I’m sure everyone’s wondering what’s all this hype about Pinterest, which is basically just a social bookmarking site where users can collect and share photos of their favorite things, activities, interests, etc. So what’s new that has made this photo-sharing site such a rage in a short time?
It lets users create theme-based pinboards for inspiration and idea-sharing! One can either like a picture or re-pin it to their board. Pinterest aims to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things they find interesting.”
The website created by Paul Sciarra, Evan Sharp, and Ben Silbermann is managed by Cold Brew Labs and funded by a small group of entrepreneurs and inventors. The site was launched in March 2010 and was operational on an invite-only basis. Within a year, it had 10,000 users, and the iPhone app’s launch brought in an unexpected amount of downloads.
On 16th Aug 2011, the website was listed among Time Magazine’s “best websites of 2011”. It’s one of the fastest-growing social networks online, third-largest next to Facebook and Twitter. Millions of people are talking about social media’s overnight sensation. Once it reached 10 million users in February in record time, the buzz peaked 373% over 2 months with 119,000 social mentions!
Research from RJ metrics came up with some interesting findings of Pinterest:
- The top source for Pinterest photos is Etsy. However, it only accounts for 3%, and Google images ranked a close second
- 80% of the pictures from the site have been either re-pinned from someone else
- With the recent media hype surrounding Pinterest, user sign-ups have skyrocketed.
So why is Pinterest any different from other photo-sharing sites like Instagram? Although they basically serve the same purpose, the main difference is with the way they’re used. While people use Instagram for sharing personal photos, Pinterest is just about uploading photos that you find interesting on the net.
Instagram allows you to apply filters to photos, while photos on Pinterest cannot be altered and are uploaded in their pure form. Pinterest has a beautiful interface that is inspiring, but its visual layout is better for amazing photos. Another difference is that on Pinterest, who you are is not important but what you like is! Although Instagram has better social integration and shareability, it’s just an iPhone application, but Pinterest is for everyone!
Infographic Transcript
10 Things We Love (And Hate) About Pinterest
The fastest growing social site hit 10M U.S. monthly visits faster than any standalone site – ever.
Over the past year, there were over 5,000,000 conversations about Pinterest across blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and more.
When they hit 10M users on 2/26/2012 Buzz peaked with 119K mentions.
Who is Talking?
Over 60% is in the U.S. and followed by the U.K. which is 10%.
There’s a lot of love for Pinterest, which generates a Net Sentiment of 74 and a Passion Intensity score of 80.
The following percentages represent the breakdowns of the top 5 most Loved and Hated things about Pinterest.
What we love about Pinterest
- Recipe for success: 30% of you talk about your love of recipes on the site. The visuals, matched with social comments, make recipes stand out.
- You’re lookin’ good, Pinterest: 30% of the conversation praised how the site is beautifully designed and easy to use. Simply elegant.
- Prom Queen: 20% of you talk a lot about how quickly Pinterest gained popularity. We’re not ready to put the tiara on you yet, but you are in the running.
- Pinterest, take me away: 10% of you love how easy and stress-free it is to help plan and organize everything
- Decorating
- Shopping
- Crafts
- Weddings
and more
- Adopt Pinterest: 10% of you are amazed at how quickly people use it and how this becomes a part of their daily lives.
Despite the love factor, some of you simply hate a few things about Pinterest.
What we hate about pinterest
- Time vacuum cleaner: Almost 3/4 of you think it’s a huge “time suck,” and you will never get it back.
- Tissues and issues: 1 in 10 of you cry over the technical issues that plague early successful sites like these.
- Spam for Dinner again?: Another 10% of you think that the spam emails through Facebook cross a line.
- Do I need a lawyer?: Some copyright infringement on site has 5% of worried. Don’t worry; we won’t have to Mirandize you yet!
- This isn’t Jerry McGuire: 5% felt there is no money to be made for most businesses with Pinterest – would retailers agree?
