Pinterest can be described as an online pin board, scrap book of desires, a social media platform, a way of collecting and connecting and a place for digital hoarding.
The way I (and many other pinners) most oftenly refer to pinterest is my ADDICTION. I’m not going to sugar-coat it… it’s digital crack for me. I remember reading about it… and thinking I’m not sure I get it, but when I started interacting… I thought, “WOW. I’m obsessed.”
So, if you are one of the few that haven’t joined the pinterest movement yet… well, just go ahead and try it out. You will thank me later… or hate me b/c your life is already very full and now you go to bed pinning and wake up thinking about something you pinned.
What makes it so addictive?
The Design… First off, the design is clean and simple and the images act as heros and allows for scrolling through a massive amount of content with minimal effort or distractions. Comments and repins are kept tucked under each image. All action buttons remain hidden until they are scrolled over. And the images that get pinned, repinned, likes and comments are interesting and professionally photographed. (So, if you are a business trying to get your images on pinterest, crappy images don’t spread… I’m just saying.)
Find like minded pinners… Similar to facebook, Pinterest relies on user generated content. If you have a affection for… say beer packaging. You can find others from around the world that are also specifically pinning beer packaging and you can follow those pinners to ensure that you always see what they are pinning.
It’s a dream land… Pinterest is a wish list of hopes and desires. There’s a joke that pinterest is for single women to plan weddings, dress babies they don’t have and decorate homes they can’t afford. After following a couple friends I realized their pin boards were more insightful of their thoughts and feelings than their facebook status has ever been. I learned that one of my very conservative friends would actually like to have dyed pink hair and multiply tatoos, if she were brave enough… she actually named the board… “if I were brave enough”.
Social referrals… Who doesn’t love to share great products, ideas and photos with their friends and followers? When followers repin or like your pins there’s an added sense of pride or sense of confirmation that you have great taste. I was recently talking to a friend and she said, “I get mad when people don’t repin me… this is good stuff.” I thought that it was humorous that she was taking it personal… and it wasn’t even something that she designed or made… it’s just something that she pinned.
And now that I’m finished writing this article, I’m going back to get a hit of the pinterest crack…. you can find me here.
