re not always there with some kind of presence when people are searching for these products, they’re going to miss our brand and end up shopping with someone else.” - Matt Ebbert, CRM and Analytics Manager, Crate & Kids shared how 'presence' was created for their brand.

Glamour is a women's magazine and website which focuses on fashion, makeup and pop culture. Hadrien Millet, Audience Expertise Director, Glamour Paris said, “Growing our traffic is a priority, and Pinterest was one of the most appropriate and efficient platforms to fulfill that goal.” Their campaign for driving more traffic through this platform resulted in six times increase in referral traffic in 2016.

So if you want to be pinteresting, pinspiring, pinformative, and pinnovative, go for it. Whether it's an exotic recipe for a seafood medley or a jumper for a toddler or just a collection of ideas to design your new study - Pinterest gives you the power to pin it!

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