Everyone acknowledges that Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media sites, but just how relevant it is still seems to be up in the air. According to recent studies, Pinterest was behind Marketing with Twitter and Facebook as well as Google+, but a new survey is offering a different opinion on the matter.

The Survey in question is the "Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project Post Election Survey." Lets look at their results:

As you can see, Pinterest is coming in at a strong number 3 on this survey. According to other recent surveys, that spot was held by Google+, and Pinterest was lower on the list. The big surprise here is that not only has Pinterest surpassed Google+ to essentially be ftied with Twitter, Google+ is nowhere to be found.

Why the discrepancy between the two studies?

The study that has Google+ ranking higher is pure numbers. You may say that numbers are all that should matter, but that's just not true when trying to measure genuine social usage. People are accessing Google+ because they want to use other Google services. I wouldn't be surprised to learn some Google+ users aren't even AWARE that they are frequenting the social network! When they're asked to actually name what they use, they leave Google+ out, because they don't USE it, it's just a key they turn to get to services they've always had.

When it comes to marketing, the Pew survey has the most valuable data, because it represents a truer level of use, and use is what we care about.

Original post about Pinterest can be found on Wikimotive's blog titled, "Pinterest New Social Leader?" by Zach Billings.