Nearly four years after it launched in private beta in March 2010, Pinterest is a powerhouse.
Twenty-one percent of online adults use the tiled bookmarking service, according to a 2013 study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
That’s more than Instagram. It’s even more than Twitter.
From design and fashion to food and retail, Pinterest has made visual curation a public pastime. And in Seattle, like everywhere else, some people have gotten very good at it.
Pinterest analytics firm Tailwind crunched some numbers and sent me a list of the top ten Seattle pinners of 2013, who together reach more than 18 million followers.
The list includes two organizations — Seattle’s most famous department store is no. 1 — and eight people with a seriously good eye for the things they pin.
Women are four times more likely to use Pinterest than men, but you won’t find that skew here. Half the individual pinners on Seattle’s top ten list are guys.
Want to get to know Seattle’s Pinterest scene? Perusing the pins on these pages is a good place to start:
1. Nordstrom – 4,425,359 followers
We’re a fashion specialty retailer pinning women’s fashion & men’s style. See our favorite dresses, handbags, shoes, cosmetics, jewelry, home decor & more.
2. Liz Lamoreux – 4,109,920 followers
Each day, I try to find the beauty in the real moments here in my corner of the world. I also host retreats, teach creative self-care, poetry, and photography workshops, and make things in my studio.
3. Joseph Knoop – 3,857,226 followers
Top 50 followed on Pinterest, “Top men’s fashion pinners” – Huff.Post, 4 million + followers, blogger, stylist, curator, tastemaker, social media guru.
4. Erin Wing – 1,407,708 followers
I blog about creating a literacy-rich home
5. Maddy P. – 1,181,895 followers
Hi, I’m Maddy and these are the things that inspire and motivate me.
6. Moorea Seal – 858,907 followers
I believe in working hard and being kind :) I’m a jewelry designer & own an online women’s retail site, donating to Non-Profits with every sale.
7. Chad Syme – 645,876 followers
Designer, Photographer & KEXP’er
8. The Greater Good – 626,335 followers
Helping People, Helping Pets and Helping the Planet
9. Kaleb Willis – 504,667 followers
Kaleb Willis is the founder/designer of Kaleb Norman James Design in Seattle, Wa. Experience his floral and event design work
10. Timothy Thibault – 455,168
Love travel and good food. I have called NYC, Singapore, London, Key West and Seattle home. Game engineer by day, DJ by night.
I reached out to some of these top pinners to hear how they use Pinterest and where they hope it goes next. Here are the highlights:
“Pinterest is like a visual treasure hunt of inspiration. … Quotes are the most popular pins I share, and I think this is because quotes remind people of how they want to and hope to live. I tend to pin quotes that invite people to see the beauty in their lives while also inviting them to know that they aren’t alone in the tough moments too.” —Liz Lamoreux
“I immediately fell in love with the platform because it’s so visual. It’s by far my favorite form of social media. … I hope they just keep on keeping on because whatever they’re doing seems to be working.”—Erin Wing
“I’m quite impressed with how well Pinterest has managed to implement new features and functionality that perform exceptionally well while maintaining the same level of user experience. It’s very common for major updates to app and web services to change too much and make what was once very intuitive and familiar feel foreign and cumbersome.”—Chad Syme
“It’s amazing to me how every day there’s always something new and amazing to be seen. I would love to be able to schedule pins to post at a future time. That would be awesome.”—Kaleb Willis
“It’s great to discover people with similar tastes and get exposed to things you might not have time to search out. And the user base is so large now, you can search for random things like emergency preparedness and get a wealth of information back. Way better than doing a Google search.”—Timothy Thibault
For a bonus, here’s Tailwind’s list of the top 10 most popular Seattle related pins of 2013, by number of repins:
- 30 Fun Things to See and Do in Seattle! – 2.8k repins
- Seattle. A very different view… – 2.8k repins
- Front Yard Vegetable Garden Seattle – 2.7k repins
- Seattle’s Pike Place Market – 2.1k repins
- Snoqualmie Falls outside of Seattle Washington, USA – 1.8k repins
- Spend a Day in Seattle – 1.7k repins
- Seattle Great Wheel – 1.4k repins
- Seattle in the fog – 1.3k repins
- Seattle Pier at night, USA – we could see this out of our hotel room window. Edge Water Hotel – 1.3k repins
- Space Needle – 1.2k repins