Swipe Files - 📂 Pinterest's early growth

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After plateauing at 3k users in its infancy, Pinterest turned to old-school word-of-mouth to fast-track its growth.

It was the fastest independent site to hit 10m unique monthly visits in the US, and today has ~459m monthly active users globally.

Source: TechCrunch​

Starting with grassroots, the key was to focus on “power users.” They hosted events and meetups at local hobbyist stores.

They leveraged these users and the active communities they belonged to to spread the word — using a single artist, collector, or member of a scrapbooking club as the catalyst for a whole neighborhood signing up.

They used a similar community-leader approach with their Pin-It-Forward campaign encouraging influential DIY and handicraft bloggers to create boards around a particular theme (e.g., “What home means to me”) to popularize the platform.

The takeaway: One of the best ways to grow your user base is by targeting community leaders and nurturing “power users” who can serve as brand ambassadors and evangelists within their communities.

—Corey

p.s. I'll be running a Black Friday / Cyber Monday deal for the Swipe Files membership just for the first 50 people to take advantage of it. Keep your eyes peeled 👀

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