Pinterest: Is it just for girls?

I just finished up working on a social media project using Pinterest and was faced with a question: is Pinterest really just for girls? The answer to this question is that for the most part, Pinterest is for girls. Now the main reason for this is because of the format of the network and who it caters to. Faced with a business situation, Pinterest could be a very valuable tool for women and a good marketing tool for businesses aiming at the female population. The other question to this is if Pinterest can have any other use besides just as a social media tool for women. Could it be used as a business tool for men? The short answer would be no. There simply are not enough men using Pinterest for it to be a valuable tool for marketing, networking or collect data from. Now this does not mean it wont be in the future as Pinterest is a growing social media platform and more men are signing up for it. With this being said it is possible that in the next few years it could be a valuable tool for both men and women in the future. Another downfall from Pinterest from a marketing standpoint is that the format of the website does not provide for a whole lot of information to be shared. People post pictures and a few words about it and each user is allowed to put up a short biography about themselves and that is pretty much it. Other social media platforms such as Facebook and Myspace allow users to put up much more information about themselves so it would be easier to collect data as well as market to users. Now, is Pinterest a bad social media platform? No. Is it a growing social media platform? Yes. Does it have a lot of potential? Yes. Pinterest has the potential to be a useful marketing tool and a good way to generate value for its users but it is still young and developing. It would not surprise me if Pinterest somehow bridges the gap sometime in the future between men and women and becomes a valuable business tool in the future.