Pinterest - what is it? Social network Pinterest. "Interest" Russian

Pinterest is gaining popularity in Russia. What is it - a promising online tool for business or more of a portal of a new format for entertainment?

Briefly about the new social project

Pinterest ("Interest" - the Russian version of the spelling) is a site (often positioning itself as a social network) on which users can upload photos and share them. It is executed in the form of a “cork board”, on which it is convenient to create collections of images, to distribute them by topics (interests, places, hobbies, etc.). Users can watch the “boards” of other network participants, as well as use the virtual pointed “button” to attach photos and images to the “traffic jam”. You can put “likes”.

The creators of Pinterest believe that this site will be able to bring people together by exchanging ideas and sources of inspiration. The project was created by American Ben Zilberman, managed by Cold Brew Labs, and receives funding from a group of businessmen and inventors. Now Pinterest is considered one of the fastest growing social services in the world. There is a version of Pinterest in Russian.

Practice use

Pinterest users are exposed to the wide functionality of the site. The interface allows you to upload images, save them, sort, manage other video files. The main tool is pointed electronic "buttons" (pins), with which photos and pictures can be attached to a virtual "board" in a clerical manner. The latter, as a rule, are divided into various topics, and media content is organized in several categories. Other users can thus find photos reflecting their interests and hobbies.

Pinterest's homepage is called pin feed, where changes are displayed on the boards the user is following. There are “recommended” social network pages where it is highly likely that content is posted that is interesting to the participant viewing it. There are Pinterest mobile apps for iPhone and Android.

Registration Nuances

For a long time, the project was in beta status, and registering on social networks was possible only by personal invitation to Pinterest. Registration instructions were simple. However, there were no quantitative restrictions in this regard - the user could ask any friend with an account to send an invitation. When a future user received it, he could create his account and then set it up when registration is completed. Pinterest could import existing profiles from Facebook and Twitter.

Subsequently, the user fell into the section on determining interests. There he indicated which pictures he would prefer to see. Then a personalized “cork” board was created. It could be integrated with Facebook and Twitter. However, in 2012 Pinterest opened itself to users completely. The need to send invitations has disappeared. The sequence of registration and account settings described above has been preserved. As soon as Pinterest got the opportunity to create profiles for everyone, the number of users increased many times. If, for example, in mid-2011 there were about 1 million accounts in the project, then in a year - more than 20 million.

Commercial value

The social network Pinterest quickly turned into a popular marketing tool that leading brands began to use. Among them are online clothing stores. Pinterest is a website that has become a promotion tool for them. These businesses are traditionally active in harnessing the power of social networks. They have Pinterest accounts along with profiles on Instagram, Facebook and other social networks. Extremely active are companies that specialize in travel. In particular, some services for buying tickets actively use the photo management capabilities for their socially significant projects. Among the active "players" Pinterest are some Russian media. Especially some glamorous magazines succeeded in this direction, which is understandable - their main content is a photo that “Interest” allows to manage in a comfortable mode.

Publishers who own famous blogs have Pinterest accounts on Pinterest. For them, accessing their favorite address by typing "www.pinterest" and updating media content has become commonplace. Digital agencies also try to keep up with the development of the capabilities of this social network. There are examples of the use of "Interest" and businesses operating in the real sector.

Ways to promote content

There are several effective methods for promoting custom (as an option, branded) content on Pinterest. One of the options is to post relevant holiday content, which will most likely be of interest to most users, since rest and weekends will concern everyone. Together with holiday photos and videos, you can carry out “product placement” (placing items with the brand logo) or embed direct advertising messages in the content. Another option is optimization on the internal search engine and Pinterest recommendations, so to speak, “local” SEO. This is working with keywords that describe content, cataloging photos, various infographics using them. Proper search engine optimization will help content be “visible” to other users.

The next promotion tool is Pinterest integration with other social networks. The main functions relating to this area are embedded in the social network by default, you only need to actively use this feature. Another good tip for marketers is to post unique images. According to some experts, about 80% of photos and pictures on Pinterest are copies of others. The account will look more attractive with a large number of unique content.

Can I make money on Pinterest?

Some Pinterest users have learned how to make money using their account. Among the striking examples are the creators of the startup Pinbooster, a platform that can pay members of the social network for the distribution of advertising messages from various brands. This method of earning is not fundamentally new; by the time the startup was launched, it was already used on the basis of other social networks, especially on Twitter. The creators of Pinbooster admitted that they picked up the idea on Twitter and then decided to use it on Pinterest. The startup works with advertisers, businesses and agencies, makes them proposals for user segmentation according to various criteria (number of contacts, geographical location, etc.). Any Pinterest user can earn money with a startup. Pinbooster can show his online employee how much he will receive for publishing advertising content.

History of creation

One of the founders of Pinterest is Ben Zilberman of Iowa. His parents are doctors, and he decided to continue his family business, enrolling in a medical college. However, the American professional path went in a different direction. Ben was fond of reading TechCrunch's innovation portal, became interested in technology, and soon got into web development at Google. He was especially inspired by working with photographs, and, finding like-minded people, he created the startup Pinterest, which was launched in 2009. At first, the project office was at Ben Zilberman’s home. The creator of the new social network himself sent out new invitations to users. At first, many fans of social networks were sure that Pinterest was not interested in the Internet, that this was not a very promising project. But over time, the startup still found global recognition. The concept of collecting pictures and sharing them liked many Internet users. An important role in popularizing Pinterest was played by the Times magazine, which published an article about the project, as well as a message stating that Interest is in the list of the top 50 best sites of 2011.

Lecture hall

The largest audience on Pinterest is women. They are about 70% of the total number of users. Most account owners are 25–40 years old. The championship of the ladies is quite understandable, because photographs are the carriers of fashion trends, and simply pleasing to the eye views on clothes, household items, design novelties. The fact that women are the main audience of Pinterest, is used by various businesses that use their images to promote their products and services, designed for demand from women. Pinterest is notable for its huge jumps in audience growth: from several hundred thousand users in the first years to 50 million by the end of 2013. Some experts associate such an impressive dynamics of traffic growth with the fact that the appearance of the project coincided with the active period of the spread of mobile devices, especially tablets. Using them, it was often more convenient to watch a photo than on a personal computer. Indirectly confirms this theory, statistics provided by the social network itself - about half of Pinterest users log into accounts with the iPad.

Pinterest in Russia

Russian users do not yet have such expressed interest in Pinterest as regular Internet users in foreign countries do. And this, despite the emergence of social network analogues (the most famous is Pinme.ru, which received investments from the famous Fastlane Ventures fund). For many Russians, the name of the social network is very new; they do not know about Pinterest what kind of project this is. According to estimates by the TNS marketing company, the Russian social network audience in November 2013 amounted to about 513 thousand users (although some experts assume that mobile application users are not included in these figures). Top executives of Pinterest in an interview with Russian media, however, noted that the Russian user experience may be important for the company.

According to representatives of the American social network, Russians are interested in the world's cuisines, love to travel, learn new things about other countries, try to follow the trends in fashion and design. These habits of Russians can go well with the capabilities of the Social Network “Interest”, which accumulates many samples of visual content. There is a Russian version of the Pinterest site.

Reasons for popularity

Experts highlight several key reasons for Pinterest's global success. First of all, it’s visual. It is achieved through visualization in the form of a virtual “board” and the convenience of viewing collections of photographs and pictures. There is almost no textual content at the Interest, and users can concentrate on watching one type of media. Secondly, Pinterest has high marketing potential. Brand promotion specialists quickly realized that “Interest” in many cases can be more effective than other social networks, as a significant part of people is easier and more comfortable to perceive images, rather than text. Thirdly, Pinterest makes the user feel like a collector.

There are lovers of collecting stamps, coins, and such a passion quickly went digital, thanks to the capabilities of the American social network. The growth of the project’s not very high popularity in Russia can be facilitated by the fact that the Russian version of Pinterest appeared.

Development forecasts

Experts believe that Pinterest has taken a steady niche in the global "online ecosystem" from a business point of view - the social network has created a balance between fashion watching and shopping as such. Some experts have estimated that Pinterest users spend more than those who have Facebook accounts, and this fact indicates the great advertising potential of the site. According to marketers, brands will tend to work directly with Pinterest and use this social network as a distribution channel. As a result, the social network Pinterest will take on some of the functions that retailers perform. The final consumer will use the functionality of the site to purchase goods. It is also important that businesses decide for themselves: Pinterest - what is it? A marketing tool or a convenient communication channel? It is possible, experts say, Pinterest will create a separate product for online trading. The main problem in this direction, marketers believe, may be the practical implementation of the targeting of advertising offers.