How to avoid hidden agendas on Pinterest

Unsurprisingly, many retail and fashion brands are jumping on the Pinterest band wagon. Fast. The latest brand I’ve noticed penetrating this space is GUESS. Interestingly, I came across the competition on Facebook.

This is a nice example of a brand cross-pollinating to drive traffic to their Pinterest platform, but not all brands, and users, out there are using Pinterest for the greater good.

Integrity vs. Originality?

I think type of competition works well for GUESS in that their encouraging engagement between the user and the brand and making the brand relevant to consumer lifestyles, although not rocket science.

But I would question the integrity of brand simply using Pinterest as another competition platform and creating mindless campaigns with the sole purpose of increasing their following. Which doesn’t really serve that much of a purpose.

The Starbucks’ “Pin this and get a free coffee” campaign is a good example of how not to do it. Yes, it does create a viral spin off for the brand, but simply pinning an image of their logo doesn’t really serve much purpose to a consumer. Yip, people do like free things, but rather develop a campaign around actually engaging with the brand rather than “pinning” the company logo. That’s really on the same level as “like our Facebook page and you can win”.

Cyber attackers sneak in the back door

Besides the unimaginativeness of this kind of campaign, it also opens the door for cyber attackers. Like other social networking sites, Pinterest offers a false sense of legitimacy: if a survey promising free Starbucks is on your friend’s board, surely it’s safe, right?

The objective of the scam is to catch your attention with freebie offers and then once you click on the image it automatically redirects you to a phishing site where you enter personal details into legit-looking surveys.

Needless to say you’ll never receive the promised goods, but the scammers will use your personal details for more nefarious purposes.

So pin with caution. And integrity. And remember your Pinterest etiquette.