Pinterest has created a great deal of buzz in recent months. The social bookmarking website invites users to share and categorize web content and its standout visual-based grid design has worked very well for its growing community of mainly female subscribers.
A recent review of the site drew the following slightly churlish summary: “It’s been done before. It’s just reddit for chicks”.
While the concept of social bookmarking is far from unique, as with virtually everything on the web, innovation is extremely rare. Just copying a hit website like Facebook or Twitter is unlikely to gain much traction unless there’s a target audience that isn’t being tapped into. If there is an untapped audience, simple duplication won’t be enough. Either the user experience, the layout and design or the sense of community will need to be approached very differently to get that target audience interested.
Pinterest clearly does that brilliantly and its a great antidote to the concept that everything on the web’s already been done. How many of today’s most popular websites have an achilles heel in that their design approach and community is all about a rather narrow demographic of young, male subscribers. Imagine a warm and welcoming version of You Tube without the profane, juvenile shouting match comments. In fact, if you find yourself on any popular site and sense that the entire community represents that narrow target audience of young men, it might be worth thinking what you might do differently. If you can come up with something, maybe the next big buzz will be about your website.
A great example is how the team at Pinterest have achieved that crucial factor of making the atmosphere on the site warm and welcoming. Users aren’t just allowed to sign up and get cracking. Instead you’re given the option to request an invite, reinforcing the sense of “our site, our rules”. The invitation email, when it arrives is very much about the etiquette. Be nice, be creative, give credit. You can see the impact of that approach throughout the site.