What is Pinterest?

Pinterest calls itself a virtual pinboard. The following is a quote from their website:

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

I signed up for Pinterest the other day and spent some time playing around with it. Before I knew it I found myself engulfed in areas that interested me. I began to follow others who had interests that were like mine and re-pinned many of their items. At first I did not think I was interested in finding recipes or new shoe styles, however after spending some time browsing through the magnitude of pictures and information I found what I consider to be an advertiser's dream. There are incredible opportunities for an organization's products to be connected to people who like items like they provide.

Upon this realization, I had to find out how many people are using this service. Utilizing the Nielsen 2012 Social Media Report I found the following quote.

Pinterest had the largest year-over-year increase in audience and time spent of any social network across PC, mobile, and web apps.

In the U.S. Market alone Pinterest surpassed over 46 million unique visitors. This is something that any producer of a product should be intently aware of. So if you have not checked out Pinterest, you may want to spend some time fining your interests.