Being a typical girl who loves aesthetics, fantasy weddings, recipes involving chocolate, and inspirational quotes... Pinterest is a sort of wonderland.
Sometime last September, I received an "invitation" to join the Pinterest club, and my name was landed on a somewhat elitest waiting list before I was allowed to create an account and explore the website.
I'm not sure if the exclusivity was to create a buzz of excitement, but it didn't work on me. I went into my Pinterest experience thinking that it was going to be about as useless as Foursquare. You know, something you obsess over for a couple of weeks and then let fizzle.
But being the young millineal that I am, I felt obligated to give it a shot. I finally created my account on a Friday afternoon after a brutal school week (such is as the case for pretty much every week at Truman). I began to scroll through the website. I continued to scroll through the website. My mind was flooded with pure joy. And before I knew it, it was 11 o'clock at night.
For those of you who either A) don't know, or B) claim not to care... here is the premise of Pinterest:
1. You scroll through an endlessly re-loading board of things. All kinds of things. Recipes. Interesting products. Cleaning tips. Decorating ideas. Beautiful photographs of far-off places. Movie quotes. Workout plans. Etc. Etc. Etc.
2. When something intrigues you, all you do is *click* on it to find more information about the intriguing thumbnail picture. You can then navigate to the website which originally posted that particular thing: perhaps it is a link to a blog with a recipe or a retailer's website featuring a specific pair of shoes.
3. To make the experience more personal, you can create virtual pin "boards" by category and "re-pin" things of interest to your own personal boards. For example, I have a board entitled "Scrumptious" where I post recipes that I want to try; a board entitled "Marathon" for marathon motivation and running tips; and a board called "Cats get their own board" for funny cat pictures.
(If you want to check out my boards, you can do so here)
4. After you have created your organized pin boards, you can revisit them or share them with friends.
5. Spend hours and hours and hours on Pinterest.
Obviously, I think that Pinterest is a great tool. Lifestyle improvement and cultural advancement is the result of information sharing, which is exactly what Pinterest has enabled... in a fun and entertaining way, no less.
For the remainder of this post, I maintain my belief that Pinterest is a great tool... but I have to ask: who is it really a tool for?
Originally created for consumers (consumers of products, ideas, lifestyles), Pinterest used to be more of a consumer-to-consumer recommendation forum. As a pinner, I felt like I could truly trust the recommendations and reviews given on Pinterest.
However, when a great opportunity presents itself, it would be silly for businesses not to move in. What I've noticed lately on Pinterest is the addition of business-ran accounts and blatant product promotion. As an economics and marketing student, I understand the marketing opportunity from a business standpoint. Being a consumer who values ethics and fair judgment, I question the ethics of marketing on Pinterest. Which leads to the some questions about Pinterest:
How do you guarentee the authenticity or neutrality of the recommendation?
Where is your information coming from?
Should you even have to question where your information is coming from?
Are we allowed to enjoy any part of this world without messages from marketers?
I'm not saying that businesses shouldn't be allowed to use Pinterest. But there should be guidelines. Social media expert Brian Honigman agrees, giving businesses the following tips: "keep your profile community-based and not just a promotion center for your assets and products. Repin and like other content that suits your community, which will help strengthen your reach in the long-term.”
Personally, I see Pinterest as a valuable website because I can log on and get ideas from people similar to me, in an honest consumer-to-consumer situation. But as business participation on Pinterest grows, I have to be weary of marketed products. Since Pinterest seems to have an almost subliminal effect (you literally can process hundreds of ideas on this website each minute), slanted advertising can easily be interpreted as peer consumer influence. For example, consider a hypothetical caption underneath a hypothetical jar of peanut butter:
"Oh my gosh, this is the best brand of peanut butter I've ever tried!! And only 120 calories per serving? A must-buy next time at the store"
Might seem convincing if coming from a peer consumer. But what if it's really coming from the peanut butter's manufacturer? And what if it's actually the worst peanut butter ever?
The role of a marketer should be to communicate value to its consumers, to display an "offer". That is why I see nothing wrong with businesses using Pinterest in the following way:
...Where information is simply being provided.
However, an opportunity exists on Pinterest for marketers to easily pose as a consumer peer and promote a certain agenda.
And that's the part that I'm not OK with.
Unfortunately, there is little that can be done to control this. It is the responsibility of a business to be ethical, if they so choose. So even though I'll continue my journey as a pinner, I'll do so with more caution and less enjoyment. For me, the social medium has already been tainted.
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