Pinterest Is To Artistic Images What Twitter Is To Inventive Words

A picture speaks louder than words, is the message, Pinterest wants to convey to the media. Dubbed as one of the “fastest growing services in the world,” it is being patronized by marketers across a broad spectrum. Magazines like Real Simple, Better Homes and gardens and marketers like Whole Foods and West Elm are amongst the first big names to put their faith in it.

Pinterest allows its users to share images by “pinning” them on both Twitter and Facebook, which broadens the users reach and allows them to ‘share and interact’ with a broader community. Pinterest says that it’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing.

Andrew Lipsman, the vice president for industry analysis at the research firm comScore, called the site’s popularity among brands as “the rise of the visual Web.” He said, “Pinterest is creating sort of a meritocracy of what’s visually appealing,” Mr. Lipsman said. “Brands are scrambling and trying to figure it out. They know it’s going to be big, but they don’t necessarily know the best way to use it.”

Even though Pinterest is somewhat reluctant to share information, Lipsman believes that the site had 18.7 million unique visitors in March, compared with about 418,000 in May.

Better Homes and Gardens, a magazine published by Meredith, has 73 pinboards, where they post their images, under a range of topics. It is seeing increased traffic on all its pins, with the ‘Laundry Room Board’ having over 58,000 followers. “To me, it’s an ideal platform for brands like ours that are really visually driven in many ways,” said Gayle Butler, the editor in chief of Better Homes and Gardens.

Kaelin Zawilinski, the digital editorial manager for Better Homes, says Pinterest has brought in a new audience for the magazine, confirming that profiles of many visitors and re-pinners “appear to be younger than our typical readers.”

Lisa Harman Gooder, the digital content director for Brides magazine, which has created 58 boards, under varied fashion and lifestyle topics said, “It’s a great opportunity to push some of the images that are on our site across the Internet and to drive traffic back to the site,” said. “We don’t view this as a walled garden anymore.”

Food and food-related brands are also gaining popularity on the site. “People eat with their eyes first,” said Cathy Lee Fredrickson, the online content manager for the National Pork Board. “People love bacon,” she said.  The National Pork Board is using Pinterest to share recipes, and of course, photos of pork.

The traffic at Pinterest is growing and its statistics are impressive and Forbes estimates it could be a $ 7.7 billion company.

Pinterest is growing in popularity and is now rated as the third most popular social-media site, behind Facebook and Twitter. Another demographic uniqueness is that of its, estimated 104,415,903 visitors last month, the majority were female, so much so that, it has even prompted President Barack Obama to set up an account and Romney’s wife to have her own page.