Now Is the Time to Start Sharing Video on Pinterest

Are you using Pinterest to promote yourself or your business? If so, you’re likely sticking to pinning photos and graphics, like most of the Pinterest community. But word is Pinterest is about to get a whole lot more invested in video, according to a recent Digiday post.

Digiday’s Garett Sloane reports that, according to a number of agencies briefed, “Pinterest is bringing true video ads to its platform, following rival social media sites into this lucrative part of the digital ad industry.”

Pinterest has actually backed the power of video for awhile now. In a 2015 blog post, software engineer Jennifer Tsai wrote, “A picture may be worth a thousands words, but sometimes a video is more effective in communicating emotion and captivating a viewer. For example, I love pinning stills of dancers, but they pale in comparison to videos of entire dance routines.” You can easily pin YouTube and Vimeo links and your videos will play natively within Pinterest.

It’s unclear when Pinterest will launch video ads, but Dave Surgan of advertising agency R/GA expects that before the ad units are launched, Pinterest will need to began focusing on increasing engagement around video in general. Surgan told Sloane, “We expect Pinterest to create better experiences with video, and the ad products will follow.”

What does this mean for you? If you’re already using Pinterest to promote yourself or your business, now is the time to start incorporating video into your strategy. If Surgan is right, Pinterest, like Facebook, is going to start working to ramp up video engagement. Get a head start by posting videos now to find out what type of content works best for you on Pinterest — is it how-tos, photo slideshow videos, or something else? Hone your strategy early on and ride the wave to Pinterest video success.

We’ll be keeping our ears open for updates on the Pinterest video front and keeping you posted with tips and ideas for Pinterest video success. Stay tuned!