To Pin or Not to Pin: Pinterest Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and MySpace, there are so many social networking sites, that it is hard to pick one to spend your time on. Many people have an account for every social networking site there is, or at least the popular ones. Many sites have become over advertised or more annoying to use. A newer site that is not so over the top is Pinterest. Pinterest is a unique social networking site that allows you to be unique.
Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board. Pinterest is a website that allows you to “pin” things online, as you would a bulletin board. The great thing is you can pin anything you want. You can save recipes, articles, and all the clothes you've ever wanted. You can pin from anywhere on the Internet with only the link. Pinterest can be whatever you want it to be; the possibilities are endless. You could think of it as an inspirational notebook. As you start pinning, you create “Boards” that organize your pins. Each board is unique and completely customizable. You can also have boards that are private, just for your personal viewing. It is also a type of social networking since you can follow friends, as you would on Facebook or Twitter, and “repin” their pins. You can also follow a person’s board. The home feed allows you to see new pins that your friends have posted. Pinterest avoids the status updates and allows the user to speak through photos. Users can comment on other’s photos and share on Twitter and Facebook. Pinterest has a free app so you can pin from anywhere, iPhone, iPad, or Android.
Ben Silbermann, an avid bug collector, and Evan Sharp, an architect turned web designer, created Pinterest to help people pick up new hobbies, find their style, and plan projects. Pinterest isn’t focused on conversing and finding friends. There is no private messaging or instant messaging. Pinterest connects people through interests instead of networks. The website is most popular with women between the ages 18-44. Pinterest is the third largest social network behind only Facebook and Twitter. According to siteanalytics.com, “Pinterest’s monthly visitors went from 40,000 to 18 million from October 2010 to March 2012.” Pinterest generates more referral traffic to websites than Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined; this allows the website to be ad-free. The creators use different methods of receiving money than having their users pay for use of the site.
Although Pinterest and Instagram were created within the same year, Pinterest has had 10 million more monthly users than Instagram. Pinterest and Instagram have many of the same functions, such as following your friends, photo sharing, video sharing, and being a social network. Instagram is not as