Pinterest is a social network, but not like Facebook or Twitter. Rather it resembles Tumblr, the social blogging platform that makes life easy for those who want to publish texts, photos or videos on the Internet but are not too familiar with codes and installations. The common characteristics are those ofimmediacyand simplicity and Minimalism. Few options, few things to understand; a link taken from the web or a photo on the desktop and publication is just a click away.
Yet, despite these few steps to be online, many people don't know or don't understand Pinterest. Most have heard of it as a social network, but they don't know exactly what it is for and if they ask about it on the pages of blogs or online newspapers. However, for some time now, this hybrid between Tumblr and Twitter seems to have found its true calling: the online wish list.
Instead of using Pinterest as a shared personal bulletin board of photos, notes, videos and links to everything that interests them, a good portion of users have decided to turn this tool into a wishlist on the Internet. This choice, among other things, does not affect the classic use, because Pinterest provides the user with different boards, with different addresses, but all belonging to the same account.
Just type “Pinterest wishlist” on Google or “wishlist” on the social network's internal search engine to understand how this practice is almost one fashion in the United States: there are those who thought of putting their wedding list online with this system or those who wanted to use it to select the welcome gifts for their birthday or graduation. The wish list on Pinterest has several advantages: it is public and universal, there is no need to access this or that online store in advance, it has an easily memorable address (pinterest.com/username/wishlist/) and the links to the objects of desire lead directly to the site where it is possible to buy them (online or on site). Furthermore, the images leave no doubts and the 2.0 aspect of the social network means that everyone can ask the interested party for more details.
If for private users this new declination of Pinterest translates into having given meaning to a misunderstood chimera of the web, from the point of view of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a tool by no means to be underestimated. In fact, every object published on the bulletin board becomes a backlinks to a site. A user who publishes an object of desire and, to make it clear what it is, pastes the link to that site that talks about it or even better to that site that sells it online, is involuntarily advertising a brand and giving away visits to those who sell or make information online.
This is why many big brands, especially the clothing sector, have decided to facilitate, or rather to entice, the practice of the wishlist on Pinterest. Just propose your showcase on the social network and then, with a "RePin“, the goods will become objects of desire in a wishlist. What better occasion to communicate the experience and identity of a brand in a penetrating and original way?
