Vocabulary of all kinds is used in this post. Some of the more difficult words that might be new for you are highlighted in bold and then explained below the text in the glossary.
Have you heard of Pinterest? No? Well, it’s the latest in what seems like a never ending list of social networking sites. Dubbed the ‘Facebook killer’ it may also have what it takes to outdo even Twitter and take its place as the king of the internet social experience.
How does it work?
Pinterest is basically an online pinboard where users share images of products they like which they ‘pin’ to their boards. Other people can then comment on what their friends have pinned. Thanks to their new widget, appearing on more and more retailer websites day by day, customers can effortlessly browse, pin and repost product images. Imagine completely redecorating your flat using the best items the web has to offer, well with Pinterest you literally have the world wide web at your fingertips.
Is it popular?
The numbers speak for themselves as traffic has sky rocketed tenfold over 6 months. In January 2012 alone, Pinterest clocked up 11 million unique visitors, double that of the month before. It now boasts a third as many visitors as Twitter and experts place its value at a cool $200 million.
Is it useful for companies?
From a business perspective, Pinterest works, there’s no doubt about it. Smartattire4u Ltd, a small online menswear company, reported a boom in annual revenue from £475,000 to £692,000. It attributes this increase almost exclusively to Pinterest. And they’re not alone, with some others allegedly quadrupling their revenues thanks to Pinterest.
What’s the future for Pinterest?
As strange as it may sound, Pinterest isn’t actually profitable and doesn’t appear to know how to become so. You can’t blame the company though, they’re only following in the footsteps of Facebook and Twitter which started with no clear game plan or strategy. It’s hard to believe that the 16 person start-up has no business model at all. For the average business man or woman this would seem unthinkable.
Pinterest co-founder and former Google employee Ben Silbermann claims he’ll worry about the business side later. For now, he remains more concerned with nurturing a valuable service and attracting users but eventually the company will need to turn a profit. How exactly they can do this is still unclear.
Here’s a tutorial to teach you how to use Pinterest:
Vocabulary Phrases
- Dubbed
- Labelled or named
- To have what it takes
- To have the abilities/skills & determination to succeed
- To outdo someone else
- To do something better than sb
- To pin sthg to sthg else
- To attach sthg with a small nail type object
- Widget
- A small application that you can install onto a webpage
- Effortlessly
- Easily without any difficulty
- To browse
- To look at sthg leisurely
- To repost
- To write a web page again
- Redecorating
- To paint/wall paper again
- At your fingertips
- Easily accessible
- The numbers speak for themselves
- The statistics are obvious and results can be easily understood
- Sky rocketed
- Increased at a high level
- Tenfold
- 10 times
- Clocked up
- Reached a certain level/amount
- Boasts
- Brags, to say you are great at sth
- Menswear
- Clothes for men
- Boom
- A large increase in a short time
- Attributes X to Y
- Believes the cause of X is Y
- Exclusively
- Only
- Allegedly
- Apparently
- Quadrupling
- Increasing 400%
- Following in the footsteps
- Copying the idea of someone/thing
- Game plan
- Strategy
- Start-up
- A new and small company
- Unthinkable
- You cannot imagine
- Business side
- Everything to do with running the company
- Nurturing
- Developing in a caring manner
- To turn a profit
- To start making money
Discussion questions
1)Why is Pinterest popular?
2)How can Pinterest become profitable?
