A confession first and foremost. I’m not an active ‘pinner’ or ‘Pinterest fan-boy‘. In fact, I initially thought Pinterest was silly and a odd social network.
All that changed about a year ago (the thinking it was odd and silly part, still not an active user). I was on a plane to a social media conference in Dallas. I was seated in the window seat and a woman in her mid fifties in the seat next to me was flipping through a magazine and stopping every now and then to examine an advertisement or article. In the aisle seat was a 20-something lady who had her smart device in hand scrolling up and down on the Pinterest app. It was my ‘Aha moment’. I knew immediately that there was nothing new about Pinterest from a human behavioral perspective. The desire to ‘browse’ is bigger than a magazine and older than any mobile app. I now understood the Pinterest niche and why I don’t use it much. I like articles, books, and blog content and I am addicted to the fast paced conversation and back-and-forth banter of Twitter.
BUT, to ignore Pinterest – especially from a mobile use standpoint wouldn’t be wise for me or other mobile advocates.
Several months ago Kelly Lieberman, the host of #PinChat tweeted that we should do a combined tweet chat. Both tweet chats are LIVE each Wednesday evening from 9-10pm EST and have some cross-pollination of chat participants. If you’ve seen Ghostbusters, I was concerned about crossing our tweet streams, which would make for an even faster chat (as both chats have highly active participation during the week). But, sometimes, you gotta agree with Bill Murray and say, “I love this plan! I’m excited to be a part of it! LET’S DO IT!”
If you dare to cross the streams with us, jump in Wednesday night from 9-10pm EST as we’ll be moving the #MobileChat crew to the #PinChat hashtag to chat about the browsing power of Pinterest on mobile. May the interwebs forgive us should something unexpected happen.
Chat more soon – Patrick Goodman
