Pinterest has left a mark in social media. It will never match up Facebook, but it has managed to come with a new concept that lured in many visitors. Now, it seems that the giant Facebook has become interested in “borrowing” the pin idea from Pinterest. Mark Zuckerberg & Co have started testing the “collections” feature, that will basically help retailers and businesses leverage the power of Facebook posts wit the help of “want/collect” buttons. Thus, their profiles will look “pinteresque”.
Facebook is working on want/collect buttons
This is definitely a move that’s meant to bring more revenue to Facebook, after a rather lousy IPO. Thus, there are bigger chances of seeing the want/collect button sooner than the “who viewed my profile” one. Facebook says that this new feature is “unrelated” to Pinterest, but it’s very, very hard to say that they didn’t copy anybody. Here’s what Facebook told TechCrunch:
We’ve seen that businesses often use Pages to share information about their products through photo albums. Today, we are beginning a small test in which a few select businesses will be able to share information about their products through a feature called Collections. Collections can be discovered in News Feed, and people will be able to engage with these collections and share things they are interested in with their friends. People can click through and buy these items off of Facebook.
Retailers and online businesses will basically add these button to their news feeds about products. Interested users will then be able to click these button and probably add the products’ images to a dedicated gallery or Wishlist. I find this move very logic and natural and mark my words – Facebook is going to be successful with this one. Just think about it – how many times you wanted something, but then you forgot about it? Let’s say you follow such brands as “Adidas”, “Asus”, “Gucci” or whatever. And when they release a new product or they promote something interesting, you’ll be able to add that product to your Collection.
At the moment, Pottery Barn, Wayfair, Victoria’s Secret, Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus, Smith Optics, and Fab.com are the retailers that can now share Collections posts to their fans. Facebook will not be getting fees for those clicks but this new feature, if successful, will definitely attract more businesses and they will buy Facebook ads. But the most important button for everybody will definitely be the “Buy” one. And you will see these special posts only if you’re following the company or your friends interact with it.