I'm sure that by now most of you are aware of the new social network called Pinterest . It has suddenly appeared on the social network landscape seemingly out of nowhere. There was very little fanfare building up to its launch, it was just there. Pinterest combines the words "pin" and "interest"
Pinterest is based around photography. From what I understand (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) it's a site where people can post photographs of their interests with a brief description and not much else. People can then "like" the photographs and leave a brief comment. It's a very appealing concept to the amateur photographers out there who want an audience for their work. I can really see how this would be very popular with decorators, home stagers, and to an extent, real estate agents. It looks like it's very time-friendly.
I remember the launch of Google+, it wasn't that long ago. Google+ came lumbering out of the woods at us like a massive threatening bear who had been bellowing and roaring for months beforehand. Pinterest, on the other hand, came gamboling out of the forest like a little fawn looking for playmates. People seem to be lining up to play with it too.Pinterest is catching on like wildfire. I signed up for it and I quite like it so far. Every day I get multiple emails informing me that more people are following me on Pinterest, and I haven't even uploaded a single picture yet. Wowee, it took me months to get friends on Google+. I have enjoyed many of the photographs on the site, it seems to bring out the best in photographers who are showcasing their best work. Of course, now we will all have to learn about the search engine optimization that can be achieved through the use of Pinterest, and soon enough people will be posting pictures of girl's bums and things like that under the guise of artful photography, but that is par for the internet course.
A lot of people were suspicious of Google+, and naturally so. What will Google do with the information they collect from people? How will this be used? Many folk are uncomfortable with Google and their privacy shenanigans of the past and are reluctant to give Google too much information about themselves. Pinterest seems to have escaped this scrutiny, it seems to be a very light hearted network, short on information but very long on visual appeal. I have yet to hear anyone grumble about their motives.I would bet that there are a lot of social networkers who feel a twinge of guilt that they haven't worked very hard on their Google+ accounts and are not taking full advantage of the google juice that Google+ has to offer, yet are leaping into the Pinterest network with reckless abandon. They naturally feel more comfortable with Pinterest, as it just seems to be a less daunting task to get involved with the site.Google+ is growing at an incredible rate, its membership will rival Facebook's in the next couple of years. Every day 625,000 new members sign on to Google+, I highly doubt Pinterest will ever come close to reaching such numbers. If one had to choose which one would be the best bet to add to their SEO arsenal, I'm pretty positive that Google+ would be the better option at the moment. I personally only have an absorbtion rate of two social networks per year, and I'm sure a lot of other people are struggling to cope with the plethora of platforms available to them to spread their good words (and images), so while Pinterest looks very interesting and fun to play with, other than posting the best of my best photos to it, I don't think i will be spending too much time building a network there. I will, however, stop by once in a while to play with it though.
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