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Pinterest Packs Social Media Punch

Virtual pinboard site proves content curation is the way of the future as the site beats a unique views benckmark in record time. No, it isn’t really news that yet another site has hit the social media scene. The actual buzz on Pinterest is its rapid growth and the statement its millions of users are making.  

By Lindsey Peacock /

Pinterest popularity | BCBusiness
Pinterest, a virtual pinboard site, beat the 10-million-monthly-visitor benchmark, further proving content curation is the way of the future in social media.

Virtual pinboard site proves content curation is the way of the future as the site beats a unique views benckmark in record time.

No, it isn’t really news that yet another site has hit the social media scene. The actual buzz on Pinterest is its rapid growth and the statement its millions of users are making.
 
Pinterest, a place to build virtual pinboards to share with followers, isn’t exactly new. The site came online in May 2011, but since then, Pinterest has consistently built a steady and ever-growing user group.
 
Last month, the site hit 11.5 million unique monthly visits, which is the fastest growth of any standalone site ever, according to comScore. Currently, the only two social media sites getting more face time with users are Facebook and Tumblr.
 
Well … so what? Millions of people spend hours creating personalized pinboards for inspiration. The key statistic here actually lies in referrals. Pinterest now generates more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined.
 
This is great for smaller brands and businesses that may not get online exposure any other way. And businesses are noticing.
 
As reported in The Globe & Mail, businesses such as Whole Foods are getting on board with Pinterest. They create beautifully designed pinboards for various meals, hoping followers latch on and use ideas from the pinboards to buy Whole Foods products.
 
Content curation sites seem to have fallen into favour because users are able to filter out all the useless information floating around the web and focus on only what’s relevant to their interests (see also Summify).
 
The new social media trend proves once again how important it is for businesses to be nimble, to adapt and think on their feet. Otherwise, they’ll be left behind in the social media graveyard with the likes of MySpace.