Social Media Tool: Pinterest

by Aminur Rizwan

INTRODUCTION

      Pinterest is a popular social network. Pinterest is a highly visual virtual pinboard site that lets you 'pin' or collect images from the Web. You create boards to help you categorize your images and add descriptions to remind you why you bookmarked them in first places. While other social networks like Facebook and Twitter focus on personal sharing and status updates, Pinterest is all about collecting and sharing the things you find on the Web. Pinterest is a web and mobile application company that operates a photo sharing website. Registration is required for use. The site was founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp. It is managed by Cold Brew Labs and funded by a small group of entrepreneurs and investors. Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann summarized the company as a "catalog of ideas," rather than as a social network, that inspires users to "go out and do that thing." Pinterest is similar to earlier social, image bookmarking systems based on the same principle, such as David Galbraith's 2005 project Wists. It allows users to save images and categorize them on different boards. They can follow other users' boards if they have similar tastes. Popular categories are travel, cars, film, humor, home design, sports, fashion, and art.

BACKGROUND

         Development of Pinterest began in December 2009, and the site launched as a closed beta in March 2010. The site proceeded to operate in invitation-only open beta. Ben Silbermann. CEO of Pinterest, said he personally wrote to the site's first 5,000 users, offering his personal phone number and even meeting with some of its users. Nine months after launch the website had 10,000 users. Silbermann and a few programmers operated the site out of a small apartment until the summer of 2011.

Early in 2010, the company's investors and co-founder Ben Silbermann tried to interest a New York-based magazine publishing company in buying Pinterest. The publisher declined to meet with the founders. The launch of an iPhone app in early March 2011 brought in a more than expected number of downloads.

On 16 August 2011, Time magazine listed Pinterest in its "50 Best Websites of 2011" article. The Pinterest app for iPhone was last updated in May 2012 and an iPad app is currently available for purchase. Pinterest Mobile, launched September 2011, is a version of the website for non-iPhone users.

In December 2011, the site became one of the top 10 largest social network services, according to Hitwise data, with 11 million total visits per week. The next month, it drove more referral traffic to retailers than LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+. The same month, the company was named the best new startup of 2011 by TechCrunch. Noted entrepreneurs and investors include: Jack Abraham, Michael Birch, Scott Belsky, Brian Cohen, Shana Fisher, Ron Conway, FirstMark Capital, Kevin Hartz, Jeremy Stoppelman, Hank Vigil, and Fritz Lanman.

In 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. Pinterest's wide reach helped it achieve an average of 11 million visits each week in December 2011. Most of the site's users are female. At the South By Southwest Interactive conference in March 2012, Silbermann announced revamped profile pages were being prepared and would be enforced shortly.

On 23 March 2012, Pinterest unveiled updated terms of service that eliminated the policy that gave it the right to sell its users' content. The terms would go into effect April 6. According to Experian Hitwise, the site became the third largest social network in the United States in March 2012, surpassing LinkedIn and Tagged. Co-founder Paul Sciarra left his position at Pinterest in April 2012 for a consulting job as entrepreneur in residence at Andreessen Horowitz.

On 17 May 2012, Japanese electronic commerce company Rakuten announced it was leading a $100 million investment in Pinterest, alongside investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital, based on a valuation of $1.5 billion.

On 10 August 2012, Pinterest was opened to everyone without request or require an invitation. In addition, the Pinterest app for Android and iPad was also launched on August 14, 2012. The Android app was customer designed for Android phones & tablets of all cost, speed and size while the iPad app is described as the "best Pinterest experience yet.

On September 20, 2012 Pinterest announced that it has hired its new head of engineering, Jon Jenkins. Jenkins came from Amazon, where he spent eight years as an engineering lead and was also a director of develop tools, director of platform analysis and director of website platform.

In October of 2012, Pinterest announced a new feature that would allow users to report others for negative and offensive activity or block other users if they do not want to view their content. Pinterest said they want to keep their community "positive and respectful.". Also in October, Pinterest launched business accounts, allowing businesses to either convert their existing personal accounts into business accounts, or start from scratch.

HOW TO USE

1. Join Pinterest

Visit pinterest.com and click Join Pinterest. It will ask you to join by connecting with Facebook or Twitter, but a third option lets you sign up using your email address.

To connect with Facebook, you need to give the app permission to access your basic info, email address, birthday, and likes. This lets the app post activity on your behalf, though you can decide whether or not your pins get reposted to Facebook. It automatically imports your Facebook photo; you can then create a username and password. Here you can uncheck or leave checked two boxes: "Follow recommended friends" and "Publish activity to Facebook Timeline."

By connecting with Twitter, you're giving the app permission to read tweets from your timeline, see who you follow and follow new people, update your profile, and post tweets for you.

Not cool with these stipulations? Dive in on your own by signing up with just your email. You'll be asked a few more questions such as your gender since that info isn't imported from an existing social media account. Upload a profile photo and proceed.

2. Follow Some Boards.

Once you have an account, you'll need to find fascinating boards to fill your feed. Pinterest gets you started by suggesting some. Select a category from the list such as Design, Geek, Science & Nature, and Technology among others, and then check at least five boards to continue.

These boards are just to get you going. As you navigate the site you'll find other boards worth following. Keep in mind that most accounts have multiple boards, so if you follow an account you automatically follow all its boards. You can also follow specific boards, and can unfollow a board at any time without the account being notified.


3. Verify Your Account

After selecting some boards you'll receive an email confirmation.

Once you verify your account, the next screen you'll see is your home feed, which features the most recent pins from people you follow. The more users or boards you follow, the more content will turn over.

4. Adjust Settings

Now is a good time to adjust your settings. Mouse over the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner with your picture and click Settings. Here you can update basic information, opt out of email notifications, and connect or disconnect your Facebook or Twitter account.

5. Create Your Own Board

You need to build boards in order to collect and organize items you're interested in. To do so, click 'Your Boards' in the upper right-hand drop-down menu, then click Create a Board. A box will pop up asking you to name your board, add a description, and categorize it. If you need some ideas, popular board names include For the Home, Books Worth Reading, Favorite Places & Spaces, and Recipes. You may want to get more specific with boards like Gluten-Free Desserts, Home Office Designs, Birthday Gifts for the Kids, or iPhone Apps I Love.

Once you create a board you can pin items to it. By clicking Edit Board at the top you can also invite others to pin to your board, but you need to either follow the user or enter their associated email address to do so.

You also have the option to create a secret board. Whatever you pin to this board is only visible to you and those you invite to it; if you don't want to freak out a new boyfriend by pinning wedding dresses you love, or spoil your wife's birthday surprise by pinning gift ideas, flip this switch to make the board private.

6. Get Pinning

Now you're ready to get pinning! You can peruse the pins of people you follow on your home feed (accessible by clicking the Pinterest logo at the top of the screen), or search more specifically by selecting a category from the drop-down menu in the upper left-hand corner of the screen next to the search bar. Speaking of the search bar, you can also find boards, pins, or pinners by entering a keyword there.

When you see an image you want to pin, simply hover over it and click the red Pin It button that appears in the upper left-hand corner. You'll be asked to designate it to one of your boards and add a description. Clicking elsewhere on the image enlarges it. 

Lastly, you can upload your own pins. Say you have a picture of an awesome dinner you concocted or a great computer mod you built; visit the Your Pins page and click the plus button that says "Add a pin." Here you can upload your image, pick its board, and add a description. Others can then repin your image.

7. Get Social

You're officially part of the Pinterest party now so it's time to make some friends. Follow more boards and build out your own to attract new followers. Get friendly by liking (click Like next to the Pin It button) and commenting on other pins.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF PINTEREST

Strengths

• Pinterest has an Education section already set up for searches
• Easy to store ideas and links rather than storing on your computer
• Easy to share ideas with people from other areas across the world
• Interface is user friendly
• Currently a large following
• Visually appealling (Rocky Lam, 2013)
• Simple to find, save, and share ideas (Alemon, 2013)

Weaknesses

• Most current Education items are literacy and numeracy based
• Most items are for Primary and Junior students
• All items posted have to be connected to a website
• Most items that get pinned are for Do It Yourself items, fashion, beauty, or food
• Searches are not always relevant if looking for something specific (Diane, 2013)

Opportunities

• Could have advertising on Pinterest to earn revenue
• Could be made more appealing to male demographic
• Potential to have more education links
• They have updated their interface to meet the needs of the growing number of journalists using Pinterest, and could do something similar for teachers
• Creating more sub-categories for education (Dave, 2013)

Threats

• Currently educational resources are often shared between people in the same board
• There are websites that they could link to that often have teaching resources available
• E-learning/blended learning courses that are becoming more popular offer teachers another resource for activities
• Legal copyright issues