Everyone’s Talking About It – Should I Jump on the Pinterest Train?

I know, I know – if you’ve heard of it you are probably sick of it – it’s the next big thing in a launch-heavy world where everyone is looking for the next buzz or fix that they can latch onto. If you are a man you probably know it as ‘that site that women like’ (80% of users are said to be women) and if you are a woman you are probably bristling at what that actually might infer.

But Pinterest has already reached 11.7 unique monthly users, and it is still invitation-only and only two years into development; it has passed the 10 million user mark faster than any other social media site; and it is somehow immediately compelling, probably based on the fact it is instant and visual, provoking an immediate emotional rather than rational response.

I’ve collected together a number of the most useful articles I have seen about the site, here’s a list to help you find out more:

• A Beginner’s Guide to the Basics from Mashable, from December last year;


• A comprehensive guide from the excellent Francisco Rosales at Social Mouths, Everything you need to know about Pinterest;


• Pinning Down Creative Social Media: Pinterest Reaches 11 Million Users by Matthew Tucker in the Huffington Post discusses the speed of the sites growth, and links to many further articles;


• Mashable again, looking at 5 Ways Brands Can Use Pinterest to Boost Consumer Engagement, showing a variety of examples of compelling uses;


• And coming up soon, which has to be worth a look, is a new 30 Day Pinterest Challenge by Nikki Pilkington and Sarah Arrow. If this one is as good as the rest of Nikki’s stable of guides and challenges, it will be very good indeed, feeding you a challenge a day to master the different aspects fo the site and how you can make it work for your business.

Do you like what you see? Pinterest is a very visual interface, it is immediate and engaging, and has shown to be an excellent source of referring traffic to websites. If all this has whetted your appetite, you need to consider whether the site is good for you personally or for your business.

Do you have time to support activity on this site, will you need to stop doing something else in order to fit it in, and what will it give you that other activity cannot. Think about this when you are considering whether it would be a good addition to your online activity, and whether it is worth investing the time here to drive improved results.

If you haven’t seen the site yet and would like an invite, let me know; if you area member you can follow my pins here. Let me know what you think about the site, I would love to hear in the comments below.