Last week saw the announcement of Pinterest as the third most popular social network in the United States. This means the longstanding number three spot holder, LinkedIn, is now sitting in fourth place. Over a third of all online consumers are aware of at least one of the most popular social image sharing sites with Pinterest the most common, and a quarter of these people have purchased something they saw on one of these sites (article here).
Social media site popularity should naturally change over time, but Pinterest has grown very quickly. The website only launched a year ago, in April of 2011. Traffic increased 50% from January to February 2012 alone.
But, wait, what is Pinterest? According to the website:
Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard.
Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.
Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.
Most fascinating is that the site minimizes user interaction and yet is one of the most popular social spaces. It fits a real need for people who want to be inspired, save inspiration, and even organize it. However, the user base is more likely to be female. Women are drawn to the network to be inspired. There are certainly men in the space, just not necessarily with the same passion. In fact, I have seen several posts by men in Facebook saying they “don’t get it.” Considering people once said the same about Facebook, Pinterest must be doing things right.
In addition, Pinterest can be a lot of fun for businesses. If Pinterest fits into your brand personality, it could help expose you to new customers in fun ways. There is even some preliminary research about how to share:
- Make sure images are beautiful
- Make sure images are uncluttered
- Don’t put price with image, let interested people add the price
- Follow other social media guidelines for not overwhelming people
