Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

The “Interest Graph” is not the “Social Graph”. But what does that mean and why should you care?

Despite the rapid ascent of Interest-based platforms, such as Pinterest, Sulia, WeHeartIt and Wanelo, we rarely see dialogue about the Interest Graph except in a Social context. However, The Interest Graph and Social Graph are two fundamentally different infrastructures with different underlying assumptions for marketers.

Sure, they often overlap, but it’s time we come to appreciate their differences, so that we can be more effective marketers on a social web driven by people’s passions and interests.So should you be social or interesting?...

... Just like with any other social media platform – or your digital marketing strategy in general, come to think of it – going in with a sales pitch full of shameless self-promotion is never going to get you the social proof, site traffic or conversions you need. The other users on Pinterest aren’t just users; they’re potential leads and, instead, should be nurtured in the same way as in the other areas of your campaign; with great content and a bit of community spirit.

Basically, you should act on Pinterest as you would on any other social network. Perhaps even more so, as it’s one of the most informal and community focused platforms around: hashtags are used to create conversations and find related content, commenting on and liking pins is common best practice and you can even join ‘Community Boards’ that multiple users can pin to. Most importantly though is the heart of Pinterest; ‘repinning.’...