By Chris Lee

Social sharing site Pinterest has enjoyed astronomical growth since its launch in March 2010 and is now the 20^th most-visited site in the US (Alexa.com, Feb 2012). The site is an invitation-only network which its founders say “lets you organise and share all the beautiful things you find on the web”.

The highly-visual site allows users to “pin” content of interest to them to the Pinterest wall and share that with millions of other users.

Elle Macgregor-Chatwin, associate consultant at PR firm Fishburn Hedges, told NMK that Pinterest’s key appeal was that it offered a visual experience with no need for words.

“People can browse content at their leisure without having to put the same amount of 'effort' in as they do with text-heavy Facebook and Twitter,” she said. “The online experience is increasingly moving towards images over text, and we will continue to see this trend with the rise of mobile and tablet browsing. The Daily Mail's website is the most visited website in the world and arguably its biggest asset is its celebrity image gallery. Pinterest has been designed with this knowledge in mind, and with 7.5 million monthly average users at present, there is huge potential for this to be a platform that continues to grow.”

The new influencers

Currently, Pinterest’s core user base is female (54-70 per cent, according to comScore) and the vast majority of the platform uptake is in the United States.

According to Jonny Rosemont, head of social media at search/social agency DBD Media, in the US at least the site is being seen as a decent referrer of traffic to websites, better than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube - according to a report by Shareaholic.

“Pinterest's usage is being driven by creatives and other early adopters sharing things that interest or inspire them - e.g. things they want to buy, food, great photography, fashion, quotes, wedding ideas, designs, books, videos etc.,” Rosemont said. “Brands’ products, venues etc. are being shared - they should be aware of this, to find out what specifically is of interest to people and whether influential people are ‘pinning’ them. They might be influential on the platform itself or wider afield.”

Brand involvement

Given the wealth of content available on Pinterest, what are the opportunities for brands to seed content on the site?

As Bliss Hanlin, community manager at social media management agency eModeration, explains, Pinterest “is about individual expression and sharing, not about selling or broadcasting. Pinterest’s Etiquette Guide stresses that self-promotion is frowned upon.   You’ll notice as you dive into the Pinterest platform that there is no easy way to search for a brand as a voice.”

Fishburn-Hedges’ Chatwin concluded that for marketers with small budgets, unlike Twitter and Facebook, Pinterest displays a visual impression person's interests immediately, without the need to dig deeper. Another benefit of this format, she argues, is that users don’t feel spied on in the same way as many people do with Facebook's targeted adverts.

“To be a user on Pinterest, all you need is an email address to verify your account, and the user can remain as anonymous as they like. As a result, people are happier to openly share content of interest with other users, because the worry of giving away too much personal information isn’t there. Which is great news for marketers,” she told NMK. “While Pinterest doesn't have advertising channels at present, it's inevitable that this will be rolled out in the near future, and I imagine people will be more receptive to, or perhaps just 'less annoyed', by targeted marketing on Pinterest.”