Men are complaining that their ladies are spending more time on it than with them, and women can’t get enough of travel bucket lists and wedding wish lists with it. Just about everyone is talking about it, including me – I am addicted to it. So what is this new social network called Pinterest and why should you care about it?

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard and visual sharing site that allows users to curate interesting content and catalogue ideas, pictures and videos into thematic boards. What is most appealing about it is its simplicity and visual appeal. It has a ‘LIKE’ button, similar to Facebook, as well as a ‘follow’ feature like Twitter. You can draw parallels to famous bookmarking sites of the Web 2.0 era like Delicious and StumbleUpon, but what truly helps Pinterest stand out is its user base.

Pictured left: Simrat Sawhney, Circos Brand Karma

Unlike usual web-based start-ups whose largest demographic segments tend to span early adopters, techies and industry insiders, Pinterest has a much broader mass appeal and a devoted set of mainstream users. This is because Pinterest has made it very easy for users to curate and organise content by topics and interests relevant to them. It has enhanced the sharing experience for users by extending their social graph and sphere of influence from friend recommendations alone to those that come from people who share the same interests and may even be subject experts in their own right. Technology experts are calling this the “interest graph” and expect this to determine the next big consumption trend.

The burgeoning success of Pinterest is giving rise to an interesting phenomenon, one where discovery leads search. With unique visitor numbers shooting through the roof and users being bombarded with a sea of information, ideas, and cool products for purchase, people are discovering awesome things and aspiring for stuff they never thought they needed or didn’t even know existed. This is interesting for brands in many ways – young brands can increase awareness and visibility while well-established brands can seek new audiences and create new demand by tapping on the potential of Pinterest.

Search is a great way for users to find information on things they want, but Pinterest creates inspiration and this is particularly relevant for luxury brands. comScore recently reported that Pinterest is the fastest site to cross 10 million unique monthly U.S. visitors as compared to any standalone site in history. And if history is anything to go by, users in Asian countries readily adopt new social networks and several Asian countries (e.g. Indonesia, Philippines, India, etc.) make for some of the largest and the most active groups of social networking in the world.

Preference for aesthetics and visually appealing sites will only enhance user interest for Pinterest in Asia. Only Facebook and Tumblr have more social media time on site than Pinterest. And this is reason enough for lifestyle brands to take notice of the social network that’s built on the fundamental premise of “liking and wanting stuff”.

Pinterest is helping users define their personal sense of style by putting a sort of order and pattern around everything an individual likes. Fashion, décor and design, weddings, food, and travel are the dominating categories of content on Pinterest.

Luxury lifestyle brands should bank on the opportunities offered by Pinterest by creating themed pinboards showcasing their product lines, as well as other complementary ideas and products. A flood of pinboards on weddings and dream travel destinations on Pinterest are creating consumer desire for luxury wedding venues, exotic hotels and resorts, and exclusive honeymoon destinations.

Since pins are added through a bookmarklet from any site or by re-pinning another user’s pins, imagine the referral traffic you can drive to your brand website if you had your own Pinboard or even just a “Pin It” button on your website!

Additionally, because many brands haven’t yet exploited the potential of Pinterest, you can gain first mover advantage by organising pinboards for special getaways and promotions; interacting with wedding planners, fashionistas and travel influencers to showcase your brand; crowdsourcing ideas by creating group pinboards, or just promoting a lifestyle.

Using Pinterest to capture the essence of your brand and becoming a tastemaker rather than merely posting your products on the platform is strongly advised. As Pinterest designer and co-founder Evan Sharp puts it, “For most consumer brands, the idea behind your brand makes sense on Pinterest.”

Luxury fashion brand Oscar de La Renta, media brands, celebrity chefs and fashion editors like Travel Channel, Martha Stewart, Inc., Paula Deen, Nina Garcia of Marie Claire, and Marie Claire, the brand itself, designer labels like Kate Spade NY, Lilly Pulitzer, and TOMS shoes, luxury retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom, Zales, and Club Monaco, and other lifestyle brands like West Elm and Etsy have pioneered Pinterest in unique and interesting ways.

Whether you use it to inspire your own design and copywriting teams, or to inspire customers and engage users be sure not to ignore Pinterest.

The platform is not perfect yet, but you can bet that significant behind-the-scene improvements are being made every day.

For now Pinterest is only generating revenue through tracking codes, but will not stay far behind the likes of Facebook and Twitter in terms of monetising its platform.

Before it becomes more commercial for brands to have a presence via branded pinboards and sponsored pins, a lifestyle brand should think about doing something creative on this mammoth of a platform that Pinterest is coming to be.

The social network has brought much aesthetic appeal and high quality user experience to content curation, something that many have tried with little or no success in the past. Pinterest is visual, clean and simple. The site lets you re-share with just one click, has a highly engaged audience and a very well designed iPhone app that allows users to click a photo and upload as a pin or use the site’s regular features.

Social curation is going to be very hot in 2012 because users don’t want to spend as much time and effort on creating content as consuming well-structured content – it is just much faster and more fun. So, come on, stop waiting and be Pinteresting!

• Pinterest Infographics courtesy of Monetate Marketing Infographics