Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2012. Its figures are from that time, including more than 50 million visits in the previous month and more than 11 million registered users. The list of dominant networks is also dated; Tuenti and Google+ have since closed as social networks.
Almost every day we hear about new social networks or new online platforms. In most cases, with such a saturated market, very few of these new networks manage to catch on with users. Twitter, Tuenti (a Spanish social network), Facebook and Google+ dominate the market, and it’s hard even to imagine a new idea coming along today that could put them in the shade.
A few months ago I heard about Pinterest, a new platform that wasn’t given much importance at first, because it was… just one more of many. Today, though, we can talk about Pinterest as a potential success story, or at least that’s what the more than 50 million visits it received last month and the more than 11 million users who have already signed up suggest.
A few days ago we talked about the failure some retailers were suffering when they didn’t get the results they expected from trying to sell to Facebook users. Pinterest could fill that gap: the average Pinterest user is said to be more inclined to buy, and the platform lets brands create a catalogue of their products and pin the price, sending users to the seller’s website. It’s hard to say which other network it resembles; it’s as if it were a mix of Tumblr, Instagram and Flickr, with some added value.
Handmade goods, fashion, photography and art are the most successful sections so far, and they are being very well received by users (buyers). This new social network has also inspired social media experts to write guides on how businesses can use it to increase a company’s sales.
You can create events and contests, offer discounts and/or coupons to users, and so on: one more way to interact online with potential buyers of our products.
Pinterest has already caused a stir, to the point that Flickr has changed its interface to look more like this new network. At first glance, Pinterest is here to stay, so we’ll probably have to be present on it and find ways to get the most out of it.
