Will There Be a Pinterest for Men?

The rise of Pinterest was one 2012’s biggest ongoing PR/marketing stories. We recently discussed the social media upstart’s role in the re-branding of print lifestyle magazines and wondered why so many marketers remain skeptical. Last month, Pinterest finally launched business pages, leading to lots of blog posts with headlines like “Is Your Brand on Pinterest? Why Not?” OK, so everybody needs to look into Pinterest as a marketing tool. One big challenge, though: despite the fact that the company's founder is a man, its community remains overwhelmingly female—most recent estimates put the ratio at 2:1 or higher, and as of this February a whopping 97 percent of the site’s Facebook fans were women. For some brands this demographic bias works quite well; for others it renders Pinterest all but useless. To ask the inevitable question: Why don't we have a "Pinterest for men?" Well, it’s not for lack of trying—as of today, we’re still getting email pitches from sites positioning themselves as the pinboard of choice for those of the masculine persuasion. Here are a few, along with their taglines: Gentlemint – A mint of manly things. Manteresting – Interesting. Man. Things. Dudepins – Man up. Sign up. Pin up. Tapiture – A place for guys to discover the best stuff online. We see a pattern developing here… Most of these properties predictably resemble Maxim magazine spreads—actresses in lingerie, photos of cars, jokes about alcohol. They leave us even less interested in the “pinboard” phenomenon than we were before we browsed through them. Why are men not joining the original pinboard site in the first place? Seriously, we can’t figure it out: is it because men prefer text-based content over visuals? We don’t think so. Is it because so many Pinterest users only concern themselves with “topics of interest to women”? No, that’s ridiculous. Last but definitely not least: Why is most of the UK Pinterest audience “predominantly male marketers sharing content related to the industry?” Tell us, PR pros: Will one of these “Pinterest for men” brands break through? Can you use Pinterest to promote brands and products that don’t play to traditionally “female” audiences?

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Will There Be a Pinterest for Men?

Patrick Coffee

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