The Secret History of Pinterest — REVEALED!
Feb 14th
Do you feel like you woke up a week ago and Pinterest had taken over the world? I read on Twitter (so it is true, of course) that Pinterest is now bigger than Google, will be running for President of the United States, and is recording an album of Justin Bieber cover songs.
The meteoric success of Pinterest has shocked everyone.
Except me.
I have it all figured out. You see, Pinterest makes perfect sense if you just look at the natural evolution of social media …
THE GOLDEN AGE OF BLOGGING: 2005-2009
When blogging first caught on, people actually wrote things. There was a post, comments, debate, and dialogue. But then something happened. Blogging went mainstream and became so popular that soon there were thousands and thousands of blogs. Even plumbing companies had blogs (a sub-genre known as clog blogs). What to do? Where to go? We needed something to help us consume more of these blogs quickly. So that led to …
THE GREAT ERA OF LISTICLES: 2009-2010
Numbered lists! That’s the answer! Bite-sized morsels of information like “The 10 Worst Blogging Mistakes” and “The Five Biggest LinkedIn Tips!” Bloggers learned how to dumb-down the content by counting it down! Putting a number in a headline was the key to RT Nirvana. But the information density continued to get progressively worse as companies of all sizes got in on the content marketing game. Now what do we do to communicate to people who have less and less time to read our lists? I know! We’ll make our blog posts into a picture called an infographic! This led to a strategy where companies and bloggers could communicate with EVEN LESS CONTENT!
INFOGRAPHICS A-GO-GO: 2010 – 2011
A typical well-researched Infographic
Well if people won’t even read our listicles any more, let’s turn our content into a colorful illustration. It’s kind of like using cartoons to tell your stories. Let’s not make people read. Let’s just SHOW them what they need to know. And if we don’t have the data, we’ll just make it up. Only 4.6 percent of social media users ever check a fact any way. And yes, I just made that up. See how easy that was? But soon, the web was FLOODED with infographics. We needed another breakthrough — an innovation that would be even less challenging to over-taxed web users. Let’s just cut out the information! We’ll simply show people photographs of stuff!
PINTEREST, THE NATURAL EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA – 2012
Pretty pictures! Woot! And MORE pretty pictures! Let’s face it, that’s all we can really handle these days, right? We’re just too busy to read, think, or process an idea. Just show us a picture of a cute dog or a wedding dress dammit. Of course … It all makes perfect sense. Pinterest is truly a reflection of our society, and a natural evolution of a need to create and distribute information that takes less and less time and attention.
Where will this all lead? In my mind it can only go to …
MONDRIAN — THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL SHARING – 2013
So we have moved down the line from meaningful, debate-worthy blog posts to pictures of crafts and puppies. Where can we go from here? I think the painter Piet Mondrian had it right. When he and other painters moved their craft into a new level of simplistic abstraction, all they had left was lines and primary colors. So I predict that the next big thing will be a social platform I dub “Mondrian” (maybe I need to delete a vowel to be cool – Mndrian?) which will consist solely of colors, lines, and occasional grunts, which will replace the too-complicated “like” button.
So there you have it. The history of Pinterest and the future of social media in five paragraphs. Hope it wasn’t too much to read? 8-)
Have You Hugged Your Blogger Today?
Feb 12th
Over the past few years I have had the pleasure to get to know many of the great marketing bloggers I admire so much. And it is amazing how similar we are. We seem to thrive on the relentless pace and challenge of producing consistently great content. Most bloggers do the work out of love, passion, and a drive to make a difference … not for money. In fact, it is very, very difficult to directly monetize a blog.
I love blogging, but as you can imagine, it’s a ton of work. And we might plow hours of work into a piece we’re proud of only to have it considered “old” a week later!
That’s why it is so exhilarating to get an email like the one I received this week:
“I’m sure it’s difficult to know sometimes if you make a difference in this world. You did. Thank you.”
Now THAT is something to keep a blogger going!
You see, on our blogs, we may receive tons of comments, but rarely do we get any feedback. There’s a difference between “I agree with your point” and “Your work is appreciated” or “You are making a difference.”
When was the last time you gave a “virtual hug” to your blogger and tell him or her about your appreciation for their long hours and sacrifices to make their little piece of the world a better and more interesting place?
Valentine’s Day is this week and I think that’s a great time to take a moment, reach out to these hard-working folks, and show a blogger some love. Can we make this the first Hug a Blogger Week?
I’m going to take 10 minutes to drop a note to a few of my favorite bloggers today and just say “THANKS!” How about you?
Facebook: The Happiest Place on Earth?
Feb 10th
OK, OK, so I read this report this week that a guy up the road from me killed his neighbor because his daughter was un-friended on Facebook. And then this story is buzzing around about the guy who shot his daughter’s computer and posted it on YouTube because she whined about doing her chores in a status update. Sure … there is just a little bit of anger that can show up on the interwebs!
But despite this weirdness and angst, the data would suggest that people who frequent social networks are a pretty happy bunch. I recently had a post that showed the emotional boost from Facebook was similar to something you would get by being married!
Now, a new study from Pew Research shows that the overall social and emotional climate of social networking sites (SNS) is a very positive. Adult users get personal rewards and satisfactions at far higher levels than when they encounter anti-social people or have ill consequences from their encounters. A nationally representative phone survey of American adults finds that:
- 85% of SNS-using adults say that their experience on the sites is that people are mostly kind, compared with 5% who say people they observe on the sites are mostly unkind and another 5% who say their answer depends on the situation.
- 68% of SNS users said they had an experience that made them feel good about themselves.
- 61% had experiences that made them feel closer to another person. (Many said they had both experiences.)
- 39% of SNS-using adults say they frequently see acts of generosity by other SNS users and another 36% say they sometimes see others behaving generously and helpfully. By comparison, 18% of SNS-using adults say they see helpful behavior “only once in a while” and 5% say they never see generosity exhibited by others on social networking sites.
At the same time, notable proportions of SNS users do witness bad behavior on those sites and nearly a third have experienced some negative outcomes from their experiences on social networking sites. Some 49% of SNS-using adults said they have seen mean or cruel behavior displayed by others at least occasionally.
Does this match your experience? Do you “get your happy on” when you go to Facebook?
Frankenstrategy. A {growtoon}.
Feb 10th
Join the growtoonists each Friday for a humorous take on marketing, social media, and current business events.
Joey Strawn is a social media strategist that loves enjoying a good book and then drawing in it. Check him out on Twitter: @joey_strawn
Welcome to {grow}
You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.
Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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