How to grow like Pinterest

Every startup has aspirations of gaining a wide following and eventually becoming a popular and indispensable part of its niche. Most companies strive to be the next great idea - like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram - for both reputation and monetary purposes.

But what does it take for a business marketing idea to catch on among the masses - or in essence, "go viral?"

All Techie News recently broke down the rapid rise of another popular social platform, Pinterest, in an attempt to determine what it did right and how other startups can benefit from its success.

Between October 2010 and October 2011, the photo-centric pinboarding website grew from 40,000 unique visitors to 3.2 million. According to Vabsite, the company is now the third most visited website in America as of March, accumulating 104 million visitors in the month alone. Only Facebook (7 billion) and Twitter (182 million) saw more visits, and Pinterest found itself ahead of prominent sites such as LinkedIn (86 million) and Google+ (61 million).

All Techie News also points out that the site grew about 50 percent month over month from its inception in 2010 and its page views have been growing by 20 times per month since June.

This sort of growth is similar to Facebook's, in that Facebook grew from 14 million unique viewers to 26 million from May 2006 to May 2007, at around a 10 percent to 15 percent clip. So, even if Pinterest were to expand by just 20 percent month to month over the next year, it would be at 30 million unique viewers, and 25 percent monthly growth would leave it at 50 million visitors.

What spurred this massive growth? For one, the site appealed to many women, as seen by its 87 percent female user rate, explains Vabsite. It also has a wide user age demographic, ranging from ages 25 to 54 years old.

But the Six Revisions blog points to another aspect or "virality" that Pinterest has succeeded in. The news source refers to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs when describing characteristics that make content resonate with readers. Maslow's hierarchy revolves a pyramid that starts with fulfilling physiological needs such as breathing, food and sleep, all the way up to self-esteem and self-actualization, such as morality and acceptance of facts.

"It's the top two tiers of Maslow's hierarchy that drive us to share - be it tweeting, watercooler chatter or half a cookie with friend," the media outlet explains. "People want the respect of others, and they want to feel a sense of belonging."

It seems that Pinterest users are more inclined to share the photos they find because they spark some sort of creativity that they want others to know about. A positive reaction to their discovery creates a sense of self-esteem that makes them feel respected.

Beyond the psychology behind why Pinterest has grown, the site itself offers user-friendly features such as allowing people to browse endlessly without having to sign up for anything. This empowers "the logged-out user" to get a better feel for the site, many times making the person more inclined to sign up, notes All Techie News.

Pinterest has perfect "in-network virality," such as its pin, repin and like features, in addition to out-of-network sharing to platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This combination gives it the power to continue to grow at a pace similar to that of Mark Zuckerberg's social network. 

Finally, if the site monetizes - since many users are using the site for shopping discovery - it could grow to exponential proportions by taking attribution for purchases that originated from its site.