The conversation happening around Pinterest as a marketing platform is starting to change. For a long time, the hugely popular social media site, where users collect images they find inspiring, motivating, funny or otherwise meaningful, has been regarded as an almost wholly female domain. Pinterest was the place to go if you were looking for wedding planning ideas, chicken recipes, and cute quotes about love, romance, and raising babies. This focus made Pinterest the obvious place to be for some business owners; others, however, found absolutely no value in the platform.

[Tweet “The number of male users on Pinterest has more than doubled in the past year.”]

New data reveals that Pinterest’s user base is changing. Enid Hwang, a Pinterest community manager, has shared the fact that the number of male users on Pinterest has more than doubled in the past year. Content being pinned by these users include DIY home improvement projects, travel destinations – particularly outdoor adventure, and survivalist-themed material, including project ideas and quotes. For brands that serve these markets, who hadn’t embraced Pinterest in order to reach the female portion of their marketplace, the time is now to re-think that decision. Current research indicates that 13% of American men are on Pinterest – that works out to roughly 1 in every 8 guys.

It’s important to understand how people use and search Pinterest. Rather than many other platforms, where users search specifically by hashtag for specific pieces of information, Pinterest users browse. Users typically spend at least an hour on Pinterest per visit, which is far, far longer than they’re spending on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+. Two-thirds of the content on Pinterest is created by brands: that’s a staggering statistic that proves visually compelling messaging has an audience that values it highly.

Take a look at your website analytics. How much traffic are you currently getting from Pinterest? There may be room for improvement, particularly if you haven’t made use of this platform before. Take time to learn about Pinterest’s unique culture before establishing your brand’s presence there, but don’t delay too long: you don’t want to be left behind while your competition capitalizes on Pinterest’s popularity.