For Brands

Pinterest Overview

• Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web.

• It is one of the Top 10 Social Networks with over 10 million unique users.

• Although still in an early adoption phase, brands are starting to use Pinterest to engage with and expand their online communities.

Pinterest Overview

What Users Can Do

Pin: Pin any image from the web to a pinboard.

Re-pin: Put a pin someone else has pinned on your own board, similar to a RT.

Like: Like a pin that someone else has pinned, similar to a else has pinned, similar to a Facebook Like.

Comment: Let someone know what you think of a pin.

Follow: Follow all of a user’s boards, or just a select number of his/her boards.

Hot Topics

Food, Cooking & Dining

Tourism & Travel

Style: Fashion, Hair & Makeup

Fitness

Weddings

Home Décor

Art: Photography & PaintingsArt: Photography & Paintings

Inspirational Typography

Key Features

Content Exploration: Surf the site aimlessly to discover different kinds of content you may have never thought to seek out.

Content Curation: Create, discover, gather and share the content YOU find relevant, and organize it in a way that makes sense to YOU.

Content Control: How users share, bucket and use the content is completely up to them. There’s no hidden agenda, no call for repins, likes or comments – it allows members to truly tap into repins, likes or comments – it allows members to truly tap into the core of what social does, connecting people via content.

Pin Etiquette

Evan Sharpe, Pinterest Designer and Co-Founder discusses “Pin Etiquette” in an interview with Mashable. He explains how Pinterest can best be used by brands as a marketing tool in a space that is not designated for self-promotion:

“A lot of brands are using Pinterest to share more about their brand; a good example of that is Whole Foods. They’re not just sharing the produce available at Whole Foods, they’re sharing [images of a healthy lifestyle. West Elm isn’t just sharing the furniture they sell, they’re sharing interior design tips. And the Today Show isn’t just pinning that day’s guests [to promote the episode]. For most consumer brands, the [to promote the episode]. For most consumer brands, the idea behind your brand makes sense on Pinterest.”

What Can Brands Do

Enhance the brand and product offerings, fulfill the brand promise and promote the brand’s core values

Curate content, from loosely brand-related to product-specific

Engage with pinners to build an online community

Drive traffic to website and other social channels

Hold visually stimulating contests and giveaways

Create online catalogs to drive sales and product awarenessCreate online catalogs to drive sales and product awareness

What Can Brands Do:Curate Content

Brands can pin content that is directly relevant to their brand. Saveur Magazine has boards for entertaining, cooking and cooking tools.

What Can Brands Do:Curate Content

Brands can also pin content that is more loosely related to their brand. For example, the paper design company Minted pins not only products, but also inspiring images for weddings, dinner parties and holidays, such as Halloween. They are essentially using Pinterest to support the ideas behind their products.

What Can Brands Do:Engage With Pinners

Brands can engage with pinners by following them, commenting on or liking their pins, or by re-pinning their content. A Des Moines-based home and personal accessories shop called Domestica has done an excellent job with this, which explains why they have developed such a large following.

What Can Brands Do:Engage With Pinners

Some brands, such as ModCloth, have also created “Guest Pinner” boards, providing other users with the opportunity to contribute to their boards and brands. This is a fun and exciting way to engage users and to encourage them to interact with your brand.

In addition to normal users, an opportunity lies in In addition to normal users, an opportunity lies in the ability to invite celebrity pinners to create their own boards. This would further drive engagement and follower growth.

What Can Brands Do:Drive Web Traffic

Brands can pin content directly from their website, which enables users to click through and drive web traffic. Real Simple does an excellent job of this.

What Can Brands Do:Contests & Giveaways

High Point Market held an engaging contest in October. Selected Style Spotters, or trendsetters in the home fashion world, attended the Market, took pictures of their favorite products, and pinned them to a designated board. Other attendees designated board. Other attendees could then either like or repin the Style Spotters’ pins for 1 or 2 points respectively. The Style Spotter who received the most points won a trip to High Point in April.

What Can Brands Do:Create Catalogs

Brands can create shareable, online catalogs for Pinners to re-pin, like or comment on. Nordstrom has done an excellent job of this by creating boards for each product category.

What Can Brands Do:Create Catalogs

Brands can also add price tags to these online catalogs to remind users that they can purchase the items they are pinning. These pins then appear in the “Gifts” section of the website.

Other Brands To Explore

Whole Foods

Whole Foods pins a variety of content that is both directly and loosely related to food, ranging from dinner suggestions to beautiful kitchens.

Travel Channel

The Travel Channel capitalizes on travel as a hot topic on Pinterest. They have 16 boards for a variety of destinations, and encourage the pinning and re-pinning of content.

West Elm

West Elm does an excellent job of growing their following and engaging with users. They pin their own products, but also re-pin interesting content from others.

Other Brands

Matchbook Magazine

Club Monaco

HGTV

Bergdorf Goodman

Martha Stewart

Women’s Health

Williams-SonomaWilliams-Sonoma

The Today Show

Drake University

Pretzel Crisps

Land’s End Canvas

Celebrations.com

AARP

Nina Garcia

ThreadlessThreadless

Better Homes and Gardens

Thank You!

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