Commentary
To Interest Moms, Try Pinterest
- by Stephanie Azzarone , Op-Ed Contributor, March 28, 2012
TechCrunch recently crowned Pinterest 2011’s “Best New Start Up,” and in February alone, Pinterest saw 16.23 million unique users. TechCrunch also reported that 80% of Pinterest’s user base is female.
With that as background, we decided to go a step further and see exactly how interest in Pinterest played out specifically among moms. Feedback from 250 moms across the country not only showed that many moms were using the program, but how and why. Key findings:
- 96.7% of moms surveyed (all active bloggers) said they were using Pinterest.
- Top 5 reasons why:
- It’s just fun (90%)
- I like organizing my interests (67.8%)
- I like looking at beautiful things (67%)
- Makes my blog, Website, Facebook or Twitter stream more interesting (55.7%)
- It helps me drive traffic to my blog or Web site (53.5%)
- About the same number (68.0% vs. 65.3%) said they used Pinterest on their blog and on Facebook, respectively.
- The number of Pinterest boards each mom had ran from a low of 1 to a high of 83, averaging out at 18.
- “Food/recipes” was by far (91.4%) the category/subject moms pinned the most. Others in the top 5 were “Crafts” (74.5%), “Home Décor" (55.5%) “How-To” (52.7%), and “Fashion” (39.5%).
- Fewer than half of moms (42.3%) used Pinterest to plan events, with 78.7% of that number planning a child’s birthday party.
- Interestingly, of the moms surveyed, only 4.1% just pinned original graphics, 5.5% only re-pinned others’ graphics, and the vast majority (94.5%) did a combination of both, with a quarter (25.1%) also creating original graphics specifically for pinning.
- About two-thirds of moms (66.5%) both pinned when they came across something of interest and pro-actively searched for items to pin.
- Moms’ top sources for re-pins:
- Blogs of friends (65.5%)
- Craft sites (49%)
- Foodies (45%)
- Their own blog (40%)
For marketers, Pinterest presents an opportunity to connect with moms by offering tantalizing visuals for them to pin and re-pin and bycreating Pinterest-based contests and other interactive activities to further engage this audience. This approach not only develops an additional social media connection but, because pins link back to their source, also drives incoming links to the brand’s online presence, impacting SEO.
Asked who was doing the best job among companies currently engaged on Pinterest, moms mentioned Lands’ End, Kraft Foods, Real Simple, Totsy, Home Depot and Disney Family Fun, among others. Kudos were given to those who pinned a variety of topics both from their own sources and others, who offered helpful recipes and who added great photos.
Many note the reduced volume of text-based Facebook updates as proof that we’re moving away from social sharing, as a whole. However, we’re sharing more information now than ever, we’re just doing it in ways that are more natural than a text-based status update. Pinterest is the perfect example and as vividly evidenced here a place that Mom's are using more and more every day. Thanks for these valuable insights and statictics Stephanie.
This is a clear sign of the desire for more 'rich' social media. With everyone carrying a video/still camera (mobile devices) at all times these days, creating and sharing rich media is only being held back by the strength of our wireless signal and UX friction of the various platforms.
Great post, Stephanie. Brands should not underestimate the power of Pinterest even with moms who are not active bloggers. As Ted Rubin points out in his comments, we are sharing more information than ever and new social tools such as Pinterest are making it easier for moms to create on and even offline conversations.
Bottom line for brands: The conversation about your brand will happen with or without you--isn't it better to be involved?
Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/171187/to-interest-moms-try-pinterest.html#ixzz1qRVPeY00
My pleasure, Ted. Thanks for the comment.
Good point, Robert. It will be interesting to see how much futher we all go in the future in the sharing of rich media.
Thanks, Patti. It's extraordinary to me how the platforms through which moms share information have expanded and evolved in the 20+ years Child's Play has been targeting the mom market. The challenge for everyone -- brands and agencies alike -- is keeping up!