Pinterest – home of ‘5 ways to make fun jewellery with cable ties’ and ‘How to make a cake using just flour and water!’ – has just launched a new feature.
A listicle-centric How-to Pin. Just what you never knew you needed!
What the How-to Pin does
How-to Pins use existing step-by-step content to feature an entire process (with images) in a Pin. It’s in keeping with Pinterest’s image as the number one DIY platform and it’s brilliant for users.
Why it’s not so brilliant for SEO
Why do we spend our lives publishing content and sharing it on social? So people click through to our site and become leads, right?
These Pins are Pinterest’s version of what a lot of the big social media guys are doing now: keeping the user in the platform, instead of clicking away to an external site.
Facebook and LinkedIn now keep outgoing links within their platform (in-app browsing) and Twitter has for a while. You’ll still get the hit to your site, sure, but without the usual browser functionality of bookmarking, sharing and so on.
So, that’s great for those platforms, stupendous. But not great for your engagement. How-to Pins will serve up your content for the user without them ever having to engage with your brand at all.
There’s also the tricksy matter of where that Pin appears in search engines results compared with the original content. Pinterest is a huge site with lots of users, lots of content and high authority. How does your site compare? If the answer is “It doesn’t,” that Pin is pretty likely to feature above your own page. No click-through for you.
What could work for your brand
These Pins are going to get repinned more. They’re going to be Liked and commented on. If you’re happy that your content is being shared widely even if only a minute number are clicking through to your site, this is great.
Of course, you could argue that the more people are sharing it, the better that 2% of click-throughs looks. You do your maths.
How to try out How-to Pins for yourself
If I haven’t said enough to put you off, here goes. These special Pins aren’t available to the masses yet – they’re being tried out by a bunch of inspirational home brands like Martha Stewart and Style Me Pretty.
However, you can sign up to try them out if you have a business account. It requires you to put some code into your site, so there’s a bit of legwork on your end.
If you give it a go, I’d love to hear what you thought. Leave me a disparaging or surprising comment. They’re the best kind.
[bctt tweet=”Pinterest’s new How-to Pins are great for users after quick DIY tips – but what’s in it for you?”]
