Friday, March 16, 2012

Should Dad Bloggers Have an Interest in Pinterest?

Original Image Source: AgBeat.com

I really have no excuse for ignoring Pinterest.  I obviously share my audience with a lot of mommy/crafty/recipe bloggers and other such folks.  Pinterest has taken the Internet by storm, and it shows no signs of slowing down.  Heck, even the phishers have taken notice.  But should I take the plunge and join Pinterest?

There are a lot of positive things about Pinterest; I'm just not sure if it's for me.  

Isn't Pinterest for Women?

Well, the answer, as with most social sites, is no, it's not just for women.  In fact, in the U.K., users are mostly male.  But Pinterest has spent a significant amount of time and effort to reach women users in the U.S.  While some argue that Pinterest hates men, there are a lot of people wising up and seeing the potential for businesses to capitalize on the growing site.  I don't think any social media site aims to appeal to only one gender; however, Pinterest may have a more feminine appeal since it has a cleaner, softer, more feminine design.  But  because the site is marketed to women, does that mean men should ignore it?  Of course not.  After all, a lot of dad blog readers are women.

Pinterest Drives As Much Traffic As Twitter

According to this article, Pinterest is driving as much web traffic as Twitter.  That stat in itself cannot be ignored.  The combination of Twitter and Triberr has tripled my blog audience since I first started using them together. Could Pinterest do the same?  Maybe.  But what kind of effort would be required to attain that sort of result?  I have to say, the effort to get those kinds of results from Triberr was minimal.  All I had to do was tribe up with like minded people and share their posts.  They share mine in return, and we all benefit from our shared Twitter audience.  Pinterest seems more like curating a museum than just mass broadcasting.  I would also have to attract new viewers to my "museum".  While that may be interesting for some people, I don't believe I have the time to curate a museum.  Twitter is working for me, and I fear that any time taken away from that to curate on Pinterest could be detrimental to what is already working.

Pinterest Users Stay On Site Longer

One of the important metrics in measuring web success is time on site, or how long does each user stay after they click over to your page.  According to this article, Pinterest users stay on site longer (just under 16 minutes per session) than other social sites like Facebook (12 minutes per session) and Twitter (3 seconds per session).  In fact, the only site that keeps users longer is YouTube (over 16.5 minutes per session).  The fact that these users are more engaged means that if you are pinning, your content has a higher probability of being noticed.  Is this statistic inflated?  Yes.  As the increase in traffic stabilizes, as users become more familiar with the site, and as some of the "shine" wears off, I believe the average time on site metric will probably top out somewhere around the level of Facebook.

I'm Not Joining, but I'm Not an Idiot

For now, I am not joining Pinterest.  Why?  As I have mentioned, I simply do not have the time.  Any activity that I add online means less time spent with my family offline, and my family is more important than this blog.  I won't sacrifice my time with them in order to get more traffic.  That said, I do recognize the power and potential of Pinterest, and some of you have noticed that I added a Pin button to my Share This widget.  I am all in favor of you, the reader, being able to pin my posts or recipes if you want to, and I have added the button to make it easier for you to do so.  In fact, a few of the recipe bloggers that follow me have pinned my recipes, and I have seen an increase in traffic to the recipe part of the site (thanks!).

Should Dad Bloggers Have an Interest in Pinterest?

This question is really up to you.  If you feel like you have the time to curate an interesting Pinterest board, and if you feel that you could gather enough followers to make an impact on your blog traffic, by all means, pin away!  Only you know what sort of free time you have, and it is your prerogative should you choose to pin with it.  I am holding out until pinning is as seamless and widespread as the Facebook "Like" button.  When it becomes that easy, it won't be such an investment and will be much more tempting.

What do you think?  Should more men get on board with Pinterest?  Are you a mom/dad blogger who uses the site?  What do you like or dislike about it?  Are you seeing any results from using Pinterest?  

13 comments:

  1. I have mixed feelings about Pinterest. To be honest, I'm worried that if I get on it I will spend all my time there. And like you said, the time I have available to my blog/the internet is already limited if I want my kids to, you know, eat and stuff. But it's tempting...

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    1. Thank you for being honest. It's good to know I'm not alone.

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  2. Ugh Matt, I just don't want to learn another new SM platform. THIS one seems cool to me but along with Google + I am standing down - for now!

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    1. You're such an old dog, Bruce. No new tricks for you. You are not alone in your holdout, sir. If you feel the temptation to give it, come back here and I'll remind you why it's crazy.

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  3. Pinterest has actually been far more interesting than I would have thought. It is pretty cool.

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    1. I would really be interested in hearing about whether or not it has helped your traffic. I am especially interested since your blog posts, although incredibly well written, are not "visual" in the same way that a recipe with a plate of delicious looking food is visual. Are people pinning your posts? Or are you just having fun pinning stuff yourself?

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  4. I'm mixed about Pinterest. I've loved finding some great ideas that I WILL be implementing when I do a lot of stuff around my house. But, you have to have explicit rights or permissions to pin something that isn't yours and that makes pinning a pain in the toosh! I love having men on there cuz they pin things I want to repin like cars, sports, etc. =)I know there's a guys version of Pinterest, but can't remember what it's called.

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    1. http://manteresting.com/

      ran and started by a pf blogger...can't recall his name/site

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    2. I will definitely check that out.

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  5. I signed up about 2 months ago. I have pinned 1 thing and can't figure out how to get my content loaded up so I quit, lol. I have too much going on with FB and Twitter to worry about Pinterest too. Maybe later on down the line. Google+ is another one I signed up for but it just seems like a poor man's FB, which is kind of sad. I guess in the end, you could say that I'm straight up DisPinterested with the whole thing.

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    1. The Triberr guys are offering a class about Pinterest. I am considering attending since they seem to know shortcuts that would make it more useful.

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  6. In a word, no. I have too many things going on and although a large percentage of my traffic is women, I have no interest in Pinterest. Plus the name doesn't scream out "This is for dudes". That being said, let me know if it works for you.

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    1. Thanks man. I'm not even going to try it out.

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