Pinterest: The New Powerhouse of Social Media

If you are the type of person who is inspired by visuals more than text, enjoys interacting with others through images, learns best when provided with clear, visual instructions, or who is interested in new ways of advertising, then Pinterest is the site for you.

Pinterest has over 10 million monthly visitors, making it one of the fastest growing social media sites since social media took the world by storm. What makes it stand out from all the other social media sites? Its use of visuals: visuals clarify communication and make the message that much more direct and to the point. A visually-driven form of communication is incredibly effective because receivers of this communication can, and do, insert themselves into a highly targeted communication process.

What’s more, Pinterest is the easiest social media site to browse: it provides an instant gratification not found on other sites. While Facebook and Twitter require you to friend others and compose posts and tweets in order to participate and use the sites to your advantage, Pinterest arguably requires nothing more than a healthy dose of curiosity. You can have more anonymity, should you so choose, and can peek around and select what best defines you.

The Pleasures of Pinterest:

What exactly is it about Pinterest that makes it at once so successful, and so delightful? For starters, Pinterest is perhaps the most user-friendly and easiest to browse of all the social media sites. After a few pokes around on your first visit, the site provides you with recommendations of people you may find interesting. In browsing the collections of these individuals, you are sure to find interesting ideas, inspiring thoughts, and/or useful products. Pinterest allows you to have control while simultaneously providing some helpful guidance and direction to your wanders. Through Pinterest’s use of visuals, the user is able to find, quickly and easily, processes and products that may have been long-sought for or even find new processes and products that may have been previously unknown to them. Arguably, what makes Pinterest so popular is that its image-driven focus provides possibilities and realities: suddenly, ideas not pursued before, perhaps due to lack of time, knowledge or clear instruction, can easily be accomplished.

Pinterest is also a great way to feed your creativity, brainstorm, get inspired, and discover new interests: if you’re unsure of what you want to pin or share, you can explore other people’s interests and find within them what best reflects you. Pinterest allows you the freedom for you to express your individuality and uniqueness, to select what you really like.

The Power of Pinterest:

Pinterest’s users join for a variety of reasons: curiosity, a search for identity, for organization, for finding out the newest trends, or seeking out new delights. No matter the reason, however, what draws all users is the use of visuals, which create a clear, precise, and therefore appealing, form of communication.

Consequently, Pinterest is having more success than Google+ for driving traffic to retailers’ websites. It singlehandedly provides:

– A platform to link brands with consumer personalities

– Redistribution of brand power in a way that makes advertising and brand image obsolete

– A testing ground for newly-developed products and services.

Pinterest is thus a unique platform for both the community-oriented and the business-minded user; it makes social media interaction at once more enjoyable and effective.