Not since joining Facebook in 2005 have I been so addicted to checking an online social media site. Pinterest, which can best be described as an online collage site, allows you to post any and all great images you find on the web and share them with either friends or total strangers. It is a daily source of inspiration that allows a user to share and view the things they love. Whether it be a delicious recipe, great book, or beautiful dress, Pinterest allows you to categorize and bookmark great online finds for future reference.
I was first introduced to Pinterest through a friend who is using the site to help plan her upcoming wedding. A popular destination for brides-to-be, Pinterest provides inspiration and serves as a resource for posting images of wedding dresses, color schemes, flowers, or hairstyles for friends and family to preview and comment on.
While brides will flock to the Wedding and Events boards, there is something for everyone on Pinterest. Common boards include Home Decor, Personal Style, Recipes, and Fitness. With searching capabilities by category, user, or key word, there are always new and exciting things to be found on Pinterest. Perhaps Pinterest’s best feature is its ability to sync up a user’s account with their Facebook account, thus linking the user with any of their Facebook friends who are also “pinners.” While Pinterest can connect people who already know each other, it is also a great way to connect with people from all over the world who share similar tastes, interests, or hobbies, and share them on their personal boards.
While Pinterest has not reached anywhere near Facebook’s 845 million users, I believe it has the potential to become one of the most popular online destinations in great thanks to its members’ word of mouth. Instead of checking my Facebook news feed several times a day, I now find myself visiting my favorite Pinterest boards via both my iPhone and iPad Pinterest apps. The one glaringly obvious difference in the growing popularity of Pinterest and the well-established Facebook are their audiences. All 56 of my “followers” on Pinterest are female, as opposed to my several hundred female AND male friends on Facebook. Pinterest has become a woman’s destination to plan her groom-less wedding, decorate her un-bought home, or dress her yet to be conceived children. For reasons unexplained, Pinterest has struck a chord with most 20 and 30-something year old women I know. Unfortunately, until Pinterest is able to appeal to both sexes, it will never reach the popularity of such go-to social media sites as Facebook, Twitter, or tumblr.
Lastly, for anyone interested in joining Pinterest after learning about its many great features, beware that the sign up process can be a long one. A potential user must request an invitation via the website (www.pinterest.com) and then wait for a response from the site with an assigned username and password. While I’ve heard varying reports on how long the lag time can be between requesting a login and actually receiving one, I waited close to three weeks before actually receiving my information. To say I was waiting anxiously would be an understatement. The Pinterest team must come up with a better method for initiating new members if they are to keep up with the growing volume of the site.