Is Pinterest in Danger of Becoming the Biggest Online Echo Chamber?

Guest post by Lianne Froggatt. Do you wish to write and gain exposure? Read our write for us guidelines.

I am a big fan of Pinterest, after being introduced to this site a few months ago it has become my go to when I have a couple of hours spare to happily browse through some pretty and imaginative pins.

Yet, on quite a few of my recent forays onto this site, I have begun to notice the prevalence of re-pinning and the increasing amount of times I am coming across the same pins over and over again.

Is Pinterest in danger of becoming the biggest online echo chamber?

Pinterest portrays itself to be an online pin board, a site on which you can pin, share and organize anything you find across the web. A brilliant concept and I am very hopeful of the future of this site for online marketing and SEO.

Not only will a Pinterest account allow you to create an online catalogue of sorts, showcasing your products and services to the pinning community, but every time something from your site is pinned, you receive a dofollow link back to your site from a high domain authority (DA).

The concern I have relating to Pinterest as an echo chamber could prove beneficial or detrimental for businesses utlising this site. By an echo chamber, I refer to the tendency that we all have to congregate in online communities of people that share our beliefs, views and interests and do not challenge ourselves with opinions or information from outside of these bubbles. This seems almost even more apparent on Pinterest due to the visual nature of the site.

I believe there are both pros and cons to be drawn from this prevalence of repinning for online marketers:

Pros of repinning through Pinterest

1. As a company, you can see what has been repinned and shared frequently and try and emulate this in your campaigns or products. In a sense, an echo chamber on Pinterest can be looked at as a huge market research site, providing you with a visual insight into the interests of your desired clientele.

2. Every time your content is repinned, you receive another link to your site.

3. Lots of repins is brilliant exposure for that product or company.

4. Conversation can be ignited around a popular pin: if it is your product or service that can be fabulous for business!

5. Rather than people having to visit your site and find the content you want pinning, a repin can spread this content quickly.

Cons of repinning using Pinterest

1. Customers could become sick of seeing your product and determinedly avoid it. Repins to a prolific extent tend to look quite spammy, like they are being pushed by an individual or company.

2. The classic problem of echo chambers still stands no-one is discovering anything new! If you are unlucky enough to be on the outskirts of an echo chamber, your product services could fall by the wayside.

So what does this mean for marketing and Pinterest; is the formation of echo chambers an inevitable feature of the design of the site? And if this is the case is this necessarily a bad thing?

I believe that echo chambers can be extremely beneficial for marketing campaigns if you utilise them effectively, so here are a few tips that could help you infiltrate those Pinterest echo chambers and make the most out of the echo chamber effect on this site:

1. Engage with people.

Start by browsing through Pinterest looking for other pinners who are interested in your niche. Comment on their pins and ask them questions. This may encourage them to follow your or you boards and pull you into their echo chamber.

2. Make sure the content that you pin is interesting and aesthetically pleasing.

Pinterest is first and foremost a visual platform so by ensuring your content looks good, you are more likely to achieve repins and infiltrate these echo chambers.

I hope this helps? Have you tried using Pinterest before now?
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Lianne is Digital Communications Manager at IdeasByNet, a UK promotional gifts distributor. Interested in online marketing, blogging and social media, she would love any feedback or comments. You can find her at [email protected] or tweet her @Lianne_Froggatt.
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