So a wee while ago, I showed you how Pinterest works for shopping online. If you need more proof of that, feel free to stalk my Kitty Money & Bags collection. For the meantime, we’re talking shop now, not shopping. Then the other day, I was doing a few things;
- designing the next Kish+Evie range
- working on moodboards for a client who markets mobile phones
- sourcing images for floral illustrations for a potential tea client
I was using Pinterest for all of the above. All of the above are purely for business purposes.
I recently went to a workshop about the future and how things are going to change. One of the concerns is that we’re all developing in the online world, but the question is – how much monetisation is going on here? How many bloggers are earning a full time wage? Who is getting paid for social media updates? Are those facebook likes turning into sales?
When it comes to business, we expect more than an ordinary tool.
And like in the examples of Harvest, Google Business Apps, YouSendIt, it’s a tool I know businesses would be happy to pay for.
So… Dear Pinterest, If you charged me a reasonable monthly rate, I would love to pay for a few extra features that are particularly useful to businesses:
- when I design a range, I might want to double pin (some for Kish+Evie, some of my Kitty Money)
- can I make a copy of my pins and thwack them onto another board?
- even though I can make a secret board for my clients, a CEO of a cellular company is unlike to sign up for Pinterest to see my moodboard, so can you give me a secret link I can send them? Of course, customised with my logo and a personal message is really sealing the deal.
- when I pin things to a public board, sometimes, they’re lame things, but they still belong to the board. I don’t like my lame pins being seen (I know I’ve pinned it for a detail in the top left corner, but my followers don’t). Can I choose when I want to hide a pin?
- this is just the start – Pinterest could be THE tool for businesses and pinners alike. And let’s not try sponsored posts shall we. There are better ways to monetise.
xx Kish PS – please don’t do sponsored posts. They make me cringe.
++++++++++++
The internet is a wonderland. I know are problems when it comes to monetizing online. I can understand why this happens. But at the same time, you just have to look at companies like 37 Signals, Spotify and Refinery 29 to know that it’s possible. While we wait for Pinterest to direct dial me, let’s grab a coffee and talk about how your business is doing and if we need to do the shuffle.
++++++++++++