Indelibuzz

Perhaps the most interesting thing about social media is that it’s constantly evolving. Step away for a week, and you can miss an entire chapter. The latest entry that’s getting a fair amount of buzz in the waning days of 2011 is called Pinterest.

Looks like the name came from a combination of ‘picture’ and ‘interest’. Pinterest appears to provide the missing link from Flickr, and that’s community interaction. Unlike Facebook, this isn’t a place where the focus is on an endless stream of chatter. It’s more of a virtual bulletin board that’s been divided into themes. The homepage is a potpourri of everything and anything. But if you explore a bit, you’ll find that there are 32 separate categories there ranging from ‘weddings’ to ‘geeks’. There are some pretty terrific images on all of them, and lots of comments, too.

The inevitable question of course is, who has time for this? Evidently, just like during the early days of Facebook and YouTube, young people do. And lest we forget, it was the younger demographic that brought these networks to life. Even though mom & dad are of course on Facebook today, they were nowhere to be found in the beginning.

So just how big is Pinterest right now? The SFGate says the site is getting ONE BILLION monthly page views. And naturally, that amount of traffic has generated some early interest from marketing managers who want to be ahead of the curve. Here are four brands that have established an early presence: Real Simple, Nordstrom, Land’s End and ShopItToMe. The ‘followers’ and ‘following’ numbers on these brands are remarkably low right now. But then again, I also remember when Starbucks had less than 5,000 fans on Facebook.

So is your business right for Pinterest? If you’re in retail, there’s no doubt the answer is yes. But here’s the broader rationale: If you have a product line that photographs well, and could use more exposure, why not arrive sooner rather than later? Yes, it will take some time for your social team. But other than that, it’s hard to see a downside.