Pinterest???

<p>The first time I heard about Pinterest was at a seminar on building better photography websites. I remember checking Pinterest out for two minutes and forgetting about it. That was several years ago. Then today one of my brides suggested that I get on Pinterest. She thinks it would help me with my marketing. She's the second or third person to suggest this to me personally. </p>

<p>Should I do this? I've seen a number of comments here recently that suggest that some of you have tried Pinterest and found it to be more trouble than it's worth. </p>

<p>What does Pinterest do for a photographer? What's the point? Is it just a matter of permitting visitors to my website to "pin" my photos?</p>

<p>Will</p>

<p>I've never had any inquiries because of it. All it does is allow people to copy your photos. I doubt they will call you to book. I could be wrong.</p>

<p>Pinterest is useless for me. Problem is people are pinting your photos all over the world so it's not likely that any pin is going to result in inquiry. </p>

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<p><em>"Then today one of my brides suggested that I get on Pinterest. She thinks it would help me with my marketing."</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>The purpose of marketing is to create brand recognition and service (or product) identity in such a way that your brand immediately conjures an image or perception that ties into you - Annie Leibovitz is a brand like Martha Stewart through their respective marketing. <br>

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In a centralized marketing model, you find the tallest soapbox and the biggest megaphone to shout your message as loudly as possible in the hopes that someone will take notice. <br>

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In a distributed marketing model, you create something interesting so that others will take notice and do your marketing for you by way of sharing in sites like Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Farkit, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Google+, LinkedIn, and of course, Facebook "Like". </p>

<p>Advertising, on the other hand, is loosely tied to marketing but serves a completely different purpose. It spells out the nitty-gritties of your product or service to entice prospective customers. Offering a 25% discount this month or telling your customer that you're willing to travel is advertising. Its purpose is for short term and immediate gain; Groupon is such an example. <br>

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Then there is sales. This is when you interact directly with your prospect to highlight and reinforce the strengths of your product or service. Its objective is to close the loop and make an immediate sale. <br>

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By understanding the respective functions of these disciplines, you can strategize accordingly to create a marketing (long term), advertising (short term), and sales (immediate) plan, and there's a lot of good software out there to help you do this. <br>

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<p>Very well written article: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ge-masana/pinterest-wedding-photos_b_3737732.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ge-masana/pinterest-wedding-photos_b_3737732.html</a></p>

<p>http://www.themoderntog.com/ultimate-pinterest-guide-for-photographers</p>

<p>That will tell you everything you need to know!</p>

<p>Jaclyn,</p>

<p>Thanks for the link. Very informative, as you promised! </p>

<p>But the author is obviously pro-Pinterest, and perhaps even more important, she's obviously willing and able to put a lot of time into managing her Pinterest account. But for me, every one of these social media options requires a cost vs benefit analysis, or more precisely, a time and effort vs benefit analysis. At the moment, it doesn't look to me like spending time on Pinterest is likely to be worthwhile <em>for me.</em> </p>

<p>And I do find all this a little depressing. I may simply not have a social-media compatible personality. Looks to me like I could pretty easily spend 40 hours a week blogging, tweeting, posting on Facebook and Google+, and cultivating my Pinterest account. :-(</p>

<p>Will</p>