At the start of Social Media Week, we’ve taken a look at the latest chat around social networking craze — Pinterest.
We first commented on Pinterest back in July 2011 but the platform, launched in 2010 and described on TIME Moneyland as one part social network, one part digital scrapbook and one part browser bookmark bar, seems to now be at the point of achieving critical mass. Various articles and blogs over the past week have predicted the rise of Pinterest — with @mashable’s Pete Cashmore dubbing it 2012′s hottest website and @JasonFalls noting how Pinterest is becoming the next big thing in social media for business. The post also captures the scale of growth of Pinterest: 7 million unique visitors in December, up from 1.6 million in September 2011 and driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.
Pinterest is also finding success in the established scrapbooking community, shown in various threads on UKscrappers.co.uk. The wide availability of digital scrapbooking techniques in various guises, whether it be software and websites, apps such as TapnScrap, Scrap It and Coolibah, and the newest addition Pinterest has moved this community on from paper. Whether it be pinning ideas for interior design, fashion, books or holidays, or using it within the healthcare setting – as shown by @healthissocial with Pinterest for Healthcare — it’s the social sharing element that is particularly interesting.
We’ll be keeping an eye on what effect Pinterest’s popularity has on similar platforms like Gentle Mint — a Pinterest for ‘manly men’, but we’re sure the craze is set to continue.
Follow @virgohealth @emilybrooks
Tags: design, Pinterest, scrapbooking, social media, social networks, Virgo, Virgo HEALTH