The document explores the psychology and sociology of Pinterest, analyzing its success and user demographics, particularly the predominance of female users. It discusses how Pinterest minimizes cognitive load to enhance user engagement and highlights various ways individuals leverage the platform, from business marketing to personal inspiration. Additionally, it examines the platform's potential impact on social media commerce, particularly with the introduction of new features like the buy button.

1. THE
BEAST
OFVISUAL
MEDIA

2. ‣ This is not a How-To, as there are a plethora of this available on the
interwebs
‣ This is about what fascinates us, which is the psychology & sociology of
Pinterest. What makes it tick and why are we entangled so fiercely.
‣ How are people using Pinterest to their advantage? How many ways are
there to use it? Is it a fad?
What to Expect

3. As we are visual creatures, and if Pinterest is
any indication, how will future social
channels change?
Consider this..

4. An Introduction
0

5. @OctopusAndSon

6. The When of Pinterest
1

7. How did Pinterest start?
Started in 2008: Pinterest is an overnight success four
years in the making.
The first iteration of Pinterest was called Tote under the
umbrella Cold Brew Labs. It failed.. miserably.
Their Zuckerberg is Ben Silbermann. Left the family
business of being a doctor & quit Google
Girlfriend named it Pinterest

8. TOTE: Tote your favourite things
Read the Origin story here

9. So What Changed?

10. John Sweller
Australian educational psychologist
formulated the influential theory of cognitive load

11. Pinterest’s obvious secret
The more users consume, create and share, the faster Pinterest
reaches its business objectives and dominates its market.
To accomplish this, Pinterest has mastered the art of
minimizing cognitive load, in other words, reducing the mental
effort required to do what the site wants users to do.
Reducing cognitive load is what good design is all about.
Making something simple makes it easy to understand, easy to
use, and ultimately increases the desired behaviours.
Minimizing Cognitive Load

12. Who or what else follows this methodology?
Who do you feel fails at this?

13. The Numbers
2

14. Demographics
source: Cision 2015
Pinterest use by Gender
19%
81%

15. Demographics
source: Techcrunch 2014
Amongst Emerging Markets
50% 50%

16. Why is Pinterest's demographic
primarily female?
Women tend to trust other women within their circles
when purchasing something based off a
recommendation from Pinterest
Women are using Pinterest in a far more aspirational
and motivational way than are men, who are more likely
to use Pinterest like a visual bookmarking tool
Pinning habits increase around life events
* * Source
* * Source
* * Source

17. What about Men on Pinterest?
Fastest emerging market
73% more male in 2014
In Jan, search queries began providing results personalized to your interests,
and gender.
Helps to narrow down searched like ‘Watch’, ‘Health’ & ‘Fashion’
However.. it’s worth pointing out also that broadly painting items as being
“for men” or “for women” bumps up against the efforts society has made
thus far to distance itself from a binary gender system.
UK Facebook users have 71 gender choices to identify from
* Source: Pinterest Goes After The Male Demographic With Debut Of New Search Filters

18. UK Facebook Gender Choices
Asexual
Female to male
trans man
Female to male
transgender man
Female to male
transsexual man F2M Gender neutral Hermaphrodite Intersex man Intersex person
Intersex woman
Male to female
trans woman
Male to female
transgender
woman
Male to female
transsexual
woman
Man M2F Polygender T* man T* woman
Two* person Two-spirit person Woman Agender Androgyne Androgynes Androgynous Bigender Cis
Cis Female Cis Male Cis Man Cis Woman Cisgender Cisgender Female Cisgender Male Cisgender Man Cisgender Woman
Female to Male FTM Gender Fluid
Gender
Nonconforming
Gender
Questioning Gender Variant Genderqueer Intersex Male to Female
MTF Neither Neutrois Non-binary Other Pangender Trans Trans Female Trans Male
Trans Man Trans Person Trans*Female Trans*Male Trans*Man Trans*Person Trans*Woman Transexual Transexual Female
Transexual Male Transexual Man Transexual Person Transexual Woman
Transgender
Female
Transgender
Person
Transmasculine Two-spirit
Currently, this could be a technical challenge for Pinterest, which is focused on returning product results
already marketed to “men” or “women” by their manufacturers.
* Source: The Telegraph

19. Food & Drink
DIY & Crafts
Home Décor
Their Home Feed
What do Women search for?

20. Technology
DIY/Crafts
Humour
Gardening
What do Men search for?

21. Why are more women than men on Instagram and
Pinterest if men are supposed to be more visual?
Men are more visual than Women?

22. What is Pinterest?
3

23. Scrapbooking Dream
Travel: Pinterest users have posted more than 660 million PINS in Pinterest’s
‘Travel’ category to date. Many people use Pinterest as a travel-planning tool.
Bookmarking Tool
Inspirational (w/ a caveat)
Marketing
Finding a community of like-minded individuals
Cooking
DIY
Hobby
* Source: ytravleblog

24. DIY Marketplace

25. Pinterest is largely a site
of unrealized dreams.
- Jenna Anderson
“
”operator of pinterestfail.com

26. Where good intentions come to die!
Pinterest Fail
www.pinterestfail.com

27. Where good intentions come to die!
Pinterest Fail
www.pinterestfail.com

28. A Visual Google
Q. Is Google worried about Pinterest?
A. Pinterest’s search weaknesses are Google's strengths, and
likewise, what Google is bad at doing Pinterest is really, really good
at.
People don’t think about searching 'living room inspiration' on
Google. They literally don’t do that because the results don’t work,
and they become accustomed to not searching that. But on
Pinterest that can be a really fruitful and valuable thing to search.
Pinterest trumps Google image search because most of the images
appear to be from original sources and art-directed photography

29. Sociology
4

30. I am a boon to all of social media,
yet simultaneously its hindrance.
What am I?
A Riddle

31. A highlight reel

32. Pinterest Stress
Pinterest stress' afflicts nearly half of moms [In a survey conducted with 7,000 moms in the US
The beautiful images of domestic harmony make us feel inadequate.
They worry that they’re not crafty or creative enough
Individuals have a hard time enjoying their own experiences because
they feel it’s not worthy of this invisible judge
“Is this what I need to create to be a good mom?”
Teens using social media are faced with similar issues

33. Addictive
Ego - Sharing your ideal self
We’re Digital Pack Rats - The human instinct to collect things is as old as time itself
We Have Addictive Tendencies
Pinterest is a refuge from relationship status, check-ins at restaurants, or pictures of
kids
We Love “Point and Click” - ie. reduced cognitive load
We Love Low Obligation Activities
Pinterest, like Facebook, relies on people generating content that interests other users,
so once a critical mass of people comment and re-pin, it reinforces others to generate
content
Pinterest drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Reddit, Google+, & YouTube combined — what's behind it?

34. #Pintervention

35. The 6 Archetypes of Pinterest users
What kind of Pinner are you?
* Source

36. A Clarifier
You use the images you pin to help you
clarify your feelings and interests.

37. A Collage-er
You pin images based around a theme,
incorporating visual inspiration that crosses
categories and creating a board is intended
to be viewed as a whole, rather than as
discrete images.

38. A Communicator
You pin images with the express purpose of
sharing them with others. This maybe in an
effort to promote your blog, products or
projects with the general public, or in a more
specific and personal way through shared
boards.

39. A Categorizer
You prefer your pins to be organized
according to clearly defined categories,
making them easy to find and use.

40. A Consumer
You pin images with the sole intention of
eventually purchasing products. You have
specific needs to fill, and you use your
boards as shopping reconnaissance.

41. A Collector
You are a connoisseur of pins, collecting
images of items as a form of admiration. You
use your boards as a dream list and have no
intention of ever trying to acquire the items
you covet.

42. Business & Pinterest
5

43. Why should I use Pinterest for business?
1. Driving Traffic: Pinterest drives more referral traffic than
Twitter, LinkedIn and Reddit combined. That’s a lot of traffic.
2. Pins Get You More Inbound Links than any other social medium
{links, links, links}
3. Longer Post Exposure - average lifespan of a Pinterest pin is three and a half
months, which is 1,600 times longer than a Facebook post
4. User Engagement Is Addictively High
5. Allows for Market Research Simultaneously
* Source

44. Middle Sister Wines positions itself
on Pinterest as an authority in the
wine industry by creating several
Pinterest boards that provide ‘useful
and educational information to their
followers while promoting their
products in fun ways.’
Examples..
How do you strengthen your brand?

45. Pinterest's Impact on Google Search Results
In 2013, the founder of Lingerose noted his SEO campaign had placed
their Pinterest page within Google’s top 10 results despite it NOT being a
part of their marketing strategy.
No automatic tools, no cheating. Just Lingerose, Pinterest and hard work.
March 2 to August 31, 2013 (5 months)
8,000 pins added from Lingerose.com
25,000 pins from Lingerose.com were repinned
17,000,000+ impressions of pins from Lingerose.com
17,000+ visits to lingerose.com
* Source: Social Media Today

46. Rich Pins?
Rich Pins add extra details to Pins from your
website. Right now, there are five types of Rich Pins:
movie, recipe, article, product and place

47. Why Rich Pins?
* Source
The verification process legitimizes your brand
Provides more useful information
Automatically updates on price or product reflect on your
pin
Free Price Alerts - If you decrease the price of your products by more than 10%
Pinterest will send an automated email about the price drop to the people who pinned your
product. This is all done for free!
Traffic Boost - Target trailed rich pins with Pinterest and saw a 70% increase in traffic

48. Place Pins
Highlight map, address as well as phone number info. Place Pins are perfect for travel enthusiast
and travel brands. These pins form an interactive map board where you can see the pins by
location.

49. Product Pins
Implementing Product Pins is a must
for any ecommerce business
Allow you to highlight the Current
Price, Availability and Where to buy
As a bonus you will also get free price
notifications alerting pinners that
you’ve dropped the price

50. Recipe Pins
Display recipe details including
cooking time
Ingredients, servings & description
Display ratings as well as related
recipes (which must be from the
same domain name).

51. Advertising
6

52. Pinterest is currently growing its advertising product
Promoted Pins has granular targeting options
Cinematic Pins will be animated while scrolling through
your feed
The Infancy Stage

53. Promoted Pins
It spent eight months perfecting the beta version with a
limited number of partners before offering it to the world
Promoted Pins are only available to U.S based
businesses at this moment
You must sign up to their waiting list

54. The Buy Button Cometh
7

56. The Buy Button..
Why is this a big deal?
Has the purchase-all button ushered in a new era of
consumerism?
Why Pinterest’s Buy Button Could Dominate Social Media
Commerce

57. The History of Buy Buttons?
Facebook & Twitter both have buy buttons.. why haven’t
they dominated?
Trust issues
Secrecy of purchasing
These channels exist to share news.. not so much about
products. NOT like Pinterest

58. Why this will succeed
Pinterest already helps e-commerce i.e.. Rich Pins, Pin-It
Buttons & Promoted Pins
They have $11b in funding to test the model.. more than
the GDP of Madagascar
They are product focused
Coupled with Apple Pay.. you have a 1-2 punch!

60. The question isn’t ‘Will it work?’,
it’s what social impact will this have?
- Super Wise Person
“
”

61. How many of you purchase via mobile?
Why do you/ do not?
Would ‘ease of use’, such as a buy button, help
your buying decisions via mobile? Why or Why not?

62. @OctopusAndSon