Spending hours on Pinterest looking at food, clothes and crafts is a common way for BYU–Hawaii college students to procrastinate their homework or relax after a hard day. Pinterest is a virtual pin board where users can share photos that link to websites where you can learn how to cook food, buy clothes, or make crafts. Women are the primary users of Pinterest, but men also commonly use Pinterest posting cars, clothes and food also.
According to mashable.com the most pinned categories on Pinterest are: “Home (17.2%), Arts and Crafts (12.4%), Style/Fashion (11.7%) and Food (10.5%).” The categories are not surprising when understanding that the main users of Pinterest are women between the ages of 18-35.
BYUH students are no exception to this statistic, either. When asked what she pins the most, Nicole Nahoolewa, a junior studying art from Texas, said, “I usually pin clothes.” Pinners can easily access a clothing item available for purchase by simply clicking on photo, making it effortless to shop online. Even large companies have included marketing strategies involving Pinterest due to its high usage.
Being a very visual website, many are also attracted to Pinterest for the pictures and creative design. Nahoolewa said, “I like to find background pictures for my phone too. I like scenery, landscape and surf pictures. I use it for my art class whenever I need pictures.” Users have found many ways to take advantage of Pinterest besides it’s main purpose of marketing. “Pinspiration” is a common phrase used to describe the inspiration to buy or create something after using Pinterest. Ideas for weekday meals, birthday cakes and wedding desserts are standardly seen.
Karli Newley, a junior in graphic design from Texas, said, “My favorite thing to pin on Pinterest is probably food because I love food. I’ll go on and look at different recipes. Sometimes I’ll make a holiday board that just has treats for holidays.” A new window has opened with Pinterest enabling pinners to access thousands of recipes from different blogs and websites.
Pinterest takes full advantage of the visual nature of the social media site, relying on images stringy cheese on a homemade piece of pizza or the fresh water drops on a fruit platter to entice users to use the pinned recipes. Pinterest grabs the pinner’s attention, showing them images to help them decide what they want through seeing what they can possibly make.