What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is the newest blogging site that incorporates the use of social media and personal expression to create one of the biggest blogging sites around. The mission of Pinterest is:
“Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.”
Pinterest is a site that only allows for users to be invited to join the site or one must request an invite. Once one has joined the site they are able to create boards in specific categories and “pin” specific pictures already available on the site. Pinners are then able to label what their pinning categories are such as wedding, style, inspirations, humor, food, work out and many more. Pinterest main goal is for to allow users to be inspired and show their personalities and self-expression through pins and their boards. What makes Pinterest different from many other blogging sites is the availability of being able to not only see a product but go directly to the website it’s showcased on to purchase or view more items similar to the product shown on Pinterest. This promotional tactic is now being used by many businesses today and has been very powerful when creating new business for themselves. Retailers are the top businesses who have thrived due to this part of Pinterest being available. Retailers now have the ability to post a picture of a piece of clothing and have the link from that go directly to the page it is shown on their own website with the hopes of their being a purchase made by a customer.
Pinterest is the newest blogging site that incorporates the use of social media and personal expression to create one of the biggest blogging sites around. The mission of Pinterest is:
“Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.”
Pinterest is a site that only allows for users to be invited to join the site or one must request an invite. Once one has joined the site they are able to create boards in specific categories and “pin” specific pictures already available on the site. Pinners are then able to label what their pinning categories are such as wedding, style, inspirations, humor, food, work out and many more. Pinterest main goal is for to allow users to be inspired and show their personalities and self-expression through pins and their boards. What makes Pinterest different from many other blogging sites is the availability of being able to not only see a product but go directly to the website it’s showcased on to purchase or view more items similar to the product shown on Pinterest. This promotional tactic is now being used by many businesses today and has been very powerful when creating new business for themselves. Retailers are the top businesses who have thrived due to this part of Pinterest being available. Retailers now have the ability to post a picture of a piece of clothing and have the link from that go directly to the page it is shown on their own website with the hopes of their being a purchase made by a customer.
"It hadn't occurred to me that
such an online service also would be a window into me for my husband who sees
me every day,” The Wall Street Journal (Pinterest.com). This quote indicates how many people feel
about the impact Pinterest has made on personal lives today.
History of
Pinterest
The history of Pinterest if fairly brief and came from a simple
idea, an online catalog. This idea seems simple, just make an online catalog of
numerous different pictures available to consumers to look at though the
founders and investors. It was officially started in December 2009 but not
officially put out to the world until March 2009 (We <3-Pinteest. Ed. Rachel Devine). The founders
found a group of investors who
saw that this new blogging site could be the next best thing and began to
invest. Ben Silbermann was the main developer and in charge of
finding the people willing to take a leap and invest in the company. The site
did take a slow start and until 2011 did it began to be recognized within the
field and have the social media people in the world began their obsession of
“pinning.”
Why research Pinterest?
Pinterest is the newest phenomenon to come over from social media and with 104 million visits in March of this year. That makes Pinterest the third most visited social networking site in the United States (Suttner, J. Pinterest is the third most visited social site). Since the website has become ever so popular I believe it is important to understand why they are so powerful and if they will end up being a successful social media site and continue to grow as much as Facebook & Twitter. The other impact I would like to investigate is how consumers are using Pinterest to gain an edge against their competition. The newest trends are for companies to have their own pin board to attract consumers and to have their products pinned.
Why research Pinterest?
Pinterest is the newest phenomenon to come over from social media and with 104 million visits in March of this year. That makes Pinterest the third most visited social networking site in the United States (Suttner, J. Pinterest is the third most visited social site). Since the website has become ever so popular I believe it is important to understand why they are so powerful and if they will end up being a successful social media site and continue to grow as much as Facebook & Twitter. The other impact I would like to investigate is how consumers are using Pinterest to gain an edge against their competition. The newest trends are for companies to have their own pin board to attract consumers and to have their products pinned.
Literature Review
The argument on how
successful Pinterest will truly be has been a debate for many bloggers and
professionals. Although, Pinterest was found in 2010 up until September of 2011
did it take off and have over a million users (Falls, Jason. How
Pinterest is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media Busines). There isn’t exact data to show why Pinterest
suddenly too out but many social media experts believe that promotions,
uniqueness and the biggest possibility being that there is a never ending
possibilities of pins available to consumers.
"For
me, it's the new Google," said Miranda Hahn, co-founder of the Pinterest
Project (Evangelista, Benny. Pinterest's fast growth driven by women). The new is a very proud and encouraging
statement to make about a new website. This statement connects with many other
pinners who believe that they are truly able to find whatever they are looking
for throughout the website.. Hahn and another cofounder started the blog
Pinterest Project to discuss their failures and successes through creating the
Pinterest Project website. This blog has the tagline of, “A pin a day keeps the
crazy away” (The
Pinterest Project).
The
Pinterest Project’s main goal is to showcase the top pins off Pinterest to
their blogger subscriber’s daily. This unique idea has continued to grow off
the Pinterest website.
The
success of Pinterest may have grown due to the merging of Pinterest and
Facebook. Through this new development on is now able to put their “pins” on
Facebook to show their friends as well. And since Pinterest became one of the
apps that plug in to Facebook's Timeline member profiles in February, the
number of Facebook users visiting the site every day has jumped by 60 percent (Evangelista, Benny. Pinterest's fast growth driven by women).
This incredible data number really helps people understand the large impact
that Pinterest is having in the social media world. As most people know
Facebook is the largest social media website in the United States and has
record numbers as the number of users that go on the site daily. If Pinterest
is now acquiring some of Facebook’s followers it is fair to say that the site
will continue to grow daily. Not only has Pinterest linked up with Facebook but
they’ve also now grown a friendship with Twitter to allow for pins to be
showcased on Twitter feeds of pinners. The sharing ability on numerous sites it
yet again another unique setting that makes Pinterest different than many other
social media sites available in the world today.
Scott Brave recently
released and article explaining the important of Pinterest and why it has been
such a popular new source of social media. The article is called, “Pinterest,
We got a business model for you.” Brave looked into the product themes, cluster
theme and product-to-product information that is displayed throughout
Pinterest. Brave is the current chief of technology offer at Baynote, a
California based Software Company that specialized in web search and
recommendation for specific service products. Brave agreements are specifically
targeted at the point of Pinterest needing to learn and understand how valuable
their information is for retailers concerning their products available on the
site.
Brave’s argument is
consistent throughout the article when speaking of the specific topics such as
how retailers need to see the obvious affinity for the connection between
products and themes available on the site. Users of the site are putting
together specific products under their own themes which helps gives retailers
specific insight on the different ways they use their products and in return
gives retailers and idea on how to market their products. The next topic Brave
covers is about the cluster of themes available to be analyzed is how people
express their affinity for products within a category. Retailers and marketers
would be able to better understand specific demographics of people who are
pinning their passion for their products. Pinterest is able to give businesses
exactly what they’ve wanted to know, the exact target market of their product
and accurately understand what else they’re interested in. The final topic that
Brave covers is product-to-product information. For the first time retailers
would be able to see through Pinterest how their target market compares their product
to another product through a consumers board on Pinterest. This would
potentially be able to assist retailers in see if they should add something
different to their product or join forces with a product similar to theirs that
would complement their product (Brave, S. Pinterest, We’ve got a business model
for you).
The problem is that
retailers and businesses don’t understand that the information on Pinterest
would potentially help their business grow even more if Pinterest would be able
to market their information available. Brave definitely has the right idea to
keep pushing forward the “Pinterest Business Plan” idea.
Methodology
The best way to understand how consumers have been reacting to Pinterest
and the primary reason that it is used would be to do a survey to evaluate the
people using it today. I decided to survey some of my Facebook friends in
addition to family members and friends. I was trying to digest from the survey
a demographic range and find out the specific reasons people you Pinterest. The
questions I asked are as follows:
·
How
often do you go on Pinterest?
·
What
is the primary reason you use Pinterest?
·
How
man Pinterest boards do you have?
·
What
is your favorite pin category?
·
What
is the primary reason you use Pineterest?(specifics)
·
What
is your gender?
·
What
is your age range?
·
Do
you believe Pinterest will grow in the future?
·
Do
you take ideas from Pinterest and use them in your daily life?
·
What
types of pinners do you follow?
A
method that I also found to be very efficient was by trying to find any
articles that have any interest in Pinterest as a new upcoming social media
website and company. Having the ability to find addition statistics about why
people are using Pinterest and why they believe it is becoming a powerhouse in
the social media world was very beneficial to this paper. The one struggle that
I found when writing this paper was not being able to find the exact statistics
that I needed to prove how popular that Pinterest is. Their were numerous blogs
available stating opinions but not nearly as many articles as I believed would
be available for research.
Results:
The
main purpose of this survey was to draw from my peer theirs direct thoughts and
uses for Pinterest within their lives. Reading statistics about what types of
people go on Pinterest and use it most are people that fit within my
demographic of friends. My survey had a total of 59 respondents. As follows are
the top results that I’ve acquired from my survey:
1) How
often do you use Pinterest?
a. 31%
daily
2) What
is the primary reason you use Pinterest?
a. 44.8%
New Ideas
3) How
man Pinterest boards do you have?
a. 36.2%
5-6 Boards
4) What
is your favorite pin category?
a. 17.2%
Weddings
5) What
is the primary reason you use Pineterest?(specifics)
a. 50.9%
New Ideas
6) What
is your gender?
a. 89.8%
Female
7) What
is your age range?
a. 54.2%
22-25 years old
8) Do
you believe Pinterest will grow in the future?
a. 87.9%
Yes
9) Do
you take ideas from Pinterest and use them in your daily life?
a. 66.1%
Few Times
10) What
types of pinners do you follow?
a. 98.2%
Friends
What
these results have shown me is that the statistics available are very accurate
when deciding who is using Pinterest most in the social media sites today. The
survey has reinforced the fact that wedding and event planning is the most used
and popular pins and boards on the site, which I found on numerous blogs
sitting that Pinterest is now a site for planning your own wedding. Another
statistic I found to be quite accurate is that the website it used primarily
for women in the world today. The fact that only 6 males took this survey
versus the 59 total survey takers shows that woman are building this site for
what is today. Daily usage is also very popular for most people, I’ve noticed
that many of my friends go on just for a while to clear their mind and relax,
just the same as many people do with Facebook today.
I
believe that my survey was very effective and helpful towards better
understanding the influence of Pinterest in the world today. The one part I
wish that I could have added was to better understand what people direct
thoughts of Pinterest and have a comments section attached to the survey.
Conclusion:
After doing this research paper on
Pinterest I’ve been able to better understand how powerful Pinterest has become
in the social media world. The numerous awards they have currently acquired and
recognition by fellow social media professionals. The success that is to come
for Pinterest is truly going to be outstanding. There are no direct competitors
available right now in the terms of a specific blogging site similar on the web
thus far. With the teaming up of the most popular social media sites of Facebook
and Twitter, Pinterest is virtually unstoppable at this point.
References:
Brave,
Scott. Pinterest, we've got a business model for you. Gigaom, 24 Mar.
2012. Web. 9 May 2012. <http://gigaom.com/2012/03/24/pinterest-weve-got-a-business-model-for-you/>.
Evangelista, Benny. Pinterest's fast
growth driven by women. SFGate, 28 Feb. 2012. Web. 9 May 2012. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/27/BU2D1NBP0J.DTL>.
Falls, Jason. How Pinterest is
Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media Business. Entrepreneur , 7 Feb. 2012. Web. 9 May
2012. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222740>.
Pinterest.
N.p., 2012. Web. 9 May 2012. <http://pinterest.com/>.
Sutter, John. Report: Pinterest is third most-visited social site. CNN.com, 6 Apr. 2012. Web. 9 May 2012. <http://articles.cnn.com/2012-04-06/tech/tech_social-media_pinterest-third social-network_1_social-networking-facebook-and-twitter-social-media?_s=PM:TECH>.
Sutter, John. Report: Pinterest is third most-visited social site. CNN.com, 6 Apr. 2012. Web. 9 May 2012. <http://articles.cnn.com/2012-04-06/tech/tech_social-media_pinterest-third social-network_1_social-networking-facebook-and-twitter-social-media?_s=PM:TECH>.
The Pinterest Project. Pinterest, n.d. Web. 9 May 2012.
<http://pinterest-project.blogspot.com/>.
We <3-Pinteest. Ed. Rachel Devine. Beyond Snapshots,
2011. Web. 9 May 2012. <http://www.beyond-snapshots.com/blog/2011/02/23/we-%E2%99%A5-pinterest/>.
Survey
Results:
|
|
Page: 1
|
|
answered
question
|
58
|
|
|
|
skipped
question
|
1
|
|
|
|
Response
Percent |
Response
Count |
|
|
once a day
|
|
31.0%
|
18
|
|
twice a day
|
|
15.5%
|
9
|
|
more than 3 times a day
|
|
12.1%
|
7
|
|
once a week
|
|
15.5%
|
9
|
|
once a month
|
|
25.9%
|
15
|
|
|
answered
question
|
58
|
|
|
|
skipped
question
|
1
|
|
|
|
Response
Percent |
Response
Count |
|
|
Procrastination
|
|
10.3%
|
6
|
|
New ideas
|
|
44.8%
|
26
|
|
Self Expression
|
|
3.4%
|
2
|
|
Just for fun
|
|
41.4%
|
24
|
|
|
answered
question
|
58
|
|
|
|
skipped
question
|
1
|
|
|
|
Response
Percent |
Response
Count |
|
|
1-2
|
|
17.2%
|
10
|
|
3-4
|
|
10.3%
|
6
|
|
5-6
|
|
36.2%
|
21
|
|
6-7
|
|
10.3%
|
6
|
|
8+
|
|
25.9%
|
15
|
|
|
answered
question
|
58
|
|
|
|
skipped
question
|
1
|
|
|
|
Response
Percent |
Response
Count |
|
|
Architecture
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Art
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Cars & Motorcycles
|
|
1.7%
|
1
|
|
Design
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Crafts
|
|
13.8%
|
8
|
|
Education
|
|
1.7%
|
1
|
|
Film, Music & Books
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Fitness
|
|
8.6%
|
5
|
|
Food & Drink
|
|
13.8%
|
8
|
|
Gardening
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Greek
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Hair & Beauty
|
|
5.2%
|
3
|
|
History
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Holidays
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Home Decor
|
|
10.3%
|
6
|
|
Humor
|
|
6.9%
|
4
|
|
Kids
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
My Life
|
|
3.4%
|
2
|
|
Women's Apparel
|
|
10.3%
|
6
|
|
Men's Apparel
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Outdoors
|
|
1.7%
|
1
|
|
People
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Pets
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Photography
|
|
1.7%
|
1
|
|
Prints & Posters
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Products
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Science & Nature
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Sports
|
|
1.7%
|
1
|
|
Technology
|
|
1.7%
|
1
|
|
Travel & Places
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
Wedding & Events
|
|
17.2%
|
10
|
|
Other
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
|
answered
question
|
57
|
|
|
|
skipped
question
|
2
|
|
|
|
Response
Percent |
Response
Count |
|
|
Procrastination
|
|
12.3%
|
7
|
|
New ideas
|
|
50.9%
|
29
|
|
Self Expression
|
|
5.3%
|
3
|
|
Just for fun
|
|
31.6%
|
18
|
|
|
answered
question
|
59
|
|
|
|
skipped
question
|
0
|
|
|
|
Response
Percent |
Response
Count |
|
|
Male
|
|
10.2%
|
6
|
|
Female
|
|
89.8%
|
53
|
|
|
answered
question
|
59
|
|
|
|
skipped
question
|
0
|
|
|
|
Response
Percent |
Response
Count |
|
|
18-21
|
|
42.4%
|
25
|
|
22-25
|
|
54.2%
|
32
|
|
26-35
|
|
1.7%
|
1
|
|
36-50
|
|
0.0%
|
0
|
|
50+
|
|
1.7%
|
1
|
|
|
answered
question
|
58
|
|
|
|
skipped
question
|
1
|
|
|
|
Response
Percent |
Response
Count |
|
|
yes
|
|
87.9%
|
51
|
|
no
|
|
5.2%
|
3
|
|
undecided
|
|
6.9%
|
4
|
|
|
answered
question
|
59
|
|
|
|
skipped
question
|
0
|
|
|
|
Response
Percent |
Response
Count |
|
|
once
|
|
5.1%
|
3
|
|
a few times
|
|
66.1%
|
39
|
|
all the time
|
|
20.3%
|
12
|
|
never
|
|
8.5%
|
5
|
|
|
answered
question
|
57
|
|
|
|
skipped
question
|
2
|
|
|
|
Response
Percent |
Response
Count |
|
|
Company's
|
|
22.8%
|
13
|
|
Magazines
|
|
10.5%
|
6
|
|
Retail Stores
|
|
10.5%
|
6
|
|
Friends
|
|
98.2%
|
56
|
|
Family
|
|
36.8%
|
21
|
|
Never met the person
|
|
31.6%
|
18
|
