Is Pinterest a Threat to Facebook?

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We probably know that building natural social links is the best way to escape Google slap and socializing plays a great role here.

Pinterest getting popular everyday, will this be a real threat to Facebook? The major problem with Facebook is that it is getting more and more spammy everyday. The idea of Pinterest should have inspired Facebook which may be the reason it has hooked up with Flickr for photo sharing.

With all this, please comment your thoughts on if Pinterest will be a real threat to Facebook?
#main internet marketing discussion forum #facebook #pinterest #threat
  • Banned
    At the current moment, no. Let's give Pinterest some more time to see if it actually has staying power. I personally don't like jumping to conclusions too early.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • According to Alexa.com, over 40% of all internet users visit Facebook on a regular basis. Pinterest has been around for 2 years now, and they're hovering around 2% for the same stat. 2% of all internet users is a lot of people, of course, but they're not even close to being in the same league that Facebook is in.

      Even if Pinterest gets a lot more popular, I don't see it as being a "threat" to Facebook, because it serves a completely different purpose than FB does.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I think they are two different ways of socializing so I don't see pinterest as a threat. I do see it getting spammier though, unfortunately.
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  • Pinterest and Facebook are two completely different concepts.
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    • I agree, Facebook and pinterest are two different types of social networks, thus one can't really surpass the other except in traffic.
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  • Hi, hmm interesting thread..

    My take is that since FaceBook is the most successful social media network and therefore it’s the place to be if you're a business proprietor. If you don’t already have a business page on Facebook for your brand, then you will be totally at a loss, I guess.

    However, you need to pay for your advertisements on Facebook in order to promote your business page, or else you need have a really big network of friends to share your biz info.

    On the other hand, in , you just need an invite and your brand will be there without you paying a penny for it!

    Other benefits of Pinterest, it’s the best place to keep track of threads on your niche, you will not only know what others are pinning, but you will almost know soon what appeals to people, have better and more engaged audience!


    And also not to count the “Back links” it will drive to your site, all this for free!

    cheers,
    Bobby
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  • Agreed. 2 different mediums for socialising...
  • Lauren Weinstein is pretty insightful when it comes to seeing 'less than obvious' trends,
    and this recent post has some bearing on this issue:

    Facebook, Instagram, Google, and the Monopoly Fallacy
    Lauren Weinstein's Blog: Facebook, Instagram, Google, and the Monopoly Fallacy

    All success
    Dr.Mani
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Even though they're two different ways of socializing it doesn't mean people aren't open to switching ways of socializing.

    It would make sense for people's time on the internet to be more divided among sites when a popular new kid on the block arrives.

    I would hope for Facebook to sink to the level of MySpace but its probably too late for that to ever happen..
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    • [1] reply
    • Very perceptive and I was going to allude to the same thing. People are busy and when they're deluged with so many choices, they'll go with the things that they identify with and/or have the most fun with. People are "loving" Pinterest so I think they can steal some of Facebook's market share. That said, Facebook was here first and has become woven into people's lives in a much more socially-detailed way. It should be interesting to see how it all unfolds.
  • Thanks warriors! I do agree those 2 are two different platforms. But with Facebook trying to buy Flickr from Yahoo, I can only say that Facebook has understood the emerging popularity of Pinterest. As Brandon showed the Alexa rankings of both, Pinterest may not be a threat, but both of them getting to merge the missing features of each other, one day they may be competing really. Who knows?
  • Well I don't see pinterest as a threat even if they are buying flickr. They might have some other reasons but not because of pinterest.

    I still remember people asking if twitter will outdo facebook and so on and so forth but it didn't. Facebook still has its own unique features that makes people stick with them.

    Ryuchi
    • [1] reply
    • Facebook and Pinterest are two very different animals. The only way Pinterest can be a threat is by gaining more traffic.
  • Twitter is the biggest threat to them all.
  • I don't think so pinterest is a threat for Facebook... Even Google Plus & Twitter fails to beat them...
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    • I agree.. pinterest will need more than pin feature to beat facebook.
  • according me, pinterest more better from facebook.

    I promote images to pinterest, my blog traffic increases
    • [1] reply
    • Yeah, many people say they increase their traffic with Pinterest.
  • Well, in Pinterest you can't really interact with people in the same way that you can on Facebook.

    For instance, currently there is no obvious way to private message someone if you like their posts, all you can do is comment on them but everyone can see. This might change in time and if it does Facebook better watch out because I think they have irritated a lot of people with their arrogance.
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    • I agree Brandon, for interacting with People Pinterest will not match Facebook! But, Pinterest is getting itself evolved to the next best level and when it comes to SEO, this is a good deal too.
  • I don't know if Pinterest a Threat to Facebook, but it's offering some competition.
  • Referring to Pinterest’s visual content and social sharing capabilities, Pinterest has found their niche that directly competes against Facebook’s photo and video-sharing features.
  • I would say that Pinterest complements Facebook rather than compete with Facebook as the two social media websites do not work entirely in the same way. At Facebook, you can interact more directly with the others by leaving a message but Pinterest is all about posting nice looking high resolution pictures to grab people's attention. As for traffic wise, as mentioned by other warriors, it is easier to get targeted traffic from Pinterest than Facebook and the conversion rate for sales is higher.
  • Woah.

    Nowehere near.
    • [1] reply
    • For the moment I would say no, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't become more of a threat somewhere down the road.

      As one of the commenters already mentioned, people are really starting to abuse Facebook with spammy accounts, and the general public is starting to pick up on this. It seems that everyday I log in, there are about 5-10 new people "friending"" me that I have never met or heard of in my life. They are clearly just trying to friend me so that they can spam me with marketing offers and the like, and I could see this potentially becoming a major annoyance.

      I like the Pinterest model, which is a more aggressive and thorough review process for anybody requesting a new account. This will definitely help to cut down on some of the spammers that enter their network (though people will always try to find a work-around).

      I think Facebook is getting to a place where they are becoming too large for their own good, which makes it more difficult for them to weed out all of the spammy, useless accounts that enter their network on a daily basis. Despite this, I think the reason that they are still so enormously popular is because they truly offer the best features when it comes to pure, straight-up "social-networking", and I think that reason alone will keep them on top for a long time to come.

      Curtis
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  • pinterest is really nice. yes may be in future it will be threat for facebook. I have checked the site sits really good to share links images.
  • Banned
    I don't think it's a threat at the moment. Maybe in the future, but I still don't see it getting as big as Facebook.
  • I think pinterest is not a treat for facebook..
  • Chalk and cheese.

    Pinterest has a way to go before it evolves into its own indentity, I think there will be a very big shake up with it in the very near future unless its founding fathers can attribute much of its success to internet marketers using it for traffic.

    The great thing about Pinterest is there is no place for conflict and negativity, you can pin, repin and follow ... or not.
  • Banned
    thanks for this
  • Banned
    i think its not a threat
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  • who knows. the net is ever changing, ever evolving. the social is getting mobile all the time. pinterest is perfect for it. so we'll see...
  • They're 2 completely separate ways of socializing.
  • Pinterest and Facebook are completely different...

    Why would you compare them?
  • Pinterest is different from Facebook in many ways. For one, Facebook has apps; Pinterest doesn't. My friends who are on Pinterest still use Facebook. Some of them even post their pictures both on Pinterest and on Facebook. People don't necessarily abandon Facebook in favor of Pinterest.
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    Is Pinterest a Threat to Facebook?

    We probably know that building natural social links is the best way to escape Google slap and socializing plays a great role here. Pinterest getting popular everyday, will this be a real threat to Facebook? The major problem with Facebook is that it is getting more and more spammy everyday. The idea of Pinterest should have inspired Facebook which may be the reason it has hooked up with Flickr for photo sharing.