Are You Still Using Pinterest?



A few years ago, I was an absolute Pinterest addict. It took all I had to pry myself away from the computer, where I was pinning for hours at a time—it was so easy to fall down the rabbit hole. I first opened an account primarily for the purpose of sharing jewelry—related to JCK—even winning a marketing award for my efforts (OK, so I was a runner up, I’m still braggin’). Then Instagram came along, and my priorities—like many of yours, I imagine—shifted. I was much more interested in the ease of scrolling through a beautiful feed of photos on my phone, double-tapping, commenting, and drawing inspiration for my own pretty shots.

But recently, Pinterest has made its way back: I’m finding that, on a personal level, it’s become the ideal tool to store ideas and inspiration (which is, after all, what the platform was intended for in the first place). I pin photos of homes I love, in an effort to decorate my apartment in just such a way; I save recipes that I intend to try; I keep track of all my favorite footballers (um, there are many); I keep pictures of women whose style I very much want to emulate, and it helps me from getting sidetracked by all of the (albeit exciting) trends that don’t necessarily warrant my participation. But using Pinterest for personal reasons is so very different than using it for business. Where business is concerned, having a strategy is so important.

I think Pinterest still warrants our attention, particularly when it comes to business gains: There are sales opportunities, there’s the possibility of extending your reach, and ya know, it’s just plain fun. But if the audience isn’t there, engaging with you in the way that they used to, things can get a little tricky. According to a recent report, there are 150 million monthly active users, and millennials use Pinterest as much as Instagram. From the reports I could find, though, the platform hit 150 million monthly active users in 2016. This was a 50% increase from the year before, but while its user base doesn’t appear to have decreased in 2017, it doesn’t seem to be attracting new users, either. However, it’s too soon to make that assumption—we’re not even halfway through the year yet.

A number of other projections cite predictions that the platform will continue to grow. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting that. Still, reports can be misleading, so I’m simply asking: Are you still using Pinterest? If yes, is it for work, leisure, or both? Is it a priority for your store, for your business? Do you use it to gather inspiration as part of your daily life, or are you listing products from your store in hopes of making a sale? Or perhaps you have abandoned it altogether?

Please do share your thoughts, comments, success stories—whatever you can offer to help me to get an understanding of what our industry is doing with regard to this platform! I plan to follow up this post with your answers, so leave word in the comments, or give me a shout at bsiminitz@jckonline.com.

Pssst. If you are a Pinterest user, I hope you’ll follow JCK Magazine (and what the heck, I’m shameless—follow me, too).

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JCK Contributing Editor

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