About 229 people follow the average Pinterest user, who spends approximately 89 minutes on the site connecting board visitors to brand Web pages with a
click of a button. This person has 3 boards, 171 pins, and 28 likes. Worldwide, 83% are female, and the remainder are male, according to a study released this week.
The Engauge's
Power Panel survey, compiled with stats from a number of sources, such as Comscore, Econsultancy.com, LexisNexis, and Compete, suggests pins come from numerous places. A tad more than 59% come
from user-uploaded content, followed by Etsy with 9.36%, and Google at 8.25%. When it comes to finding pins via Google, 82.9% come from Image Search; 11.59, other; 2.78%, Reader; and 2.73%,
Search.
Other pin sources include Tumblr at 5.88%; Polyvore, 4.51%; Flickr, 4.26%; We Hear It, 2.89%; Houzz, 2.06%; Bhg, 1.89%; and Imgfave, 1.80%.
The survey also points to the
most popular categories. Fashion takes the No. 1 category with 2.76%, followed by Desserts at 2.21%, Plain at 1.92%, Clothes at 1.86, Birthday at 1.13%, and Inspirational 1.12%.
Who's pinning?
New Yorkers pin the most, with 22%, followed by Los Angeles at 15%, Austin at 10%, Minneapolis at 10%, San Francisco at 8%, Portland at 7%, and San Diego at 6%.
The study makes some
interesting points. It describes Pinterest as a connective tissue, which emphasizes the importance of optimizing company Web sites, content and social sites like Facebook. The connection drives people
from Pinterest to the Web site or Facebook Fan page for more information about a product or service.
With all new ideas, Pinterest comes with its own complications: Copyright infringement. Who
owns the rights to the photos being shared on the site? Obviously, if a brand posts "Pin" buttons they welcome pinning, but what if they don't? After all, people can't use someone else's stuff.
Last month, Kirsten shared her experience of unpinning her pins and deleting the Pinterest
account. As a lawyer, she views the site and its content with fresh eyes.
The majority is unique data Engauge sourced using LexisNexis’s HPCC Systems Big Data platform. Only 3 items of
data came from Comscore, Compete, Econsultancy.com, as well as qualitative data came from the Engauge Power Panel.