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Pinterest recently announced that hashtags are now a working feature on the platform. The announcement will enable Pinners to easily discover new content, as well as ensure their content is seen by more, yet relevant users.
The focus of the announcement is clearly rested on users, however, the clear winner here is Pinterest.
Worst case scenario, Pinners don’t utilize the feature similar to what occurred with the rollout of the feature by Facebook.
The difference here is that for Pinners, utilizing hashtags on the platform is not too foreign of a concept, as tagging is the common practice on the network.
With many winning scenarios possible, the announcement updates actually provide some indication of what Pinterest would ideally like to see happen with Pinterest hashtags:
1. Pinners are recommended to utilize “no more than 20 hashtags” and to be descriptive as possible.
What this really tells us:
Pinterest would like a robust dataset offering per pin, but has likely figured out internally that anything beyond 20 hashtags is territory of the non-relevant. Building out robust search capabilities by utilizing the behaviors of social media users is tricky, and instructing Pinners to be succinct, yet descriptive, is a strong boundary to establish.
2. Recommended hashtag use has been split into 2 categories: ‘timely’ and ‘evergreen’.
What this really tells us:
Pinterest wants what Twitter and Instagram have struggled with: getting usage of both. Twitter is ‘of the moment’, with examples of “evergreen” hashtags being the ones that occur weekly (i.e. #MondayMotivation). Instagram has more success with both categories than Twitter, but the #blessed users do have their staples that they primarily stuck to.
Pinterest has the chance to generate more even distribution with this direction.
3. Promoted Pins won’t show up in Hashtag feeds yet (mostly)
What this really tells us:
Pinterest wants to see if Pinners will actually use the feature, plain and simple. Pinterest is more inclined to test and learn, as opposed to dropping a new feature and going straight to ads. Thus, Pinterest wants the data to support the additional targeting that advertisers will require.
Getting their toes wet, however, is where the “mostly” comes into play. Brands can put hashtags on an organic post which they then promoted and there’s a chance that pin will be distributed in the hashtag feeds.
Hashtags are nothing new, but for what Pinterest is trying to build, it’s worth paying attention to. As the platform continues their announcements it’ll be interesting to see what they’re really telling us.
It’s clear that although the announcement is user-focused, Pinterest is hoping for a big #win on the platform.