Last week San-Francisco based pinterest announced the introduction of advertising through sponsored pins, following in the footsteps of Facebook and Twitter, who charge advertisers to place content which is integrated within the users’ own posts. Facebook reported $1.60 billion revenue from advertising in their latest earnings report, a massive 88% of their total revenue so news of the three year old social network opening their doors to advertising won’t come as a surprise. Furthermore, the company’s recent updates to include the creation of business accounts and introduction of analytics were all steps to bring themselves closer to brands.
The social network promises that the advertising will be “tasteful”, “transparent” and “relevant”.
In his blog post last Thursday, CEO and Co-Founder Ben Silbermann said:
“Pinterest is where you keep your wishlists, vacation plans, dream home ideas, and other things you want to do soon and in the future. That’s why for us, it’s so important that Pinterest is a service that will be here to stay. To help make sure it does, we’re going to start experimenting with promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses.”
The social network is planning to test it first to “see how things go, and, more than anything, hear what you think,” said Silbermann. For example, a search for “Halloween” ideas, may result in a promoted pin for a Darth Vader outfit.
What are your thoughts on this news? Do you think the roll-out of promoted pins could benefit brands?