Pinterest opens the flood gates
Visual bookmarking social site, Pinterest.com has been a phenomenal success story, expanding exponentially every month. Now, the company has announced open registration, after years of an invitation-only environment wherein users had to wait to gain access to the site.
As the world rejoices that they new users can get started immediately, most are missing the point that some people have been shy to join as they did not understand or did not want to wait on an invitation. Open registration literally opens the network to everyone, and could mean rapid growth immediately, making it an even more valuable, and often overlooked social network for brands.
In a statement, the company said, “We’re really excited to have the capacity to offer Pinterest to more people and if you’re a Pinner with friends who’ve been waiting on the sidelines, we hope you’ll let them know.”
Pinterest’s growth path
Pinterest’s referral growth surpassed Twitter’s and StubmleUpon’s last month, and we have gone into great detail about the rise of the visual web, with Pinterest poised to dominate the movement.
Pinterest has a strong female user base in America, so users find themselves turned off before they realize they can build their own network of like minds. Take Great Britain for example, where there are more men on Pinterest than women, and the most popular topic is venture capital. Go figure.
Removing the wait period and the “invitation only” barrier that can turn some users off will likely give the social network a boost. We have seen brands using the site creatively, and individuals standing out with projects like soliciting employers, for example.
The more users that join the network, the more value brands will see in Pinterest, so we expect that more brands will latch on. Early adopters will continue that use the network well and creatively will continue to have the upper hand.
Lani is the COO and News Director at The American Genius, has co-authored a book, co-founded BASHH, Austin Digital Jobs, Remote Digital Jobs, and is a seasoned business writer and editorialist with a penchant for the irreverent.
drewmeyers
August 9, 2012 at 5:37 am
I’m still a skeptic of Pinterest. Really don’t see the value of using it. But maybe that’s because I’m not a photo buff.
Brad White
August 9, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Pinterest may be taking off, but there is a new program out called HyPRcast, and it is going to blow Pinterest out of the water. It is software that allows use to grab information from anywhere on the interenet, and post it to any number of other locations with the click of a button. HyPRcast is by invitation only, and please accept mine at https://ww.hyprcast.com/invite/?myfloridateam Please feel free to share this invite code with anyone you know who has a product or service to promote. This is game changing stuff for any one in business or fund raising.