As an online marketing professional, I’ve been reading a lot of buzz about how Pinterest is the next big thing for social media. From the articles, I just wasn’t getting the the concept – pinboards where you pin stuff you love… Sounded simple enough but how could that compete with Facebook or Twitter?
So, I decided to check it out. I went to the site, requested an invite and two days later, there was the email welcoming me with open arms. Creating a username and password took all of about thirty seconds and then I was ready to start ‘pinning.’ Figuring out what I loved enough to want to share my feelings with the world took a bit longer.
I made a single board, “Books worth reading twice” and posted one book, “The Hobbit.” I emphasized that I really liked the book because I’ve read it more than a dozen times. Within an hour, I had five ‘repins’ and/or ‘likes.’ All of them were from women.
The articles that I had read indicated that about 70% of the subscribers to Pinterest are women. Speaking analytically as a marketer, out of the 30% of the men on Pinterest, I would speculate that there is a sizeable showing from the gay community. There aren’t many places other than bridal shows that have that high of a concentration of women. Yet most of the articles kept emphasizing that Twitter and Facebook needed to keep an eye on Pinterest to protect their share of time people spend online on their sites. Given my extremely brief history on the site, I think Match.com, the supermarket and according to 30 Rock, the parking lot at Ikea all have more to fear from the new social media sensation.
Match.com and eHarmony may have scientific compatability studies on their side and when you go to the supermarket you can see if a woman likes the same kind of food that you do but on Pinterest, you get to see all of the things she loves and cares enough about to share with the world.
TIP to guys in a relationship: Need to get your wife or girlfriend something great for Valentine’s Day? See what she’s posted recently on Pinterest for some really good ideas.
In my opinion, Pinterest has a good chance of becoming the most popular place online where old-fashioned romance isn’t dead. You don’t fill out a giant questionaire and then get a list of matches; there’s a subtlety to reading into a collection of pinboards with random objects grouped together that requires a certain amount of intuition and sensitivity to interpret. Then, you ‘follow’ the person and eventually she has to file a restraining order. But until then, you glean amazing insights into what a woman is all about and if she’s following you, she get’s the same opportunity.
Seriously, I pinned one thing that practically screamed, “I’m a giant nerd that really likes fantasy books,” and there were five women who ‘liked’ the pin… Granted Tolkien is pretty awesome, but I now know that there are at least five women who agree. Maybe I should pin some more things on my board and see what happens…
I’ve honestly been a little surprised that I have yet to see any mainstream articles drawing this same comparison which to my own chagrin means that I’m the opportunistic weasel leading the charge! Pinterest, please add a relationship status to your profiles so I can at least keep from approaching married women.
