Why Not to Use Pinterest for Your Business

Do you design beautiful sculptures? Or do you cook award-winning culinary masterpieces? Or, by any chance, do you contribute to the latest fashion trends?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you can stop reading here. If, on the other hand, your business isn't in the habit of creating visually appealing products that people want to stare at - keep reading.

Pinterest, a new social media platform that allows you to 'pin' images up and arrange them however you like, is trending all over Twitter, getting loads of attention daily and being touted as a 'game-changer' in social media marketing for businesses. Well, I'm here to offer the other side of the coin.

The part about Pinterest that everyone is excited about is that you create virtual pinboards that users can follow to be updated whenever you post a new image. Now, this is fantastic if you regularly create beautiful products, but it's a lot less fantastic if you're a service business, or if you have long development times between product releases.

A restaurant, for example, can post pictures of all their new dishes for their fans to see. Whenever the chef does a little experiment the result can be posted, and the potential selling potential of that dish measured. Sounds great. But let's say your business offers carpet cleaning; how long do you think it will be before people tire of seeing meticulously cleaned carpets? Or if your a tech company that releases a new device every six to twelve months; how long will your followers attention-spans last?

Basically if you aren't constantly churning out quality new content you'll go the way of rarely updated blogs. That is, you'll receive no attention whatsoever. There are a few industries that can profit from this new platform, namely those with a visual aspect. People designing beautiful websites, for example, might find an audience who loves to see new designs regularly. Chefs, artists and other creatives are likely to find a nice group of followers who want to see their newest masterpieces. Fashion designers are likely to have throngs of fans flocking to see their newest dress or jacket as it hits catwalks.

If you don't fall into this category though, the 'visually-appealing' category, don't get sucked into the hype. Pinterest is great... for some businesses.