Dreaming out loud on Pinterest

Pinterest represents a new kind of social media that satisfies distinct purposes for female consumers, even as it opens up new opportunities for advertisers. We approach Pinterest as a web-enabled form of scrapbooking and collage, where novel forms of indirect persuasion take place. An analysis of 20 pinboards with 2,291 images showed that women use Pinterest to play with possible future selves and imagine alternative consumption trajectories. The key distinction relative to traditional scrapbooking is a focus on the future rather than the past. Relative to traditional collage, the ease with which large numbers of images can be pulled off the web facilitates taste discovery. Women gather images, particularly of branded commercial products, to help refine their taste and better understand which styles match their aesthetic preferences. Because Pinterest represents a kind of ‘daydreaming out loud’, advertisers who seek to promote via Pinterest must adapt existing social media techniques if they are to be successful, and focus on opportunities for indirect persuasion.