Social Vertical 'Just A Pinch' Reports Rapid Growth

FRANKLIN, Tenn., April 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Tech start-up www.justapinch.com, a recipe and coupon social network, has become one of the deepest engaged social vertical platforms on the web. Recent metrics show members average 17 minutes or more per session and up to 50 percent visit once per day with a significant amount visiting three times per day. That equates to 8.5 hours spent on-site per month, which rivals the largest horizontal social networks including Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and others.

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What's more, Just A Pinch has become the largest collection of entirely user-generated recipe content (UGC) anywhere on the web. Some 87,000 recipes have been added (125 to 150 added each day), which is one of the key factors to the site's deep engagement.

"One of the reasons for our growth is that 100 percent of our recipes are posted by users and our members recognize this," says CEO Dan Hammond. "Other sites often augment their recipe database by purchasing or scraping the Internet to increase their content. Some even edit and repost recipes developed in their own corporate environments to show up as 'new' recipes on their sites. But users prefer real recipes from real cooks and it shows – our users are calling Just A Pinch 'Facebook for recipes.'"

"As important, our users often have name brands in their ingredients and recipes and naturally discuss their love of packaged good products in their family meals, establishing Just A Pinch as a crowd-sourced, brand advocate network," says Hammond. "And we allow users to not only rate recipes, but they can tag them as family tested-and-approved to verify that real cooks have successfully served them to their families."

Engineered and designed using best-practices of the largest social platforms, these recent engagement stats demonstrate how Just A Pinch is a true social network. The site is unique in that aspect as other food and recipe sites only adapt static websites to become social – Just A Pinch was constructed social from the ground up. 

Hammond previously founded Publishing Group of America and oversaw its meteoric growth which included the creation of American Profile and Relish magazines, two of the largest magazine launches in U.S. history. The entrepreneur has ambitious enhancement plans for Just A Pinch in 2012 including an expansion of e-commerce capabilities, mobile apps, live messaging, photo and video-sharing capabilities, and games.

Earlier this year, Hammond brought on two industry veterans to spearhead advertising efforts. Veteran magazine industry executive Anne Balaban, the former publisher of Every Day with Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, joined the justapinch.com team as consulting publisher and chief revenue officer. Carl Trautmann, former senior vice president of sales for Allrecipes.com, was named senior vice president and will direct all day-to-day efforts and management of national advertising sales.

About Just A Pinch

JustAPinch.com is a recipe and coupon social network built around recipes, with interaction through posting, rating, voting, testing, commenting, chat groups, private messaging, and use of Facebook connect, Twitter, and other third-party platforms. Home cooks use the site to swap and discuss thousands of "family-tested and -approved" recipes, share cooking tips, earn blue ribbons, build custom cookbooks and grocery lists, and print coupons. The site is owned by Franklin, Tenn.-based American Hometown Media.

SOURCE JustAPinch.com