Pinterest, the visual discovery social media platform, has been rolling out a slew of changes to its user interface for quite some time now. Some instances include the facility to save pins quickly with the help of the long press, and the feature to categorise pins into meaningful sections. In the face of stiff competition, these moves are stamping its growing authority on the social media landscape.
One more exciting addition is the new collaboration tools introduced by Pinterest. As per a recently released news item, the company has expanded the functionality and efficacy of its group-based activity feature through these collaboration tools. The tools are launched on the platform’s group boards; the facility allows users to have conversations with other members of the board with the help of the new group activity feed.
What are the new changes?
With the new group collaboration tools, users are now able to keep better track of new Pins added to the group. They can also be updated about new member activity. You can bring in other Pins into the group by sharing conversations about these specific pins which will be in turn, shared with all group members. Users can initiate discussion threads and conversations with the help of the Likes and @mentions. Since this action is happening within the group the conversation around it will be restricted to just the group and non-group members will not have access to the same on their feeds.
The working is similar to Facebook’s group facility. Just like that feature, Pinterest group boards now allows members to add posts, comment, and like on the posts.
Why the need for these changes?
Pinterest felt that there are a lot of users who may want to use group boards to plan parties, events, or collaborate on projects. In response to the requests from such users, Pinterest has made these additions. With these updates, it aims to enhance the quality of interactions that happen on the site. There are many conversations that pinners don’t want their full network to have access to. They would require just a select group of members (family, chosen friends, or office colleagues) for the same.
From a business perspective, there might be not much in terms of value that emanates from these new collaboration tools. However staunch supporters of well-known brands may go ahead and create their own closed group to share stories and happenings around the brand. If your brand is pre-dominantly on Pinterest then it would make perfect sense to invest the time and efforts to set up the group and manage conversations happening within it.
The effect of the changes brought about by Pinterest is starting to bear dividends. As per recent market research reports, Pinterest’s following is growing at a better rate than competitor platforms like Snapchat and Twitter. This shows that from a user acceptance point of view these changes are adopted very well by the users, which in turn, explains the better engagement levels enjoyed by the platform.
