Everybody has heard of Pinterest, but not everybody has actually experienced using the network. People have always had a harder time joining Pinterest than any other social media platform, simply because the site has always required people to be invited to the site in order to register, as if it were some sort of high class user society. It is a very popular network, as it gives users a way to share their interests with anyone and look at the things that others are interested via “Pins.” The problem has always been, at least for marketers and businesses, that people must be invited, making traffic and user count much lower than other social networks. However, recently Pinterest announced that its registration rules have changed, and now it is an open network that anybody can join at anytime.
From the Pinterest blog announcement;
We’re really excited to have the capacity to offer Pinterest to more people and if you’re a Pinner with friends who’ve been waiting on the sidelines, we hope you’ll let them know. Happy pinning to everyone.
Pinterest has never been a platform for display ads or anything similar to the Sponsored Stories of Facebook, but it has been a place for businesses of all sizes to promote themselves through things like shares, favorites, and “Pins.” Since Forbes released information reporting that Pinterest has reached the third spot on the list of most social network visitors with 104 million, it has already done quite well for marketers. Now, with all of the new traffic that Pinterest will be bringing to the posts of these businesses through open registration, marketing a business on Pinterest seems like quite a smart decision. However, so far advertisers have been hesitant to take advantage of the network, not being able to see many ways in which the promotion of their name on Pinterest would help them at all.
Pinterest is not one of those networks that is against the use of their services for advertising. They even have an advertising page, giving businesses a head start in placing content in boards and sharing them throughout the Pinterest community. They make it quite easy for your content to be shared among the many users that already use the network. Now that they have opened registration, there will be far more traffic on the network, bringing better results to businesses that place content in boards.
Pinterest has finally decided to stop being such a snob and open up their doors to the general public. It will probably end up making the network a more interesting place to visit, as interests of all sorts will be represented. Not only will users enjoy the experience more, but businesses will benefit from the increased traffic as well. Pinterest has done a smart thing by making their service public, and it will of course, give them a stronger hold in the social media world.
