Users can connect what they see on the street with what others have gathered and created online.
On Wednesday, Pinterest announced in a blog post that it was rolling out a feature called “Lens,” which it hopes will better connect offline activities to online shopping, creating a bounty of marketing and engagement opportunities:
When it comes to looking for something you want to try—a new pasta dish, a new pair of shoes, a new table for your dining room—you really need to see it first. Humans are visual creatures. We use our eyes to decide if something looks good, or if it matches our style.
… Sometimes you spot something out in the world that looks interesting, but when you try to search for it online later, words fail you. You have this rich, colorful picture in your mind, but you can’t translate it into the words you need to find it.
The platform shared a video of how the tool works:
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The company elaborated:
Just point Lens at a pair of shoes, then tap to see related styles or even ideas for what else to wear them with. Or try it on a table to find similar designs, and even other furniture from the same era. You can also use Lens with food. Just point it at broccoli or a pomegranate to see what recipes come up. Patterns and colors can also lead you in fun, interesting or even just plain weird new directions.
For now, Lens works best for finding home decor ideas, things to wear and food to eat. As more and more people give it a try, and we continue making improvements to our technology, results will get even better, and the range of objects Lens recognizes will get increasingly wider.
[RELATED: The 2017 Social Media Conference for PR, Marketing and Corporate Communicators at Disney World.]
Pinterest also announced two other features: “Instant Ideas” and “Shop the Look.”
Users can employ Instant Ideas to find additional ideas on pins they like.
The company wrote in its blog post:
When you notice an idea that looks interesting, just tap the circle that appears on each Pin to instantly unlock related ideas. Circle a clawfoot bathtub to see similar tub ideas, or an asparagus dish for more recipes.
Shop the Look enables Pinterest users to find—and buy—products within the pins they find and curate. Partners such as Macy’s Neiman Marcus and Target teamed up with the platform to make the feature possible.
The company explained:
… [Y]ou can track down and even buy products you see inside fashion and home decor Pins. Just tap the circle on each item to find the styles you’re looking for. You can even see what other people have paired it with for more ideas on how to wear it.
When you’re ready to buy, you can check out right on Pinterest, or get things directly from your favorite brands. CB2, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Target, Wayfair and other brands will all be offering shoppable looks, thanks to Pinterest’s new partnerships with Curalate, Olapic, Project September, Refinery29 and ShopStyle.
The features offer great potential for brand managers working in the lifestyle, travel, food, home and retail industries.
However, marketing and PR pros of all stripes can take a lesson from this announcement: The importance of visuals cannot be understated when trying to interact with consumers.
The insight is underlined in Pinterest’s blog post, as well as the way the company announced the news.
The company went beyond its blog (which contained GIFs and a video to demonstrate the features): It also gave followers a tour of the features in a Facebook Live video.
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Brand managers would do well to make their content visually friendly, as more and more consumers are using such features on their mobile devices to connect, obtain information, make decisions and buy stuff.
Flipboard catering to people’s passions
Flipboard had a big announcement of its own Wednesday: It has redesigned its interface and now offers users “Smart Magazines,” which it hopes will grab more readers and increase use.
Flipboard CEO Mike McCue said the change was a year in the making and the company's biggest effort yet to attract more users and satisfy existing ones with their reading experience. The app now has more than 100 million monthly users, up from 50 million in February 2015.
The competition for e-readers has only gotten tougher (despite Facebook retiring Paper and Circa shutting down). Products like Apple News have gained traction, and still, the majority of Americans get their news on social media, according to Pew Research.
Smart Magazines enable users to select a topic, along with several subtopics, which will then appear as curated magazines, delivering articles, videos and more.
… Instead of just grouping articles on several different subjects into one big digital "magazine," Flipboard's 100 million monthly users can now create several smaller "magazines" around different interests, like photography, drones or jazz guitar.
And within those smaller magazines, you'll be able to customize even further. If you've created a magazine about photography, you can choose topics like "today's best photos," "Canon cameras" or "landscape photography" to populate the feed. The magazine also won't just present you with articles, but tweets from prominent photographers as well.
The topics can get as niche as paleo diets to the locavore movement.
The overhaul is the company’s attempt to revive the publishing industry and reach consumers with splashy visuals (and on their mobile devices).
The goal, says Flipboard Chief Executive Mike McCue, is to go beyond what Facebook and Twitter do: surfacing the most popular stories or the most recent ones, mainly quick bites of content. “Rather than a snacking mentality, there’s a need to dive into the things you’re passionate about,” said McCue. Magazines, he said, “just need to be modernized for a mobile experience and a social world.”
Brand managers who have curated Flipboard magazines—or who are thinking about doing so—can still use the platform to share their content.
Flipboard will curate users’ content into the Smart Magazines, meaning that if the feature is successful in bringing more users to the app, you can draw more eyeballs to your articles, videos and more.
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