What is it about Instagram that has made it so attractive to the site? Facebook is, in its essence, a photo sharing platform, and the app that owns this space more than any other at this point is Instagram, so of course, Facebook wants to piggyback on its success. Also, because Facebook saw Instagram as a major competitor in the mobile market – which is widely acknowledged as the future channel of social media – the acquisition has now erased the possibility of another competitor – such as Google or Twitter – buying it.In other social news: Pinterest is now sitting pretty in the number three spot in the social race. How? Girl power! Around 97% of the US Pinterest fans on Facebook are female, with the most popular posts focusing on women’s clothing and accessories (and yes, kittens and cupcakes).Why is Pinterest so successful? Because it offers something that Facebook doesn’t. Where Facebook is connecting you to your friends, Pinterest provides users with the platform to collect things that you find interesting instantly, from anywhere and share them – with anyone. The word ‘collect’ seems to be the key to what makes Pinterest so addictive – it’s a collection that represents your personality, and people are spending plenty of time making sure that their personality is impressive.Pinterest also boasts a simple user interface and aesthetically pleasing display that puts the content first. This layout has proven to be addictive, supplying users with a form of information and entertainment that’s easy to digest. Pinterest also provides a very effective platform for linking content to websites and blogs. Impressively, it links more traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube do, combined.Certainly one to give serious consideration if you own a blog or website that has a flow of unique visual content.