From Textbook Theory to My Shopping Cart: Unpacking Pinterest's Marketing Power

    Do you use Pinterest often? In South Korea, it hasn't gained the same level of popularity as Instagram. While I’m a Pinterest user, I knew almost nothing about social media marketing on Pinterest. That's why I felt this chapter was interesting. According to Chapter 8 of textbook, the best times to post on Pinterest are Tuesdays through Fridays at 1 a.m. Even more surprising, the best days to post are weekdays, while the worst are weekends. Isn't that wild? I always assumed people used social media more often on the weekends when they had time to relax, but that is definitely not the case for Pinterest! After reading this, I realized that I usually use Pinterest around 2 a.m. on a weekday. How strange is that?

    How do you use Pinterest? I used to use it mainly for visual inspiration: browsing nail design photos (often called “nail inspo”), looking at different outfit photos to decide what to wear the next day (searching for “OOTD” or “fall outfit”), or downloading phone wallpapers. But recently, I've started using Pinterest differently: to search for products I want to buy.

    Recently, the weather in Ohio became colder, so I wanted to buy a coat. (Although it's too cold for just a coat now!) I searched for “coat outfit” on Pinterest and checked out various outfit pins from lots of users. A key feature of Pinterest is that when you click on a pin and scroll down, it offers similar, related photos. This process inspired me to search for a gray balmacaan coat, and my shopping journey continued from there.

    One of the Pinterest's big advantages is that if a pin has a product link, users can click the Visit Site button to go directly to the purchasing website. Another benefit is the comment section. If an ordinary user uploads a pin without a product link, other users often leave comments asking for the link or brand information. These features make Pinterest an extremely valuable tool for social media marketing.

    Through these features, I successfully found the coat I wanted most, only to discover it was already discontinued. In addition, the Ohio weather has gotten too cold to wear it anyway! Despite that, I still love these features. The consumer described in Chapter 8—who uses Pinterest to transition from inspiration to conversion—was me all along!