The rise of Pinterest has been extraordinary. They are now firmly the number 3 social platform on the web behind Facebook and Twitter. It’s also the least understood as far as value and effectiveness for brands and marketers. Along comes Pinpuff, a relatively new Pinterest influence tracking website.
In the same fashion as Klout or PeerIndex, Pinpuff is designed to rate Pinterest users’ influence and value based on their Pinterest use. Factors include reach, activity and virality of pins. Pinpuff calculates three individual scores and then averages them for a final overall Pinterest influence score (Pinfluence if you will).
- Reach score is based on how well your pins and profile are shared across other social platforms.
- Activity score is determined by how often you pin, re-pin, etc. Note: It doesn’t appear as though pin likes help this score.
- Virality score shows how well your pins are doing with others. How often they are liked and re-pinned.
- Pinfluence score is the average of the three although the individual scores are not weighted equally. While the exact formula isn’t provided, we surmise the Activity score likely has less weight than the others to prevent any system gaming.
Beyond the Scores
Beyond the scores, Pinpuff calculates monetary value for pins. They too are broken down into 3 categories, Ecommerce pin, generic pin, referral (outward click) from pins. Monetary values indicate earning potential from pins in those categories. Currently there is limited use for these numbers on Pinpuff, though their newly created PinPerks program may turn value into rewards.
Technical Details
On a technical level, Pinpuff still has a lot of room for growth. The interface is clean and solid but there is a bit of sluggishness. Each profile lists values, scores and stats. Stats include the most highly populated Pinboards, follow stats, number of pins, likes and repins. Pinpuff has continued to update since their launch in February, 2012. Some latest updates include Interests, a way to find other Pinterest users with similar interests.
The service is free and requirements are an email address and Pinterest username. Of course we’d be remiss to not mention our GeekITDown Pinterest page, so please come check out and follow our boards so we can share great pins with each other!
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