Pinterest: Not Yet Influencing Purchasing Decisions

Hoopla aside …

Yep, despite the hoopla about Pinterest, recent findings indicate its not really impacting consumer purchasing decisions. Does the pinning activity on the network generating lots of traffic to sites and blogs? Yes! This is clear in many of the reporting we have seen as of late.

That said, we guess the word is still out about influencing whether or not someone will spend $$$ on a given product or service. The study from Prosper Mobile Insights validates reports of the network’s “slower” impact on purchasing decisions: only 13 percent of survey respondents either somewhat or strongly agree that Pinterest influences their purchasing decisions.

Will Pinterest’s new iPad app and redesigned profiles spike consumer’s interest in browsing pinboards for product purchases?? The jury seems to be out on that one but what businesses should know is that Pinterest has, despite its being around since 2009, really only just recently started to generate some mainstream attention from media and users alike. Right now, in our view, Pinterest is still that “shiny new object” or “new kid on the social block” for many people, let alone organizations and companies.

Once the flurry dies down a bit, we’re pretty sure we’ll see a more ubiquitous use of the “Pin this” icon and capability as we now see with the Facebook “Like” button and Google “+1.”

It will be interesting to see the evolution of Pinterest for business use and whether consumers and prospective customers will be enticed to make purchase decisions inspired by a pin that’s been shared on this trendy social network …

Mayra Ruiz Mcpherson

Brand Journalist and Digital Strategist Mayra Ruiz-McPherson is founder of Ruiz McPherson Communications (RMC), a marketing ingenuity practice based in Herndon, Virginia. Mayra — who also founded and launched the online career community SocialMediaJobsDC.com — often presents various digital and social media-focused topics tailored to business owners and senior-level marketing managers. She also instructs a number of courses, workshops and training sessions as well as provides private, on-site training on social media tools and strategies.

In between professional engagements, Mayra guest blogs and contributes content regularly to a number of publications both in and outside the Washington DC metro area. Mayra is also the editor of The Better Social Business Blog, "Pet Tech" columnist for the Virginia Maryland Dog Magazine, contributes an “e-Trends” column to the Loudoun Business Journal and is founder of the Loudoun Fairfax Local Bloggers Meetup group which mentors and helps local bloggers network, learn and exchange ideas.