After viewing the most recent social media insights, we know where you should be pinning your interests.

Not surprisingly, when it comes to our ‘social’ interests, Facebook and Twitter are still the dominating social platforms, but when it comes to ‘projects of personal interest’, Pinterest is thriving. With a reported 70 million people worldwide using this social media platform, something rather fascinating is happening.

Pinterest has become a collaborative catalogue of ‘what’s hot’ and more to the point ‘what people really want’. This shift has empowered Pinterest users to become the advertisers, sharing with each other, ‘their style’ and ‘their fav’ personal picks of fashion, design or restaurants. This has required marketers to become increasingly savvy with how they build relationships and communicate their brand message, products or service in an open forum with their consumers.

With the slogan, “No matter what interests you, find it on Pinterest”, there are now more than 30 billion pins on Pinterest, which is rapidly growing daily.

It is also reported that 75% usage of the site is on smartphones, which suggests this platform has become the impulse purchase ‘clips trip’ of the media world. Perhaps what’s most impressive, is that Pinterest is driving more traffic to websites than Twitter, YouTube and Google+, meaning it is second only to Facebook.

It gets better, did you know that ‘Pins’ are 100 times more viral than a Tweet and Pinterest shoppers spend more than twice as much as Facebook and Twitter shoppers!

With users capable of informing other budding creatives, exercise enthusiasts, fashionistas and travellers about their finds, there is no limit to what is being shared. Whether it’s been tried and tested or collaboratively preferred over other available products or services, the site has become a sophisticated form of advertising which puts the consumers in the driving seat of a product or service’s cumulative success. Pinterest makes up 25% of retail referral traffic, making it an exceptionally powerful, consumer driven, advertising platform.

What’s so clever about Pinterest is that there is no intrusive advertising. Users are willingly exploring categories of interest. They are actively seeking inspiration from others on how to spend their free time and what to spend their hard earned money on. Images link consumers directly with the ‘product’, narrowing the laborious search for relevant topics. The site encourages creativity, being that it is less about conversations and more about inspiration. At the core, it’s about past-times, hobbies and leisure of common interest.

“Pinterest is a place to discover ideas for all your projects and interests, hand-picked by people like you”

Acknowledgment: Metro in Focus, Friday May 23, 2014.

Today is a great day for new business
Today is a great day for new business