
How to Make Your Startup Go Viral The Pinterest Way - aaronbrethorst
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/26/pinterest-viral/
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britta
I don't know if this article says a whole lot other than the reference to
Pinterest being popular among lots of people deeply interested in art,
fashion, cooking, and homemaking instead of just people interested in tech
news (using the phrase "housewife in the Midwest", which doesn't seem very
accurate anyway; from what I can tell by roaming around Pinterest over the
past few months, probably most of the women using it work outside their homes
and/or have no children [even though they may plan to eventually]).

Pinterest has a really good simple "what does this do" explanation - you
collect and share pretty pictures! Everyone who likes the idea of making their
homes more beautiful and their outfits nicer is liable to find that idea
appealing. And it's "selfishly social", which is important for retaining
users; it's useful to use just by yourself, and then even better with other
people.

Another important part of Pinterest is that it's both very flattering to each
user and intensely aspirational - when you use it, you get the feeling of
"Look at what great taste I have! I want to make cakes as lovely as these, I
want to live in a house as wonderful as this one, I want to have a wedding
this beautiful; maybe someday I will, thanks to these ideas cataloged on my
Pinterest boards." (But I actually get frustrated with the aspirational
prettiness of most Pinterest pins; I like messy homemade things, strange
things, things from normal people along with things from professionals. I wish
more people pinned photos of their own work, imperfect and homemade and
genuine, not just of other people's work. That would add something even more
fun to browsing other people's pins.)

