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According to a user survey that attempts to pin down reasons for using Facebook and Pinterest, the latter is (probably not surprisingly) the preferred platform for "associating" with brands, keeping tracked of trends, and discovering special offers from favorite retailers. However, buying "inspiration" is the biggest divide for online shoppers between the two social networks and the difference massive: 70% of the 7,431 online shoppers surveyed named "to get inspiration for what to buy" as their number one use of Pinterest while only 17% named Facebook for that category.
But as the number crunchers over at Mashable point out, while Pinterest motivates more online purchases, Facebook still has a wider reach (over 1 billion users) and drives more traffic to websites than the photo-sharing website. Here's hoping the "Want" button on Facebook goes over well. That's a lot of shopping potential to harness.
· Pinterest Tops Facebook in Driving Ecommerce [Mashable]
· Zappos Introduces a Pinterest Shopping Feature, But How Does It Work? [Racked]
· As Brands Put More Resources Into Social Media, You Can Expect a Harder Sell [Racked]