Pinterest vs. Facebook, the aspirational versus the mundane

The next stop on our month of love? Pinterest. When I first heard of the new service I must admit that I wanted to ignore it.

Now that I have spent a bit of time playing around on it though, I can honestly say that social media overload be damned, I think it would be a mistake to ignore this newcomer. Many businesses are so seduced by the masses on Facebook that it is hard to see past that. The thing about Facebook is that it is a place for the mundane.  Looking through my news stream this morning I read that two of my friends were home with kids that were suffering from the stomach flu (ew!), one had reached a new level on Angry Birds and five were very upset about something in the news.  Looking at Pinterest?  Fun clothing combinations, yummy looking recipes, and cool kitchen tools.  Where do many of these pictures link?  To where I can buy them.

An interesting comparison I read recently of Facebook and Pinterest was that Facebook is structured around friend while Pinterest is structured around interests.  Since there is a friend element as well I would say that it is structured around shared interests with friends and beyond.

So let’s review, Pinterest gives its audience (comprised of lots and lots of the very retailer friendly 24 to 35 year old females) the ability to share pictures of things that they love.  These pictures link to retailer sites and are segmented and shared based on interest.  You are selling what you love and your customers are publicizing the products they love that you sell. Aspiration meets commerce.

Bottom line: if you have tangible good that you want customers to consider desirable, you need to pay attention to Pinterest.

~e