What the Heck is Pinterest and Why are so Many People Addicted to it?

In the interests of keeping our readers updated on all trending social media- today we introduce you to Pinterest. I, myself am a recent convert to this and I can tell you its powerful. I know you are thinking, why in the world do I need another online time-wasting site?

In just two months, Pinterest has blown up and will likely be the “it” social network of 2012. Communications consultant Shel Holtz recently confirmed there are now more than 50 million blog posts referencing or featuring Pinterest. Amazing.

Pinterest is also driving serious traffic for some major brands. It is now driving more traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace combined.

All of this attention usually brings questions—from your peers, from your boss, from your boss’ boss. So, it helps to have some Pinterest stats ready to share at the drop of a hat. When your boss comes calling—and if Pinterest continues to grow at this rate, someone will ask soon— you can share these 18 stats:

1. Pinterest is retaining and engaging users as much as two to three times as efficiently as Twitter was at a similar time in history. (via RJMetrics)

2. Etsy is the top site in terms of “source domains.” (Source domains are the sites that content on Pinterest links to externally.) Google is second, followed by Flickr, Tumblr, and WeHeartit.com (via RJMetrics)

3. Pinterest accounts for 3.6 percent of referral traffic, while Twitter just barely edged ahead of the newcomer, accounting for 3.61 percent of referral traffic. In July 2011, Pinterest accounted for just 0.17 percent of referral traffic, proving the site’s blockbuster growth. (via PR Daily)

4. Pinterest has 10.4 million registered users (and growing). (via AppData)

5. According to AppData and Facebook, 97 percent of Pinterest users are women.

6. American users of the social network spend an average of one hour and 17 minutes on the site, well ahead of Twitter (36 minutes), LinkedIn (17 minutes), and Google+ (six minutes). (via AllTwitter)

7. Top corporate Pinterest boards: Real Simple (34,517 followers), HGTV (17,824 followers), Nordstrom (9,886 followers), West Elm (11,547 followers), ModCloth (11,813 followers), Whole Foods (14,217 followers), Better Homes and Gardens (15,127 followers), Kate Spade (16,371 followers), Etsy (53,784 followers).

8. Estimated unique visitors to Pinterest.com increased by 429 percent from September to December 2011. (via Monetate)

9. According to comScore (via TechCrunch), the average Pinterest user spends 98 minutes per month on the site, compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr, and seven hours on Facebook.

10. Daily Pinterest users have increased by more than 145 percent since the beginning of 2012. (via Mashable)

11. More than one-fifth of Facebook-connected users are on Pinterest daily (which represents more than 2,000,000 members). (via Mashable)

12. Top areas of the country for Pinterest users: East South Central (Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee) and West North Central (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota).

13. The biggest demographic for Pinterest: Women ages 25 to 34. (via Ignite)

14. Only 25 percent of Pinterest users have earned a bachelors or higher degree and the majority live off a household income of $25,000 to $75,000. (via Ignite)

15. In the U.K., the majority of Pinterest users are male (56 percent male vs. 44 percent female). (via Ragan.com)

16. Top interests on Pinterest in the U.S.: crafts, gifts, hobbies/leisure, interior design, fashion designers/collections. (via Ragan.com)

17. Top interests on Pinterest in the U.K.: venture capital, blogging resources, crafts, Web stats/analytics, SEO/marketing. (via Ragan.com)

Arik Hanson is principal of ACH Communications. A version of this post originally appeared on Communications Conversations.