If you’ve not embraced the Pinterest craze, perhaps for fear that you too could become addicted; you’ll be surprised to learn that this newcomer on the social network scene is still affecting your digital life. And it is set to become even more influential.
Whether you’re an enthusiastic pinner or a determined avoider, there’s no escaping the fact that Pinterest, with its cool, image-focused design, is changing the way other social networks and websites look. And it’s a design that fits perfectly with our industry.
For those who have resisted its allure, Pinterest looks like a series of sticky notes, reminiscent of your traditional mood board. These little ‘sticky notes’ fill the entire screen, organized according to image size and caption length. Think of it like a scrolling collage of images and videos.
Photo-heavy design like this is an intuitive way to organize a website. Visitors often struggle to engage with sites with too much text, especially in the beauty world, so Pinterest-style sites that emphasize image over text are the perfect solution. It doesn’t mean there is no text; it just means that a large, striking image captures the visitor’s attention, inviting them to click for more details. So it’s handy for salon websites that rely on text to remain high in the search engine rankings. However with the growing emphasis on images across the web, using lots of original pictures that are optimized could potentially become even more important to a credible website.
With this style, instead of having to select a category on a salon website– for example ‘Hair’ – and then having to select yet another sub-category to find what they want to read about, visitors instantly see all of the latest blog, video and social posts about ‘Hair’ on the salon’s homepage. Then, they simply choose whatever appeals to them and go directly to the details.
Aside from the visual appeal of the Pinterest design style, many salon owners love that information isn’t merely listed in reverse chronological order. In all too many blog-focused sites, the most recent posts push more relevant or popular posts to the bottom. It might be what users are familiar with on social networks like Twitter, and, in a world where instant social gratification is key and users want to keep abreast of the latest and greatest, this feature seems logical. However, Pinterest-inspired sites use a different approach, organizing information based on what is most relevant and interesting to the user.
It is easy for salons to achieve this by creating groups and categories of content that can be filtered and used strategically on each page. For example, if a potential client were looking at hair services page, the pins on that page are all about hair. If that person clicks on ‘Makeup’, the information is all about makeup styles.
The hair and beauty industry was quick to fall in love with Pinterest, and it is likely salon owners will be as quick to acknowledge its influence on future redesigns of their salon websites. And when they do, they can expect their sites to be mined for exciting pins from Pinterest fans around the world. -Valorie Reavis, Linkup Marketing
Valorie Reavis is part of Linkup Marketing, an online and social media marketing specialist focusing on search engine marketing, salon email marketingprograms and social media marketingfor salons and spas. If you have any queries for the Linkup team check out the website www.linkupmarketing.com, email [email protected], find them on facebook.com/linkupmarketing or follow them on Twitter @linkupmarketing
[Image courtesy of Linkup Marketing]
