Pinterest, an invite-only social platform that lets you ‘pin’ images of your favorite things, has been around since 2010, but recently it has exploded in popularity. So what is the big deal?
In a nutshell, Pinterest lets you browse countless images of practically anything that interests you, from scrapbooking ideas to sport cars. You can ‘follow’ your friends linked through Facebook and Twitter and create your own ‘pinboards’ to showcase your unique tastes. You can organize your boards to keep track of items you want (or wish) to purchase, as well as less tangible boards that showcase your offbeat (or onbeat) style.
What makes Pinterest so successful is that is so entirely customizable. It is able to cater to many different kinds of people, and let them reflect their own particular style.
In a particularly genius move, you have to be invited in order to participate on Pinterest. This means people spread the word, requesting invites from people already registered on the site. The exclusive “invite only” status makes Pinterest feel exclusive and bit mysterious.
Many people use Pinterest to compile images of products they want to buy, ranging from clothes and shoes to home décor and children’s toys. Some say that Pinterest is no more than a meeting place to display our not-so-secret consumerist tendencies.
But for many, Pinterest runs deeper than that. Users spend hours on Pinterest to discover inspiration for planning a long-awaited wedding, motivation to eat healthy and exercise, striking photography and quotes to uplift the spirit, and a visual way to display what we find beautiful in life.
And since images are so powerful, Pinterest connects with users emotionally. An article called “Can Pinterest Change Your Life?” (from Shape.com) says, “Research has shown that making a ‘vision board’ with pictures of things that inspire you to live healthier are more effective than writing goals on a piece of paper or just resolving to do them in your mind.”
Compiling images that make you feel good and that showcase the values you want to embody is powerful stuff, and Pinterest may have struck gold.
John Bradley Jackson
Entrepreneur, Professor, Author
Deja New Marketing
© Copyright 2012
Pinterest also happens to be the top converting tool for the OC based social good company Sevenly.com – Their founder recently spoke at the OC Social Media Summit and he shared that Pinterest is their favorite tool of choice.