Is Pinterest the ‘Next Big Thing’ in Social Media?
Pinterest has been getting a lot of buzz recently. The social network, which is essentially a digital scrapbook that allows users to “pin” things they like across the Internet onto their own personal “boards”, is seeing so much traffic recently that they were launched into the 10th spot in Experian’s list of the most popular social networks. So what is it about the site that is capturing people’s (mostly women’s) attention?
It seems that Pinterest is just the combination in a social network that people have been looking for. Rather than posting long arduous blog posts, or even 140 characters in Twitter, Pinterest allows people to click and go. Find something on the Internet that you want to come back to later, pin it, and move on. It’s quick, easy, and most of all, extremely addictive.
Users can check out other users boards, see what they’ve been pinning and re-pin those things themselves. It’s a community of sharing that can be very personal. Many boards are about cooking (recipes they’ve found) or weddings (dress ideas, locations, etc.), which allows other users to gauge a part of your life from your boards. But what about it exactly makes Pinterest so addictive and intriguing? Yes, they have a wonderful design and have been given a ton of money to run with ($26 million from Andreessen Horowitz, to be exact) but what it really comes down to is that it’s easy and entertaining. It is visually pleasing, easy to add your pins, and it keeps information that you want to reference later in one place.
Although the network is still invite-only (despite being launched in 2010), it has become one of the most popular networks on the Internet and is poised only to grow even more. What do you think? Are you on Pinterest? Addicted? Tell us in the comments!
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