Pinterest Launches 'Interests': Personalized Pins for Users

Pinterest just got a whole lot smarter.

Today, the popular social network launched a new feature called "Interests." In Pinterest's words, the feature enables you to "explore interests specially designed to help you find Pins you like."

Basically, it's Pinterest's version of recommended content. Users can access Interests via the menu -- the same place you'd find all the pre-existing category options to peruse pins about animals, food & drink, sports, etc. So what's so different about Interests? Didn't those existing categories reflect different interests already?

Yes, but not really. Compared to Pinterest's pre-populated broader categories, Interests is much more personalized and specific: It's essentially a recommended content feature that suggests pins to users based on the content they've already shown interest in.

Pin a lot about dachshunds and Chihuahuas? Chances are, Pinterest will present you with a "small dogs" category on your personal Interests page. Click into it, and you'll likely find a smorgasbord of pins about small dogs. 

Here's how my personal Interests page looks, for instance:

As you can see, my Interest categories include "Irish beef stews," "dining chairs," and "newborn photos." Makes sense, considering I pin frequently about recipes, home decor, and babies (I'm pregnant). I also tend to repin adorable photos of baby animals when I come across them, which is also pretty evident. 

What's more, Interests get smarter over time the more you use Pinterest. Pretty neat. Try it out for yourself on your desktop. Pinterest indicates it'll also be rolling the feature out to mobile soon.

Context is here to stay.

Aside from continuing to follow general Pinterest marketing best practices and making sure your pins are keyword-friendly, I'll admit there's not really a clear, actionable marketing takeaway here.

But what is notable about this feature update is its alignment with the "trend" toward a more contextual web -- although I think we can all agree it's less of a trend than a developing standard at this point. Context makes the internet a much more useful and relevant place for users -- which begs the question: Have you thought about what it can do for your marketing?

If you haven't, this might pique your interest: We looked at data for more than 93,000 calls-to-action created in the last year using HubSpot, which had collectively received hundreds of millions of views. What we found was that calls-to-action which dynamically changed to be more relevant to the viewer had a 42% higher view-to-submission rate than calls-to-action that were the same for all visitors. 

As Pinterest seems to understand with the addition of Interests, context matters -- especially in marketing. So while this news may just seem like a small step in the right direction for Pinterest, I urge you to think about its grander implications for your marketing.