Business, or Phenomenon?

Roughly three months ago, Pinterest became all the rage among both Facebook, and Twitter friends alike. Naturally, being the social network butterfly I am, I had to know what all the buzz was about, and headed to http://www.pinterest.com/. While the majority of social networking, and image sharing sites let you join on your first visit, Pinterest was totally different giving you the option to “request an invite”. Even after waiting two weeks, I still hadn’t received my invite, and started hunting down Pinterest users on my Facebook friends list.

Within minutes, I was an official Pinterest user.

So why and how has this site become such an obsession and favorite among so many?

Feeling crafty?

Pinterest users have a board for that.

Feeling hungry for something new?

Pinterest is becoming the go to for recipes.

Planning your upcoming wedding?

Pinterest can help with that.

Mother overloaded with stress and disorganization?

Pinterest is there to help.

Bored college student looking for a new outlet for procrastination?

Pinterest is most certainly there for you.

Unlike Facebook, and Twitter who both carry some opportunity for companies to feed information to their target market Pinterest users are looking for specific information, and businesses. Through the use of boards, and pins resembling that of a bulletin board, people can find exactly what they’re looking for.  Each picture pinned to a board contains a hyperlink to the site where the picture was found. Companies like Whole Foods and Williams-Sonoma are using Pinterest to bring customers to their sites through the use of pins and hyperlinks. Williams-Sonoma specifically have recently noticed a large influx of customers coming directly from the Pinterest site.

The site isn’t just popular, it’s booming. In May, there were 418,000 users. In October, just five months later, there were 3.3 million.  With growth, and usage like this, it’s crazy to think that any business would be passing up the opportunity to target a large section of the market this way.

From a personal stand point, as a human of my generation, and Facebook junkie, Pinterest has surpassed Facebook on my “Top Visited Sites”. That has to say something for what it is becoming, and the opportunity that is out there from a marketing stand point.  

"Instead of one way interruption, web marketing is about delivering useful content at just the precise moment a buyer needs it."  --David Meerman Scott (Author, The New Rules of Marketing & PR)

Ashley

Article:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/why-imagesharing-network-pinterest-is-hot-11172011.html

Pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com

Kirsty Colquhoun's blog; 365 Days of Pinterest Creations:

http://kirstycolquhoun.blogspot.com/

UMSL

Http://www.umsl.edu

Hello World!

Hello! My name is Ashley Hurd, and while I grew up in the beautiful corn filled "fly over state" of Iowa, I currently live in Florissant and attend the University of Missouri - St Louis.  I believe I have changed my major more than Betty White has changed her undies in her lifetime, or at least it feels that way. I have finally settled in the Business Administration world, and until last semester thought I was sure about a career in finance. That is, until I enrolled in marketing 3700 with Michael Carter. I couldn't believe I'd found a major where I could not only use my creepy skills in mathematics, but also my creativity. I still plan on getting a minor in finance, so I can enhance my "awesome-ness" when it comes to the financial analysis portion of a marketing plan.
After finishing the course, I chose to explore deeper into the Marketing coursework with this course, International Marketing with Elizabeth Vining. I am also taking An Approach to Ethics with Noell Birondo and Basic Probability and Statistics with David Stamps. It is no surprise that in today's society the internet has taken control of every aspect of our lives, from dieting, and shopping, to research, and social networking. Marketing through the internet is a powerful tool, one that I want to learn more about since it affects my decision making on a daily basis.
My favorite class I've taken since I've been at UMSL is probably a solid tie between Calculus, and Basic Marketing. It seems as though many of the classes I've taken seem to get lost between the three colleges I've been enrolled in. Definitely those two at UMSL though.
My favorite thing about UMSL, is the coursework, and the knowledgeable instructors. I never feel like I'm in a class with someone who doesn't know the content, which, on occasion, was an issue in community college. I feel lucky that I can study with a business program that has been nationally recognized. My least favorite thing about UMSL, probably the campus, that sounds so negative, but growing up in small town Iowa where everyone knows everyone and you never locked your front door or your car, it gives me an uneasy feeling. My second semester here, during an ethics class we received word that "there was a gunman on campus, and were on lock down". News scenes from Columbine, and Virginia Tech flashed through my mind like a movie. My small town upbringing, combined with 3 years of community college has made my adjustment at a large state university a tough one. On the other hand, going non-smoking last July....was AWESOME!
Other than getting a top-notch education I'm not currently involved in any on-campus activities.  Off Campus, I'm a typical 23 year old college student I suppose. When I'm not working as a teller at First State Bank of St. Charles, I spend time with friends, go to concerts, movies, and LOVE the Art Museum.

And, because I just purchased my dream Macbook Pro last night, I will close with a quote from Steve Jobs,
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Ashley
(636)697-3726