For the uninitiated, Pinterest (according to Wikipedia) is “a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies and more.”
Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, ‘re-pin’ images to their own collections and/or ‘like’ photos. Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing. Pinterest allows its users to share ‘pins’ on both Twitter and Facebook, which allows users to share and interact with a broad community. Pinterest is currently one of the fastest-growing sites, having acquired 13 million users in just 10 months.
What is particularly interesting about Pinterest currently in the UK is the difference in the profile of its users compared to those in the US, according to data published by visual.ly
The American audience for Pinterest is skewed heavily towards 25-54 year old women. Not the case for the UK audience, currently at around 200,000 users:
– the largest user group by age in the UK is 25-35, compared with 35-44 in the US
– whilst women make up 83% of US users and men just 17%, the UK profile of users is more evenly spread by gender (44% female/56% men)
– UK users of Pinterest are wealthier than those in the US, with 29% in the highest income bracket (compared with 3% in the US)
– whilst the most popular UK user interests (as for the US audience) include crafts & design, they also include venture capital, web stats & analytics, SEO marketing, content management and PR. In the US, the ‘most popular’ list is centered around hobbies & leisure, interior design, gifts & special event items and fashion designers & collections. Both countries’ lists feature blogging resources & services.
What this means for Pinterest in the UK is that its initial audience appears to offer a much greater skew towards influential professional services sectors, which this bodes well for Pinterest’s future growth in the business world, and anyone targeting the most popular UK user sectors.
I have been testing Pinterest for social media infographics (and also collecting my favourite travel destinations), both are work in progress but you can view my board here: http://pinterest.com/karenwisdom/ – why not set up a board or two for your own passion or business?
