Thursday, May 31, 2012

Pinning Away

"Pinterest -  A content sharing service that allows members to "pin" images, videos and other objects to their pinboard. Also includes standard social networking features ..."

That's what you see when you search for the platform on Google. That's pretty much what it is about, but it provides for a whole day's worth of entertainment. My own perception - Pinterest is like a mesh up of Facebook and Google Images! 

So, for those of you who are unaware of what Pinterest is, here's what it looks like: 
Pins on Pinterest

The pictures are pinned onto a board which users create. So for instance, I have some 6-7 boards, and I have given a theme to each board. So if I was to pin the image of the lanterns (above), I would pin it to 'Just Beautiful', but the picture of the cat or the house would go on another board. 

Pinterest Boards

After YouTube, I'd say Pinterest is the best site to keep you busy, browsing the whole day - I'm quite sure you wouldn't get bored! 

If you add the 'Pin It' button to your browser, you can pin anything from any website to boards of your choice. Studying digital marketing, my mind keeps shifting to how this could be leveraged by marketers - and the answer is right in front of you! When I pin any item, it gets shared with all my friends (the same effect as sharing an image on facebook or twitter has). However because it has only images, it becomes a lot more appealing, You can make sure that images of your product are shared via Pinterest with ease. Just add the 'Follow us on Pinterest' or 'Pin It' button to your website. 

Apart from the marketing stand point, of all the social networks that have come and tried to overthrow Facebook, Pinterest seems to have taken a huge slice of cake when it comes to customer engagement.

Again, like I mentioned in my post about whether Facebook and Google will be around 10 years down the line, the whole debate and question about mobility comes to the fore front. Pinterest, is far more 'mobile' friendly than either of the other platforms. When you take a picture of something you've eaten at a restaurant, the chances of you sharing it with your friends are high. Now imagine, a friend of yours wants to make plans with some other friends about having the same dinner, all he has to do is pin it to his board and either tag his friends. 

You could argue that they could do the same on Facebook. Yes they can. And till now, they have. But with people increasingly liking the idea of browsing content that interests them and being able to store it in one place, I have no doubts that Pinterest, with a good mobile app, will overthrow the Facebook over the next couple of years - unless the later buys them out! 

For now, happy pinning!!   



Sunday, May 20, 2012

Will Facebook, Google be around 5-10 years from now?

I came across an article a while ago, about whether or not Facebook will be around in a few years from now. The opinion of the article was - most likely, no. In fact, it would be wrong to say just Facebook will not be around, the write-up actually referred to Google, Facebook and several other websites we're hooked-to. The reason - not because they are not popular, or because they are going bankrupt. The reason was quite simple - they cannot adapt. Just like MySpace went out (though it still exists), so will Facebook!

Remember the time you jumped to Yahoo or Lycos or Alta Vista everytime you wanted to search for something? And how many of you had email ids on every website that popped up?

How many of you remember ICQ? Do you remember your number? I don't! Though I do know a few friends who do. How about your Hi5 account? How often do you visit that? They all still exist, but few ever visit such sites. We just changed our minds and started using things which were easier to use! In more techie terms we shifted from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

When I look back, I used all of these platforms. But I was never able to stay hooked to one! The whole idea of using the internet is to make life simpler - so when a newer (and simpler) site comes up, I switch, as do many others! When I realised that all my friends were shifting to Facebook, I did it too! Though I have often wondered why?

I have seen this shift very often -- MySpace to Facebook, Orkut to Hi5 and then to Facebook, and then off late, people often choose between Twitter and Facebook. I'm guessing its because we all have one reason for using social networks - to keep in touch with people. So if people shift, so do we. But that begs the question, why do they start shifting? The 'whys' can be answered by psychology, and although I wish I was an expert at it, I'm not.

Coming back to the topic, the reason why Facebook and Google may not be around in a few years from now, is because the companies cannot adapt as quickly as we do. If we have started using our phones more than our computers, it is in Facebook's and Google's interest to ensure they have mobile versions of the site. But not just mobile versions. It's the whole experience of using the site that needs to be translated to a mobile platform.

On a personal note, I sort of agree - Google Search may be mobile friendly, but not the other Google products - I mean, how many 'Google' products do you have on your phone/tablet? Even for all the Android users, do you use Google Goggles or Google Earth or Google Latitude?

But then again, can you imagine having to send 'friend requests' to all your friend again? Or starting to get used to a new platform altogether? - Not that Facebook hasn't trained us for it, with all their changes to the way you use your profile, there is no doubt, we're all experts at getting used to new social networks in a giffy - We love Pinterest don't we?

But as of now, thinking of a world without Facebook and Google although tough, is not impossible! 

A simple example that I thought of when reading the article was - Whatsapp. We all use Whatsapp, but did it occur to anyone that you can use G-Talk, Skype or any other such messenger across all platforms?  Or was it because there is no G-Talk for iPhone? and no Skype for Blackberry? I guess that is exactly what the articles means by it will lose out!

Now imagine if tomorrow Whatsapp launches a profile option allowing you to share status updates with your friends? Oh wait, it already does that right? You can share statuses, create groups, share pictures, videos, etc - you just can't share it with everyone without 'chatting' with them! But if they do bring such features in, would you start using those instead of Facebook?