Is Pinterest the Next Big Thing for Social Media?
Pinterest, the virtual pin board site, is gaining popularity with individual users and businesses. For nearly a year now, millions of active users have been on the site and pinning everything from recipes and beauty tutorials to home decorating tips and quotes from famous authors. It is the site with something for everyone; but can it be considered a social media site? Many people would have to say yes, and that may just be the next big thing for social media.
Rising Popularity of Pinterest
Pinterest first began in 2010, but it wasn’t until 2011 that it really took off. For the first few months after launch, there was a waiting list for Pinterest and only certain people could join and use the service. It was very similar to the beginning of Gmail, when people had to be invited into the site by others. In less than two years, Pinterest has grown to have over 25 million unique visitors, with users spending more time on the site than most users spend on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. Pinterest is now being referred to as the third most popular social media site, though the position is a constant battle between Pinterest, Google Plus and YouTube. It went from 1 million users upon launch to 7 million users in a matter of months, and now has more than 25 million users every month.
What People Use Pinterest For
Pinterest is an image-based social media site, so it is a brand new concept and one that hasn’t been done by the other social media giants. Perhaps this is why users have flocked to it so quickly and why it has risen in popularity at a rapid pace. On Pinterest, users create “boards” which are like virtual pin boards. Each board follows particular subject or category, such as books, artwork, home cleaning tips or electronics. Users find images on Pinterest and outside websites and choose an image to pin to a chosen board. Everyone who is either searching through images, viewing their friend’s images, or clicking on categories, will be able to see these boards and pins. This gets the user more social media communication when someone else pins the image, and each pin gets more publicity for the website that the image is linking to.
The Benefit for Businesses
In the beginning, Pinterest was mostly for individual users simply pinning images they liked and products they wanted or have used before. Businesses quickly learned the advantage this had for them. Pinterest has strict policies against spamming, but other users are able to pin an image from a website, which will cause the image to automatically direct people there if someone clicks on the image (pin). What this means for businesses is that you have a unique and free way to get your products seen. Whether you use Pinterest for personal or business reasons, it is going to catch up to the biggest social media sites very soon. Right now it is behind Facebook by a good deal, but is just about caught up to many others.
Pinterest is most suitable for businesses that have a strong visual element in their products or services. Interior design, home wares, food and recipes, fashion and other such businesses can use Pinterest to get their products out to a wide audience. If you’re wondering how best to implement interaction on Pinterest for your business, speak to one of the experts at Infintech designs. They can help you to add Pinterest buttons to your existing website, set up a presence on Pinterest, and manage your interactions on the site. It couldn’t be easier to get started with this powerhouse of social media.
Infintech Designs
3110 Magazine St., #120
New Orleans, LA 70115
Sources:
https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/print-edition/2012/06/29/pinterest-may-be-the-next-big-thing.html?page=all
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222740
