Apologies on how long it’s taken me to get back to you. You bring up a very interesting point and I’m glad you’ve decided to share it.

Pinterest really is an amazing network, there’s no doubt about it. The ease in which people can share, pin and “curate” their lives on there is second to none right now. There’s huge opportunities for marketing visual content on there, and the genuine ability for brands to connect with their current and a new demographic.

Your daughter’s reaction was pretty much mine when I started using Pinterest. I was an avid Tumblr user before (I still am… kind of) but it did have a huge void in the types of content I was able to share as well as the “ease” of sharing. The visual aspect wasn’t there. You could hop in the directory and look for other Tumblr users that you’re interested in, but even at that, you’d have to scroll through their individual posts and allow yourself to create an image of who you think they are and what types of things they’re sharing. 

I still don’t trust human nature enough to believe that they know exactly what they want to share though. I can’t speak for others, but I can speak for myself when I say that I’ll share something one day that I thought was neat, but a few days later I’ll be scratching my head wondering why I was even interested in it at all. it’s true that we’re sharing our passions and desires – things of genuine interest – on Pinterest, but I guess when you start assigning a time period as to how long these interests will last, that’s where it gets a little fuzzy.

I like what you’re saying about putting the individual back in the driver’s seat. Really, people WILL tell us what they want, if we just sit back, observe and listen. It’s the sitting back, observing and listening part that’s hard for brands, because they’re so eager to try to find quantitative data rather than qualitative data. Which is why I don’t think brands should be profiling who their new potential market might be and trying to sculpt who they serve according to that. I think we just need to observe and let the people do the talking for themselves. 

Thanks for the comment Peter :)

Thanks for the reply on Twitter and thank you for asking for my input on the “passive consumer” and “misrepresenting interests”. I find this fascinating.

The “passive consumer” is every individual. So is the “active consumer”. The key is to understand  the individual with-in the context of their every day real world life. How do they use a service like Pinterest? What are they using it for? Is it for online? Offline? Or Both?

My daughter, who has 1 year left at ASU (Majoring in Marketing with 1 year left and killing it!) is on Pinterest. This is what she had to say when she first got an invite to Pinterest:

“So, I’ve had a tumblr for quite a while now and it’s one and only focus is everything sartorial. Fashion literally runs my life, but I’ve got other interests too! I’ve considered creating other Tumblrs with focuses that reflect each of my main passions, but that’s super unrealistic.Finally, a friend of mine invited me to Pinterest, and LORD AM I SO HAPPY! It completely solved my expression crises. I am so excited to get to share all of the things that inspire me besides fashion. I feel like these boards really give you an in-depth look at a person’s character by knowing the things that catch their eye.”

For her, she uses Pinterest to solve a problem specifically hers – How do I express myself publicly so that others can see me as I am – A multifaceted individual?

So, “passive consumers” are really active humans who use services to curate for themselves. Maybe others might see what they have curated and make a connection. Maybe not. My point being is that marketing needs to stop psycho-, demo-, and silo-, graphing any consumer. Marketing needs to turn itself upside down and allow any consumer, passive or active, to extract information from the business. Put the individual back in the driver’s seat. I’m betting that you’ll see “passive consumers” become active in a multitude of ways. Online and off.

On “misrepresenting interests” – I think that’s a misnomer. Everyone is representing themselves and their interests based on what their desired intentions are. You gave a good list of them in your post. Once we start looking at it from that perspective I believe that marketers and businesses can start to craft and create true value for each individual.

I’ll close with what’s been on my mind for sometime:

Think Big Data, Do Local Data, Help Everyone Create Value.

Thanks again.