After all this, is social really coming back back to the old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words”?
Or maybe I should embellish a bit: “A picture is worth a
thousand words -- and lots of money if it has an e-commerce button attached”?
Before we continue, let’s hit the “pause” button for a moment as I tell you just how
mind-blowingly real-time this column is. I had written the two paragraphs above and decided to then take a quick research trip over to Google to check out the latest news on Pinterest – which is
supposed to be a key player in today’s column. Here’s the first headline I found, from USA Today, posted late this morning: “EBay launches site redesign, Pinterest-like feed.”
See, I told ya! Everything is about big
pictures with e-commerce buttons attached! As the story explains, “The most striking change [in eBay’s redesign] is the visual, Pinterest-like home page ‘Feed,’ which lists
brands that users follow and makes suggestions based on their browsing history and past purchases.”
People, in case you haven’t noticed, everyone is coming to the same conclusion
at roughly the same time:
Social isn’t just a place ripe for pretty pictures, because pretty pictures sell!
In fact, before the eBay/Pinterest headline slapped me upside
the head, I was planning to focus this column on Facebook
“Collections,” which is really old news by now – it launched in test two days ago! But let’s stop to reminisce. Collections -- chockful of big, splashy visuals -- is in
test with a handful of retailers on Facebook, including Pottery Barn and Neiman Marcus. Consumers can do Pinterest-y things with it, like click a “Collect” (and allegedly a “Want”) button to tag an individual item, add it to a Wishlist, or click over to
the retailer’s site to buy the item. Will it be very long before Facebook has an e-commerce facility in-house?
I think not.
Which brings us to Pinterest. A while back, at the
Social Media Insider Summit in August, I hosted a discussion on Pinterest. It was heavily suggested by that session’s dramatis personae – Renegade’s Drew Neisser and
The Buddy Group’s Bryan Boettger – that Pinterest might consider going e-comm. But with Facebook and eBay getting in on the game, I wonder if it’s already too late.