It's the fastest-growing social media site in the world and has a higher rate of users following retail brands than Facebook or Twitter, according to the 2012 Social and Mobile Commerce Study.
With metrics like that, Pinterest – a social bookmarking site – is fast becoming an important marketing tool.
But given about 80% of the site's users are women, Pinterest is decidedly Y chromosome-deficient, say Colin Brown and Kamil Szybalski, who are preparing to launch Pinterest's male counterpart: Dudepins.
If pinterest.com is a social media hope chest filled with wedding photos and shoes, dudepins.com is a footlocker filled with the kind of guy stuff you might find on Spike TV.
"Think of us as Pinterest's handsome boyfriend," Brown says in the site's promotional YouTube video.
Brown and Szybalski, who both work in marketing, were sitting on Brown's balcony five months ago discussing social media marketing strategies over cigars and scotch when they realized there was a major demographic gap waiting to be filled in the social bookmarking space.
Both use social media in their marketing strategies and wondered why they – as men – had no interest in Pinterest.
"It's all cupcakes and flowers, and it's great stuff," Szybalski said. "But it's not what I want to look at or browse or organize. What we've done is created a platform where guys can look at cars, technology, scotch and cigars and man-caves."
But one thing the guys can't pin up is women – at least not if they are scantily clad. Users may find montages of Russian brides on Dudepins, but they won't last long. All postings of naked or scantily clad women will be removed – a move aimed at keeping the site from becoming a soft porn-swap.
"We're safe for work," Szybalski said. "What you can't look at in the office, you can't put on the site."
