If your online marketing has stalled due to the coronavirus pandemic, our social media marketing experts suggest you look to Pinterest to help jump-start engagement. Not only has an early rollout of new features taken the site to the next level, but the platform reported that monthly active users surged 39 percent, to 416 million, both in the U.S. and internationally in the weeks following the initial quarantines this spring.

Between planning such virtual events as baby showers and birthday parties, and planning for post-pandemic events, the site has seen a 75 percent increase in engagement year-over-year, and nearly 50 percent month-over-month.

“In these tough times, we’re seeing more and more people rely on Pinterest to cook at home, plan kids’ activities, and set up a home office,” said Ben Silbermann, CEO and CoFounder of Pinterest in a press release. “Businesses are helping them turn their ideas into reality as people are increasingly discovering and buying products on Pinterest.”

 

Users flocking to Pinterest

After an initial drop in growth early in the pandemic shutdowns, revenue began to recover by April as stuck-at-home users seemed to rediscover the site to help them find ways to weather the crisis.

“People needed Pinterest in [the second quarter of 2020],” the company explained in a letter to shareholders. “They needed a service that helped them adjust to radically changed circumstances—one that inspired them to cook at home, build vegetable gardens, plan activities for their kids, and set up remote offices and home gyms, to name just a few typical COVID-19-related use cases we saw during the quarter.”

Which is the distinctive feature of Pinterest: It covers such a wide range of interests that almost any type of retail establishment can take advantage of it in terms of reaching potential clients.

The good news is that, despite a slight drop-off when stricter stay-at-home orders began to ease, the company reported that engagements are still “well above pre-COVID-19 levels.”

It seems that, once people discovered the platform and realized how versatile it could be, they’ve decided to stick around for the long haul.

 

New Features

And it didn’t hurt that Pinterest decided to release their latest features early in April, spurred by the sudden uptick in new users.

According to Pinterest, these new features include:

  • Shop from a board: When a Pinner visits their home decor or fashion board, they’ll now see a Shop tab that shows products from or inspired by the pins on their board. Just as if a shopping list had been created for their boards, Pinners will see in-stock products based on what they’ve been saving for a particular room or look.
  • Shop from search: A new Shop tab will appear on search, making it easy to shop in-stock products from a range of retailers when searching for terms like “spring outfits,” “office decor,” or “kitchen remodel. We’ve also added price and brand filters to the experience.
  • Shop from pins: We’ve made updates to visual search to make it easier to shop products right from the pin. Pinners just need to click “shop similar” to related in-stock products for various looks and rooms.
  • Style guides: When searching for home-related terms like “living room ideas,” browsable style guides will appear for home ideas in popular styles like “mid-century,” “contemporary,” and “rustic.” These visual recommendations make it possible to explore trending styles and taste even when shoppers don’t have the words to precisely describe what they’re looking for.

 

Other popular new features include:

  • the ability to add a date to a board, similar to a time stamp on a photo, which can help with project planning;
  • the addition of board notes, allowing users to add personal notes to their saves, such as colors or fabrics they like, ingredients they need to buy for a recipe, and so on; and,
  • suggestions on ways to organize a board into various sections, to make topics less broad.

 

All of these new features combine to make the user experience more friendly, and purchasing easier.

If you’ve not yet found a way to capitalize on the growing interest in Pinterest, let our social media management experts guide you through ways you can take full advantage of this popular platform.