THE POWER OF THE PLATFORM: VISUAL STORYTELLING ON SOCIAL NETWORKS 57 Pinterest Facts and Figures • This image sharing network was cofounded • 70% of brand engagement on Pinterest is 11 by Iowa’s Ben Silbermann, and it was generated by users, not by brands. launched in March 2010. • Top brands in the fashion and retail space 12 • By August 2011 it had already made it onto average 46 repins on every pin. Time Magazine’s “50 Best Websites for • U.S. consumers who use Pinterest follow an 13 2011” list. average of 9.3 retailers on the site. • CNN called Pinterest “2012’s hottest web- • Pinterest pins that include prices receive 14 site,” after unique visitors to the site grew 36% more likes than those that do not. 400% from September to December 2011. • Moms are 61% more likely to visit Pinterest 15 • Pinterest now drives more referral traf- than the average American. fic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn • 81% of U.S. online consumers trust infor- 3 16 combined. mation and advice from Pinterest. • Pinterest’s user base is only 7% of Twitter’s, • Pinterest accounts for 25% of retail referral 17 but the platform sends more total referral traffic. 4 18 traffic than Twitter. • Over 80% of pins are repins. • With a mere 1% of Facebook’s user count, • The average Pinterest user spends 98 min- Pinterest sends 13% of the traffic that utes per month on the site, compared to 2.5 5 19 Facebook does. hours on Tumblr and 7 hours on Facebook. • 80% of users are female, and lifestyle, • Out of 17 million brand engagements, 15% hobby, crafts, and design are the most pop- occurred on the brand’s boards and 85% ular themes.6 occurred elsewhere on Pinterest.20 7 • 50% of all Pinterest users have children. • 83.9% of a pinner’s time is spent Pinning, • By February 2013, Pinterest had 25 million while 15.5% is spent liking and 0.6% is 8 21 users. spent leaving comments. • Sephora says its Pinterest followers spend • 57% of Pinterest users interact with 9 15 times more than their Facebook fans. food-related content, the number one cat- • 82% of fashion- and retail-related images egory of content.22 are being pinned by the community, with 10 brands’ pinning only 18% of content.