Pinterest: Curation and Attribution

By Monica J. Witzig

In case you thought you had fully covered and traversed the Web with your profiles, your posts, your comments, your likes, your follows, your +1s, your thumbs-ups, your RTs, your friends, and your subscriptions, be prepared to take one more step.

Your community corkboard has reached the Internet: Pinterest. The invitation-only organization site launched in March 2010 and absolutely burst at the end of December 2011, according to analyses by Hitwise and Shareaholic. Pinterest boasts 260 million unique visitors each month and — put simply — owns YouTube, Reddit, Google+, and LinkedIn in referral traffic. (Does MySpace still exist? ... Do I hear laughter?)

At Ideen, we're hearing lots of buzz about Pininterest and here's why: Hitwise reports Pinterest appears to claim the clicks and pins of women (almost 60 percent of users) and those in the 25-44 years age group (again, almost 60 percent), but a quick search reveals "pinboards" are not limited to shoes, weddings, and DIY crafts for your toddlers. Web humor, social media, sports, gadgets, and Super Bowl cuisine all still have significant showings on Pinterest.

The Daily Dot runs down a list of ten of what it calls "superusers." Admittedly, lots of home design and weddings here, but users want those creative stairwells and sunflower champagne flutes.

One of the great things about Pinterest might be that posts are images (with some linked to further elaboration) — so you don't have to scroll through your Twitter and Facebook timelines to miss someone's rant. Don't want to see quiche? Don't have to.

But what — in an era of online piracy and the rush to yell "first!" for every instance, be it news organizations or your sister-in-law — should appeal most to creators and moderators alike is Pinterest's commitment to attribution. Even if you think the language is a little soft, Pinterest's etiquette listing cheers citing sources. (No. 1, by the way, is one your mother, your boss, your little brother, and the Rev. King all support, too: "Be nice.")

Worthy of the buzz from a marketing perspective?  Definitely...