Pinterest Obsession: The Future Of Social Media?
BOSTON (CBS) - We all know someone who seems to be on Facebook or Twitter every waking hour.
Now there is a new social network that is shaping up to be the latest online obsession.
It's called Pinterest and, like its predecessors, millions are getting hooked.
It's really a simple concept.
Think virtual scrapbook or bulletin board.
If you find a photo of something you like online, you add it to one of your Pinterest boards.
Then all of your images are shared with Pinterest users from around the world. They can see your stuff, you can see theirs.
"I can't say enough about a how great it is," explained Stephanie Bunomo of Stoneham who uses Pinterest to stay organized. But, she insists, there is a lot more to it than that.
"The best thing about it is other people's ideas."
WBZ-TV's Paula Ebben reports
A full-time lawyer and mother, Stephanie didn't have time to think about what to do for her son's birthday so she turned to Pinterest.
In minutes she came up with a super hero theme, directions to make a cake, a birthday banner and favors.
"I'm not a creative person, but I'm a good copier," she said.
Fashion, food, travel, fitness or books, whatever you are interested in, someone is pinning things you would like.
"It's my resource center. It's my inspiration file. It's my bulletin board. It's my social network. It's all of that," said Michelle Ferullo of Woburn.
An audiologist by day, Michelle's true passion is her art.
She shares ideas from her studio with more than 1,000 followers in Pinterest.
"One of the editors of a well-known magazine saw one of the things I created and she really liked it," she said.
So much in fact, the picture holder she made out of re-purposed vintage hardware made the front cover of the magazine.
Since then, Michelle has written several articles for the publication.
"Pinterest opens a lot of doors," she said.
"This is a big thing," said social media expert and Emerson College Professor David Gerzoff Richard.
Why so big?
The bulk of Pinterest users are women between the ages of 25 and 44, the top spenders in our economy.
"That's a very powerful demographic for advertisers and marketers. This is already a home run for these guys," he said.
Pinterest is growing even faster than Facebook did in its infancy.
And like Facebook and Twitter, many users say once you start, it's tough to stop.
Pinterest is by invitation only, but that does not appear to be much of a hurdle.
The site picked up several million new users just in the past couple of months.
