Are you Pinterest-ed?

Posted Tuesday, February 21, 2012 by Heidi W.

Posted by Heidi Wurpel

In the past few weeks a number of Crescendo's Maine - based, not-for-profit clients have asked me about Pinterest.  For those of you unfamiliar with Pinterest, it is a social media website that allows you to bookmark or "pin" images from anywhere online onto your personal Pinterest page's "boards" and view all other Pinterest user's boards to garner fresh ideas.  People use boards differently but some examples of what boards are used to do are:

  • Easily collect or aggregate websites you might want to visit again or be reminded of - My "Places to Go/Things to Do" board is checked on weekends for ideas of what to do. It is mostly comprised of Portland restaurants to try, mountains to hike or snowshoe, and fun upcoming charity events.
  • Compare items against each other - Friends who are getting married have boards where they post all of the shoes that they might buy or the bouquets they like so that they can later weigh all of their options in one place before making a final decision.
  • Start pulling together items to see how they might work in a collective - Interior designers and fashion designers have been doing this for years, but basically having all of the items you might put in a room or fashion show together allows you to see if all of the items "work" well visually together.
  • Get inspired - Need to think of a new ad design? Collect images on an inspirations board that you can refer back to and get into your client's brand identity with.
  • Escape - From an HR standpoint allowing your employees to escape to a Pinterest board that calms and pleases them is a quick way to reduce stress. Nothing like pictures of your grandchildren, pets, and vacations that you took to calm you down.

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    The reason Pinterest is revolutionizing the online experience is that users no longer have to go and seek websites for themselves but can more passively be fed ideas by their friends.  While Facebook and StumbleUpon have done this to a certain extent, Pinterest differs in that the shelf life of a pin is much longer than that of a fleeting status update or ranking.  The site allows users to collect web links and create their own database of websites and companies that they are self-electing to remind themselves of regularly.  Think of it in retail store terms: when I was younger and my shopping list was "motor oil, baby carrots, a birthday cake, and toothpaste" it meant that I was driving to VIP auto parts, Hannaford, the bakery, and CVS.  Then along came Super Wal-Mart and all of a sudden I could access all of these items from one place.  Not only was I now only visiting one location, I was also being presented with items that hadn't made it onto the list and that I would have never thought of. ( "Wow, an alarm clock with wheels!")  Imagine if that store was now full of your friends standing at the end of every aisle with a cart full of things that they love.  This is the way in which Pinterest changes the online world experience. 

    So how does a business or not-for-profit start using Pinterest? 

    Rule number one is having plenty of pictures on your website.  If you do not have a website rich with visual content people will not be able to pin you.

    Secondly, consider having your own Pinterest page with boards such as "new products" or "upcoming events" and pin your own website items to these boards while encouraging your customers to start "following" you on Pinterest.  I have seen real estate agents do a great job of this with houses!      

    Lastly, if you are a retailer, watch the most-popular pins pages and find out the type of goods that are trending and share these with your buyers or merchandisers and marketing people to help them stay abreast of trends.   

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