Of Flowers & Pinterest
thoughts on the evolution of attraction in social networks
I’m on Pinterest.
Let me go ahead and just get that out there.
I don’t think I’m the typical demographic for Pinterest, I probably don’t “do it right,” and I certainly have not attempted to “leverage” (my personal account, anyway) for business marketing purposes.
Let me also say I have no beef with Pinterest. All too easily, what I’m about to express could be perceived as a slam on the service and it isn’t intended to be that way…
Every single person who has recommended to me that Pinterest should be a key part of *every* social strategy deployment stands to benefit directly and monetarily from increased use of the platform through affiliate links.
Someone telling you to get on Pinterest? They’ve probably set it up to get a kickback for every Amazon purchase originating from their super-sticky “pins.” Heck, even Amazon knows this is the case.
Now — don’t get me wrong. In theory I don’t really take issue with folks getting compensated for their curatorial taste. In fact, I’ve recently explored the inner workings of the wonders of affiliate links myself; an endeavor that has made me feel a bit slimy but opened my eyes a tad.
Certainly not EVERY person saying Pinterest is a great tactical solution to accomplishing social media strategies is really just a marketer attempting to serve as steroid in the growth of the platform. There is, however, something that doesn’t sit well with me; the notion that those who give professional advice about which platforms to use might push the use of a particular platform simply because of the ease of use in affiliate tracking and the ways they themselves might benefit.
Imagine you go to the doctor — and the doctor tells you to take “medicine X.” Imagine that the doctor did so, not because she knows “X” is best for you, but because she gets money every time you take it. Imagine again that in taking “X” you actually encounter harm! That would be a horrible scenario, yes? Nothing like that would be allowed in America, right?
Yet I have watched this scenario play out in the context of social media advice — and my suspicion is that the growth of Pinterest (and some other digital social networks) has been artificially enhanced by those folks who are saying “Pinterest is growing! Use Pinterest” simply in order to get more affiliate re-pins to be clicked on.
Look, I understand; affiliate links can be used on ANY social network, and perhaps it isn’t fair to call out Pinterest for behavior that certainly lurks on Facebook, Twitter, and EVEN Google+! But there is something particular to the evolution of Pinterest that I think is emblematic of the evolution of the digital social network in general.
The part where I talk about what it has to do with flowers:
Ok, I’m no botanist, but work with me — some flowers evolved to have certain traits naturally in order to attract certain other creatures (birds, bees, what have you) that would inadvertently help them with pollination, yes?
In a similar way it is no surprise to me that the evolution of the digital social network has resulted in Pinterest, with it’s super-sticky-sweet visual attractors enticing unsuspecting parties into doing work which (to the unsuspecting parties) seems unrelated to the benefit of anyone but themselves, but which in fact does benefit someone else.
Pinterest, in a way, is the obvious genetic conclusion to a trajectory set into place by the Doctors Frankenstein who were GeoCities, AOL, Facebook, and even MySpace and Twitter.
But is it really what we want the end result of this digital social experiment to be?
I’m no kool-aid drinker (well, actually I am, but only in the literal sense — because of my kids — don’t judge) but I will admit that a part of what drew me to digital social media was the potential that it offered. I saw potential in the democratization of information flow and the way digital-world social networks solved real-world communication problems — like how to have real-time *public* discourse the world over.
I adopted tools early because of their usefulness, and shared the wonder of those problems solved with who ever would listen, becoming an evangelist for platforms from which I received no compensation, some of which I feel met there end too soon due to an emerging atmosphere that valued monetization over problem solving (cough — Posterous — cough.)
But it makes me want to croon like Sting calling out to Roxanne:
“You don’t have to sell your body to the night!”
I would gladly pay monthly fees for the right social network in order to rest assured that influence from salespeople, marketers, and otherwise unsavory types (like myself) was kept out of the equation.
Can Pinterest help you grow your business? Probably. Especially if your business involves things that make great pictures and can be linked to Amazon affiliate links — particularly products of interest to caucasian females between the ages of 35-50 who live in urban areas in households making more than $100k per year. Will people still tell you to use it even though none of those things solve real world problems for you? Yes. Yes they will.
Am I happy about that? Sure! Good for Pinterest! Do I wish the world was a different place? Well, if wishes were horses… this beggar would ride.
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