13 'Pinteresting' Facts About Pinterest Users [INFOGRAPHIC]

How Pinterest Will Transform the Web in 2012: Social Content Curation As The Next Big Thing The most interesting wave hitting the social web in 2012 is social curation. This was kicked off in 2011 as Pinterest's growth was noticed by Silicon Valley and a number of companies quickly followed suit - Snip.It launched as a social information curation platform, Quora adopted boards for a similar purpose, and Fab.com launched a structured social commerce feed. In this blog post I will discuss the evolution of social media from long-form to push-button, the emergence of social curation on sites such as Twitter and Tumblr, and the move to structured sets of curated content on Pinterest and its brethren. But first, the meta-trend.... ...Social Media: Evolving From Long Form To Push Button In the evolution of social media over the last decade, the trend has been a move from long form content, which has high friction of participation (both on the production and consumption side) to ever lower requirements placed on a user to participate in a conversation.

Who's Using Pinterest? Yup, It's Mostly Ladies Well, there's a reason it's not called Dude-terest. The latest darling of the up-and-coming social sharing space, Pinterest, has experienced rapid growth in both users and industry buzz in the last few months. If you had a sneaking suspicion that the majority of those users happen to be young females, you were right. Pinterest's users are 80% women, according to recent data from Google Ad Planner, as presented by Ignite Social Media. The site is biggest among the 25-34 age range, followed by 35-to-44-year-olds. These site's popularity among people in their late 20s and early 30s is illustrated (quite literally) by the proliferation of images related to wedding planning and home decor. There's nothing inherently female-centric about Pinterest. Gizmodo described the service as a sort of "Tumblr for ladies" and cited internal staff discussions in which the men expressed confusion and uncertainty and the women expressed enthusiastic approval. I'm still waiting for that "Ah ha!"

Oh, How Pinteresting! Here's the Best Time to Share on Pinterest If you’re doing most of your sharing on Pinterest from the office, you’re doing it wrong. The best time to share things on Pinterest is Saturday morning, according to data from Bitly, the URL shortening service. Hilary Mason, Bitly’s chief scientist, revealed the nugget during a talk at Mashable Connect in Orlando, Fla. Bitly keeps track of clicks on the links created by its users, and where they’re coming from, aggregating the data to create actionable information. In addition to the Pinterest factoid, Mason said a story’s half-life — the time it takes to receive half the clicks it will ever get — lasts 2.8 hours on Twitter, 3.1 on Facebook, 7 hours on YouTube and “longer” on StumbleUpon and Tumblr. Bitly also looks at usage of devices. SEE ALSO: Behind the Design of Bit.ly’s Iconic Pufferfish Typically, content follows a “burst and decay” pattern, with a huge spike of clicks early in its life cycle that drops off rapidly, then slowly. Facebook YouTube Soundcloud LinkedIn Twitter Blogspot Vimeo

Top 10 Alternatives to Pinterest There is certainly no denying the ever-growing popularity of Pinterest. With over 2.5 million users participating in the beta, Pinterest provides a new and unique way to discover and share the web. This growing popularity has, of course, spawned numerous sites that utilize a variety of Pinterest elements. If Pinterest doesn’t seem to be quite what you need, you might consider trying one of the many alternatives. Gentlemint The front page of Pinterest definitely doesn’t scream masculinity, so “manly” alternatives are always arising. Price: Free Developer: Brisky Business, LLC AppStorm Review: Gentlemint: Pinterest for Men We Heart It While Pinterest is popular with a variety of ages, teens are not really its target audience. Price: Free Developer: We Heart It, Inc. Knack Registry Finding items to purchase or make is definitely a very popular way to use Pinterest. Price: Free Developer: Knack Registry Jux A large part of the focus of Pinterest is sharing images. Price: Free Developer: The Juxers

Pinvolve Converts Facebook Pages Into Pinterest Pinboards, Increases Repins By 150%+ The folks behind a forthcoming fashion catalog for the iPad, Bazaart, have launched an interesting side project in their downtime (what’s that?) from their participation in DreamIt’s new Israel-based startup accelerator program. In need of something similar for themselves, the company launched a Facebook app called “Pinvolve” which converts Facebook Pages into Pinterest pinboards. To use Pinvolve, you have to first be logged into Facebook as one of the page’s admins before installing the app. The app also pulls in the Facebook likes and comments associated with each post, as well as the comments’ text. However, Pinvolve isn’t just about re-displaying Facebook content with a Pinterest look-and-feel, it also provides tools that let you and the page’s fans re-share those posts over on Pinterest. You can see an example of Pinvolve in action now, over on fashion model, blogger and designer Audrey Kitching’s Facebook Page here.

Why Pinterest Could Point To the End Of Twitter (Opinion) You’ve probably heard of the new social bookmarking experience Pinterest – but are you aware of just how it can change the current landscape of the Internet? As things stand, large companies like Google and Facebook are cosying up to their users, intent on becoming a fixture of the World Wide Web and being de facto choices for users for search and social networking. Google is even keen on moving into the social side via Google+, although this is really little more than a competent exercise in data mining. Traditional social bookmarking services such as Digg and the dominant method of sharing links, Twitter, are both at risk from the polished presentation and simple features of Pinterest. Pinterest is More Powerful Than Digg Many websites continue to rely on the tried and tested success of services such as Digg, Reddit and Stumbleupon, useful online services that allow web surfers to find and share websites and articles that interest them. Pinterest Is Not Another Google+

Pornterest Vs. Pornstagram Vs. Tumblr’s #NSFW Wow, Pinterest’s porn section is fairly tame. I was just curious about the type of not-so-mommy-friendly content that might be popping up on what’s now the third-most popular social network after Facebook and Twitter. (Also I’m bored). After all, Tumblr houses, like, a lot of porn. Both services aim to help their members find platforms for self-expression, one through pinning images for inspiration, the other through blogging, and both have also had to fight unwanted content on their networks. For example, both Tumblr and Pinterest recently implemented changes to their Terms of Service banning self-injury and self-harm. Tumblr seemingly took a more proactive stance in its bans, announcing it would apply the policy on a blog-by-blog basis. Pinterest, which enacted a similar ban on thinspo and other self-harm imagery, a month after Tumblr did, has also apparently had a tough time keeping thinspo off its site. Pinterest, I first thought, was much cleaner. Why is this important?

8 Best Practices for Food Brands on Pinterest Janet Helm is the chief food and nutrition strategist of North America for Weber Shandwick. She is the author of the blog Nutrition Unplugged and co-founder of the Nutrition Blog Network and Healthy Aperture. She has been a contributor to Cooking Light magazine and is currently partnering on a book with Cooking Light. Pinterest has become the fastest growing website ever, now with nearly 12 million monthly users. The site illustrates the evolution from the “social graph” to the “interest graph” – or the shift from friend-based networks to those that connect people based on their shared interests. Food is one of the major niches or shared interests on Pinterest. Not surprisingly, food bloggers have also become Pinterest power users. SEE ALSO: What Paula Deen's Cookin' on Pinterest , Y'all While the Pinterest terms of use prohibit commercial use of the site, Pinterest's lack of enforcement means that marketers are rapidly turning to Pinterest to help visually curate their brands. 1. 2. 3.

5 Ways to Be Pinworthy 2012 is the year of the image, particularly photographs. At the heart of this trend is Pinterest, an image-based social media network that’s experienced explosive growth in the last six months. For marketers, Pinterest’s power is clear. It combines the power of visual and social media to create a search-friendly referral engine every business needs. Pinterest by the Numbers Pinterest reached over 18 million unique visitors in March, according to Compete and reported by TechCrunch. New Pinterest members are less active. Pin sources show a long-tail distribution. 5 Tips to Be Pinworthy What do these Pinterest trends mean for marketers? Create great images. If you haven’t been pinned, don’t wait for your boss to ask you about that new trend. What other tips do you have for making your images pinworthy? Happy marketing, Heidi Cohen

5 Food Brands Building Social Buzz on a Budget Bob Marshall is a social media strategist for SociaLogic Marketing. SociaLogic provides social media strategy, community management, and content development for clients in the food, CPG, and automotive categories. Follow him @Bob_SociaLogic. By now, most brands are rightly viewing social media as an integral piece of their overall marketing strategy. In reality, there are several standout social media marketing tactics that can mobilize an enthusiastic audience while remaining cost effective, and the food industry has consistently been a leader in this department. SEE ALSO: 8 Best Practices for Food Brands on Pinterest The most successful brands are discovering three truths about social media marketing. Here are five food brands that prove a company can build social media buzz without draining the marketing budget. 1. Chobani Greek Yogurt is an innovator among health food brands. 2. Whole Foods shines when it comes to giving users something to talk about. 3. 4. 5.