Saturday, March 28, 2020

How Pinterest is adapting to COVID-19 and why other networks should follow suit


Most social networks are experiencing slower revenue growth as COVID-19 has impacted businesses across sectors and resulted in advertisers pulling back on their ad-expenditure and their campaigns. Twitter was the first to announce that they were seeing a reduced demand for its ad inventory. Soon after, Facebook also announced the impact on their advertising business.

However, even as ad revenues drop, this looks like a great opportunity for these networks to increase their user base and user engagement as more and more individuals are looking towards these platforms to stay connected and informed. Networks that are able to attract and retain users will be able to benefit from this in the times to come.

Pinterest is one such network that is adapting to leverage this trend. It introduced a "Today" tab as a hub for daily inspiration, trending posts and curated topics as traffic surges to a record during the coronavirus pandemic. On this tab, they plan to feature expert information from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on COVID-19 prevention during the next few weeks.

Pinterest's editorial team and guest editors will select items to feature in the Today tab, which appears at the top of the home feed on its iOS and Android apps. The home feed will continue to show personalized recommendations, while the Today tab will help users to see what's happening across Pinterest and in trending searches. ​

Pinterest also added "compassionate search" to its website, expanding a mental wellness feature that had been available on its app. The feature helps to find activities for emotional well-being when people search for terms like "stress relief," which have tripled in the past few weeks.


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