I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve disappeared for a while from sharing Pinterest tips and info.
There are three reasons why:
- A few weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of Pinterest accounts were suspended. Mine was as well. Though they were restored the next day, I felt concerned about relying on Pinterest and teaching how it can be used for your marketing needs exclusively. Basically my confidence in Pinterest was shaken.
- After that incident I began wondering if other avenues should be explored outside of Pinterest. I’ve always advocated for repurposing content and sharing your message across multiple platforms. I started looking into other platforms for a good way to share my own other business which is wedding dress design. I also decided to run ads on Pinterest to test their effectiveness.
- Lastly, I wondered if I should focus on my wedding dress business solely for a while, at the very least until I could figure out what’s up with Pinterest. While I continued to upload pins, I noticed up and down numbers, though my audience on Pinterest has been growing steadily. This made me make some decisions about the usage of Pinterest in business and where I believe things are going with the company.
Last week I had the opportunity to help with some top secret official Pinterest-For-Business stuff that unfortunately I can’t share here but I will say this. Pinterest is changing and there is going to be a shift in how the platform is used. Because of this I believe the below is happening on Pinterest and I think we need to discuss it.
My findings over the last few months, including things I’ve seen and heard, things I’ve read, and my experience with the platform have lead me to believe that:
Pinterest is becoming a platform that will rely heavily on Ads similar to Instagram, Facebook and YouTube and in its heavy reliance on Ads, Pinterest’s main goal seems to be getting users to stay on the platform for as long as possible.
There has been a huge push for running ads, from pop-ups that you see when you visit your Business Hub prompting you to receive $30 Ads credit and speak to a Pinterest rep about running ads to the sheer amount of ads being pushed on the platform at any given time.
I’ve seen ads for Apple TV, ads for Amazon with a button to “Open App”, Volkswagen ads, Insurance Ads, etc.
I even see that some businesses have ads that look like Idea Pins though Idea pin ads haven’t been released yet (so it looks like it’s being beta launched).
You may have already heard that Pinterest is banning weight loss ads. That’s a huge deal cus the industry is SOOO huge. And if you all recall Pinterest did some tests on LIVE video.
Point blank: they are expecting us to be in the app longer than before so that's why video and idea pins are a big deal.
So what does all this even mean?
It means that YOU NEED TO GET ON PINTEREST ASAP AND START RUNNING ADS.
Big and small brands are running ads on Pinterest and pretty soon, MORE businesses JUST LIKE YOURS will be running ads and guess what? You’ll be left behind, trying to figure out how to run ads on Pinterest.
So maybe you aren’t currently on Pinterest OR you don’t know how to even use the platform correctly. Listen, that’s okay, that’s why I’m here. I’ve kept my head down, been quiet and focused enough to figure out a strategy to help you get both ORGANIC traffic and PAID traffic.
So here’s the deal. I was supposed to run a Pinterest workshop this month but I needed more info from Pinterest and the top secret rendezvous I had let me know that I’d be doing a disservice to you by presenting outdated info. I actually had to go back and rewrite EVERYTHING because I don’t want to present irrelevant info that will keep you confused on the platform. Going forward the kind of content you see from me will be very specific. I am interested in helping complete newbies GET ON PINTEREST.
That means we will work hard on getting down the basics and building up a habit of consistency to grow our brands on Pinterest. You can already be on the platform but not seeing any results or know how to start converting traffic or only pin your recipes and kids activity ideas, either is fine! I just get so many DM’s about not knowing where to get started and I felt like starting at the beginning will be helpful. I’d also like to start seeing yall run ads so I have some cool stuff coming soon, stay tuned.
I’d just like to end with this. In business and life, sometimes we need to back that thing up and reassess what we are doing, refocus on our goals and do a quick reset. Life can pull you in a whole bunch of directions and if you don’t know where you are trying to go, who you want to go with and why you are going in the first place, listen, you might want to just stay home till you get it figured out.
Stay Dope!
💖Dani Simone