Comments on: Pinterest or How to Evaluate Social Media Opportunities

By: Sharon Bakar

Sharon Bakar — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:01:01 +0000

You’ve raised some important issues here. I’m guilty of being a freelancer pissing about too much on social media. Like you I try to limit my time of Facebook and twitter. I never thought of my addiction in dollar and cents terms before.

Pinterest I think will be very useful for me though, especially as I can use it to store visual materials for my creative writing classes, and create more interest in Malaysian authors and books (my interest).

It’s also nice to relax by pinning pictures of lovely things – an excellent visualization exercise.

The copyright issues worry me far more than the time spent – but I’ve put up my own little protest by means of a board about Pinterest itself.

By: Tadeusz Szewczyk

Tadeusz Szewczyk — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:39:01 +0000

Bob: As mentioned above Pinterest can drive some audiences to sites that fit it.
Like any other social site it can bring traffic, attention, viral effects etc.
It seems it’s great for women’s magazines for example. So in case sou have a fashion blog it will be great for SEO probably, especially SEO 2.0!

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:21:39 +0000

What do you think about the value of the links on Pinterest for SEO purposes?

By: Tadeusz Szewczyk

Tadeusz Szewczyk — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:43:19 +0000

Andrew: Thank you for the kind words!

Matt, Dries: Thank you guys for the feedback!

David: I cite Foursquare just because it was the next big thing of 2010. It was be there or be square like with Pinterest these days.
I refused to follow the hype two years ago and look where Foursquare is now.

By: David Blanar

David Blanar — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:28:02 +0000

I’m confused as to why you cited Foursquare in this piece, it’s not a service I would associate with professional promotion. Quora? Yes. Foursquare? Mmm, not really. Perhaps a better example would have been LinkedIn (though I accept it wouldn’t fit your new-shiny-service meme).

I take your point to be assessing these services in the context of investing time which would otherwise be spent delivering profitable work — perfectly understandable. But some services are not entirely appropriate for use as a professional promotional tool, in which case their use outside of work hours (or heck, even within them, akin to a coffee break) should be excluded from your calculations.

My personal feelings toward Pinterest aside, the relevant questions seem to me: first, does the service support my professional endeavours? And if so, what is the minimum time investment required to get the maximum benefit?

Consequently, I calculate that Foursquare falls down at the first question, in which case it’s likely not a great example to support your point.

LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, even Google+ are probably are better.

By: Dries Bultynck

Dries Bultynck — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:20:35 +0000

I think more people should use this method. I’m a fan and actually, I admit it, I don’t use it often enough. Great post!

By: Matt Denver Realtor

Matt Denver Realtor — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:23:31 +0000

I like hearing some well-thought out skepticism when it comes to emerging social sites. Pinterest is interesting, but I’m not sold.

By: Andrew Breen

Andrew Breen — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:06:28 +0000

Love this! I think about this everytime I see someone herald site X as the NEW MUST DO social media trend.

By: Tadeusz Szewczyk

Tadeusz Szewczyk — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:05:41 +0000

Good point for sure Katie. Is it worth the time though? I’m not convinced.

I have been using other image bookmarking sites two years ago already and it is fun and there is even some traffic and link juice in it but you don’t really connect with people on such sites, it’s too superficial.

People don’t care about you, they just want to see pretty images.

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:58:14 +0000

I am actually using it from the other side, to collate my thoughts, interests and house design ideas – it is a good place to keep everything and something I cannot do from the myriad of other social sites I am part of. It is easy to see what I have found, followed etc. As a social media provider I can see the merits in it to for the business who wants to share visible ideas with their followers – something not achievable in this way through FB, twitter. I would say this can be done through social bookmarking which I am also an advocate of, but not in this visible way – even infographics are not as easy to use or visualise multiple boards and content with.