As social sharing site, Pinterest, amasses almost 12 million users, faster than any other social networking site, it must be time to stand up and listen. But it seems that there are still a number of people in the UK who are yet to hear about it. So here’s the lowdown…

What is it?

Pinterest is a photo sharing site, designed in the style of a pin board. Instead of libraries, you create image collections applied to a pin board, which carry a shared theme. This allows you to relate images by an area of particular interest to you.

If you imagine a creative mood board (something we have always used at concept stage at NBV towers), or even a collage which you probably put together as a child at school you’ll get the idea.

Who’s it for?

The answer to that is ‘anyone’. It can be adapted for so many different uses as means to share content of interest. From analytical data to baking recipes; and info graphics to wedding schemes.

In the US, the site has proven hugely popular amongst the female population and – as reported by Google Ad Planner – in January, its US audience was primarily interested in fashion, arts and crafts, recipes, seasonal events and holidays, and interior design.

However, in the UK, where Pinterest is considered to be far more in its infancy, the demographic profile is the complete opposite. The predominantly male user base are harnessing it for blogging and sharing more analytical based content.

Analysts are predicting that the UK will trend towards the same shift to a more female audience.

What’s the history?

Development only began in December 2009 and the site was officially launched in the US around a year ago, starting as an ‘invite only’ application process. It has since been developed on the same theme to be ‘invite by email’ in order to retain the feeling of joining a community.

In the past 6 months, the site has experienced unprecedented growth and some pretty impressive credentials:

• August 2011: Time Magazine lists Pinterest in its “50 Best Websites of 2011”.
• December 2011: Hitwise announces that Pinterest is receiving 11 million visits per week, making it a top 10 social networking site data
• January 2012: ComScore reported the site had 11.7 million unique users, making it the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark

What’s the point of it all?

Their corporate message is to: "connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting."

Drawing on the feelings evoked from the lyrics of ‘….these are a few of my favourite things,’ the idea is that people select images content from the web which interests them and then ‘repin’ it to their own board. So basically it’s fun, interactive and mildly addictive.

But what about business use through bookmarking, sharing and publishing?

Well here’s the ‘sit up and listen’ part. According to a study by Shareaholic, Pinterest drove more traffic to online publishing sites than Twitter in February and is starting to encroach on Bing’s territory:

•  Google: 48.81%
• Facebook: 6.38%
• Yahoo: 1.61%
• StumbleUpon: 1.29%
• Bing: 1.21%
• Pinterest: 1.05%
• Twitter at 0.82%

Not bad for a site still considered to be in it’s infancy over here.