Are Valentine's Day Card Makers Losing Business from Social Media?

Considering how easy it is to share and curate content through social media, it is also easy to promote independent bloggers and even businesses on sharing sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and currently Pinterest. But with all of the competition out there, how do they get readers to their site?

These bloggers AND companies offer “free printables” that they designed and uploaded to entice people to come to their site. For example, if you go to Pinterest and type in “free printables” or “freebies” you'll be surprised with how many you'll come across.

Valentine's Day is approaching and you will also be amazed at how many free Valentine's Day cards, posters, stickers, etc. are offered. So, how does this affect Valentine's Day card sales?

Of course, the greeting card industry might have been threatened by substitutes like e-cards in the past, but will free Valentine's Day cards have a real impact on greeting card sales?

The Greeting Card Association says in their recent press release that they expect Valentine's Day card sales to hold steady this year from last year's estimate of 160 million cards. But with sites like Picasa, Photobucket, Picnik, Photoshop and other free or cheap photo editing sites, is it possible that people will stop spending $4 on cards for their lover or child and print off cute, free ones? These photo editing sites make it easy for even a non-experienced designer to create printables.

My guess is is that not enough consumers will stop buying Valentine's Day cards to really make an impact in greeting card sales, but it would be interesting to see the statistics after V-day if sales fell. I suspect there could be many factors in an increase or fall of Valentine's cards, but the way things are looking for Pinterest fans is that their money will be going to Fed Ex Office or printer ink (if you own a printing company, take notes!)