Female Pinterest Activity Is Still On The Rise

A surprisingly high proportion (84%) of female Pinterest users have remained active on the image-sharing network come their fourth year of membership, a survey by RJMetrics has discovered. To compare, Facebook boasted around 49% active users at the start of the year, Twitter had 36% and Google+ had 35% registered active users. This makes Pinterest the best performing network for active users.

The figure for Pinterest can be explained by the fact 80% of the social channel’s users are female, who are generally more active online than their male counterparts – women generate 92% of pins. Total female activity on Pinterest increased from 87% to 94% in the three years since the network’s creation – a remarkable trend in its own right. The average number of pins that a woman made in her first year of membership was 42, but by her fourth year on the network she was posting an average of 152 pins. At the same time, male use is declining, from 13% of pins in the summer of 2011 to 6% now.

Regarding the most popular categories on Pinterest, the runaway leader is food and drink, followed by DIY and crafts then home decor. Humour, products, animals and the outdoors are the least popular categories among Pinterest users.

These findings are very relevant for marketers, especially those in the e-commerce sector, given not just the lively levels of activity but also the fact that Pinterest users tend to spend more on online shopping than Facebook and Twitter users, according to figures for the US market. The difference in spending activity across the channels was fairly significant, with Pinterest users spending $140-$180 per order, compared with $60-$80 per order for Facebook and Twitter users.