I almost hate to tell you about this because it’s not yet available to us, but it’s really freaking cool.
I’m going to tell you and then you’ll have to wait.
But I’m not sure how I feel about it because (as most of you know) I LOVE Pinterest. And this, from what I can tell, will be a direct competitor.
And it’s on the site where a billion of us spend time at least once a week, if not once a day.
Facebook Collections
Yes, that’s right. Facebook is launching what they call “Collections,” which allows you to add “want” and “collect” buttons to your images, automatically creating a wish list where you or your friends and family can buy.
Right now, a few uber brands can add these buttons to their pages so you can want or collect their products to your page.
Facebook says Pottery Barn, Wayfair, Victoria’s Secret, Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus, Smith Optics, and Fab.com will have the first crack at using this new feature.
I checked out the Pottery Barn page and you can see, if you click on the image in their news feed, there is a “want” button.
Then, when I click “want,” a dialogue box appears and asks me to not only share it on my timeline, but I can also decide who sees it.
Pinterest Killer?
I did a webinar yesterday for Social Media Today with Beth Hayden, where we talked a ton about Pinterest, Instagram, and infographics.
During the conversation, ROI came up (of course it did; I was part of the panel) and we discussed not only what a great driver of traffic it is to a blog, but also how much money it can generate for a business.
Twenty-one percent of Pinterest users buy something directly from the visual social network. Which, in and of itself, is pretty impressive.
But our work with clients shows even higher rates. During a three month test this summer, Pinterest (alone) generated $27,427 for their ecommerce site, which was a 60 percent conversion rate.
But with 11 million users on Pinterest, compared to one billion on Facebook, it could be people just stay on one site to do their image browsing, window shopping, and buying.
Now if Facebook bought Pinterest and allowed us to create our wish lists directly from our boards…now that would be something!
In the meantime, keep an eye out for when “want” and “collect” are launched more fully so you can add to your business page.