In our everyday life we’re all well aware of the gender divide (I certainly am). But up until now social media has been a playground for both sexes with no stark preferences. I mean we enjoy both Facebook and Twitter don’t we?
There are differences of course – AdAge reported in 2011 that Men represented 45.4% of Twitter users and Women 54.6% ; Whilst Social Media Today last year indicated that Facebook is currently skewed to Men 51.2% and Women 48.8%.
But here we are in 2012 and the fastest growing website in history can and should be praising the fairer species. Pinterest is exploding with more than 13 million unique visitors to date, and of them various reports indicate 80% of Pinterest users are female. I should note that this particular data is a month old and in Pinterest’s case this could have risen or changed dramatically.
How could this be? Why aren’t the guys jumping on it as well?
One view could be that Pinterest requires us to request an invite. Perhaps Pinterest has a grand scheme to get the girls on board first and are holding back the guys invites. I doubt it, there’s no theory behind it is there? Besides I got an invite and my opinion is based on experiences of those around me.
What Pinterest provides is a platform to pin and share images you like (and much more). Pinterest is one of those ideas and I am sure I’m not alone out there, that you just WISH YOU HAD OF THOUGHT OF IT YOURSELF!!
So why are the girls going crazy about it? I thought I might (a particular little lady would say for the first time) observe female conversations and their behaviours for a little bit. Wow! Have you ever seen women looking at fashion and home magazines? They go nuts.
I was painfully privy to an afternoon with three women with home magazines in front of them, stopping every 30 seconds to show the others pictures of everything. Have a look at this silverwood buffet they said, oh this chair is gorgeous, I need to get these cushions. It’s a completely different world. By the way guys, a buffet in this instance has nothing to do with food.
Apologies if it sounds like I am getting off the topic but I am getting somewhere with this…The thing is, women love sharing pictures and this is what Pinterest is banking on.
So why not guys I hear you say? Well for the one or two guys that will bother to read this post, I wonder how you’re going with Pinterest? If you’re on it that is. I am struggling, I am really struggling to come up with boards and pins. Sure I see funny stuff from time to time but nothing that I have a specific board for. So I have resorted to and I say resorted to because I am doing it more for the experience and so I can begin to understand –Using the old email-based Demotivational posters as a board.
Hardly all that creative and it took me a while to come up with that. This image sharing just doesn’t come naturally to me.
So I would love to hear your feedback. For the guys, if you’re on Pinterest let me know what you think. For the girls I would really appreciate the feedback and some more insight into why Pinterest is so popular.
A couple of Pinterest links:
Mashable shared this Pinterest infographic highlighting 97% of Pinterest’s fans on Facebook are women
TIME even states that Men are from Google+ and why Pinterest is growing so fast
Quentin Aisbett is the strategist at OnQ Marketing. He loves social media, SEO and mobile. Blogging all the time, tweeting even more so and found rambling on Google Plus at+Quentin Aisbett. Be a little old school and email him.
