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Pinterest Promotion

Posted At: September 25, 2013 2:17 p.m.
By Jessica Smith

“Just over a year ago, my wife and I welcomed our son into the world. Since his first day, I’ve been pinning fun things we can do together, right now while he’s still little and later when he gets older. I know many of you do the same. Pinterest is where you keep your wishlists, vacation plans, dream home ideas, and other things you want to do soon and in the future.”

Last Friday, I received this email from Pinterest politely explaining it is going to start promoting pins from certain businesses. But don’t worry! Ben Silbermann, Pinterest’s CEO, calmed us down by giving a list of how the pins will be tastefully shown.

When I first started reading the email, I was a little confused. It sounded like someone hacked Pinterest’s account and sent a sappy story to its followers. After a little reading, I understood why Pinterest needed me to read about its new changes and give my feedback.

Silbermann said the ads won’t be annoying banners or pop-ups. Pinterest is trying a new approach to ad placement by making the ads transparent and relevant based on the pinner’s feedback.

PR Daily writer Elizabeth S. Mitchell was impressed with the fact that Pinterest was focusing on customer feedback. It seems it was going to back to PR 101.

“All of those things — transparency, tastefulness, relevancy, and a focus on customer feedback — are things we hear over and over again that people want in advertising, especially digital ads, which, if done incorrectly, can be completely disruptive and maddeningly frustrating,” Mitchell said.

The first test for the ad will be promoting pins in search results and category feeds. He used the example of when you search for “Halloween,” a Darth Vader costume promoted pin would appear. The main thing is Silbermann wants to know what we think! I like this company a lot more already.

This email made me feel for the guy. I don’t mind the ads now. It isn’t a ploy to be greedy or take advantage of followers. If putting ads on his amazing website is how he needs to provide, then by all means ad it up.

Silbermann made things personal. He signed the email with “All the best, Ben.” Way to put all of your followers on a first name basis. I could sense the pride he had for his company. I could tell he understood how important Pinterest is to me.

I say kudos to Ben and Pinterest for continuing to be the best, new company out there. If Pinterest somehow disappeared tomorrow I would be devastated. All of my ideas for my entire future would be squashed, so I hope the ads help it make a profit and keep Pinterest growing.

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