Social media is becoming such a huge part of public relations. Understanding Facebook, Twitter and even Pinterest is becoming a critical aspect when developing a comprehensive and strategic plan for clients and companies.
Pinterest the newest social media trend that allows users to create boards and “pin”, or bookmark, things they’re interested in. Women, ages of 25 and 34, are dominating Pinterest, which is an important factor to consider when looking at the targeted demographic of your pins.
Some important things to consider when incorporating Pinterest into your plan include:
- Visuals: Since Pinterest is primarily focused on images— it’s important to pin relevant visuals. The images you pin work best when they can tell a story, or the story of your client. Pin things that align with your brands and the messages you want to communicate.
- Promotion: Pinterest is not a place for traditional product promotion. Pinning a product, advertising the price, and linking to the external website where the product can be purchased, is not what catches avid pinners eyes. Whole Foods Market(http://pinterest.com/wholefoods/) is a great example of a company who uses Pinterest effectively. By focusing on pictures of mouthwatering food and creating interesting and interactive boards, it is easy for customers to communicate with the company.
- Videos: Videos can be another valuable tool on Pinterest. A company can use Pinterest videos to inform users about its history or to release statements about industry issues.
- Find a balance: Creating conversations and connecting with consumers is what social media is all about. Instead of focusing on strictly your brand and your products, reach out and link to others. Followers want to find more than just your brand on your Pinterest page.
There are many reasons why people should use Pinterest, including the fact that there is less than 1% negative sentiment on the platform.
To get started on Pinterest, it’s best to create some boards about things you like, some about things you have a hard time finding, and some about you brand. This creates a good balance between promoting and creating a face for the company.
Once companies establish themselves on Pinterest, measurement is the next step. It is important to understand what pins are working and what pins are not. By looking at competitors, companies can also collect important data.
Here’s a great example of how Pinterest is being used and measure in the PR and marketing field.
Pinleague analyzes Pinterest users to better understand the target audience, finds ways to engage new influencers, and measures growth and engagement.
This article, The Public Relations Guide to Pinterest, gives great reasons why public relations, social media and creative agencies should invest time in Pinterest and ways to do it effectively.
Other great articles about how Pinterest can be used for public relations:
How to Use Pinterest for Public Relations
Sixteen ways to use Pinterest for PR
Big League Pinning: Pinterest Best Practices for Brands from Pinleague
Great post about how to use Pinterest effectively. I think a lot of employers want to “jump on the train” just because Pinterest is gaining steam. However, I think it’s important to realize that not every business strategy will fit Pinterest. Also, not every audience will use Pinterest (or even social media), so it’s important to analyze your audiences accordingly.
I like how you have everything laid out–visuals, promotions, video and balancing everything.
Also, nice finds on the articles at the end. I found them helpful for learning more. Thanks!
I agree with Trent! I think a lot of people are confused by social media. There seems to be a fan page for everything on Facebook, from Coca-Cola to blind dogs. It’s up to the PR world to help the rest of the world understand social media and use it correctly. Twitter doesn’t work for some companies, instead Facebook might be more effective. You have to know your audience and understand what they want. Pinterest is no different, not every company would benefit from it. But, design companies, clothing companies, etc. would because it’s visually driven.
I appreciated the articles you provided at the end!
I found this post very interesting. Being new to public relations, I never really thought about how even Pinterest could be used to a PR person’s advantage. With social media on the rise, it is good that PR takes part in it. However, it is important that the company makes their product look desireable and favorable on Pinterest. Like you said, instead of just blandly advertising food, Pinterest is a prime spot to make the food look delicious so that the person using the site actually pays attention to the company and their products. Another example could be a clothing company making their clothes look as best they can on Pinterest so that the user stops and figures out who the company is and more about them. Pinterest is a great place to advertise and promote a product. Your blog in general has taught me a lot about social media and how it relates to public relations, and I also agree that those links at the bottom were very useful and added to your post.
Before reading this article I never would have thought to make a connection between public relations and a social media site like Pinterest. This article has really helped to educate me on ways that public relations could incorporate itself into Pinterest. I think that a website such as Pinterest that consists primarily of users who view the website as a place of positivity is a great website to promote a brand. Not only would the brand get exposure, but Pinterest users would associate the brand with Pinterest, a website they enjoy, which would hopefully result in Pinterest users viewing the brand positively as well. In addition, I think you made a great point when you stated that your Pinterest page should not solely consist of brand promotion. If a Pinterest page only consists of brand promotion, Pinterest users over time may find the page to be obnoxious and simply learn to ignore it. Overall, I found this post to be incredibly informative and I think that it gave great advice on how to incorporate public relations into a social media site like Pinterest.
I found this post to be very interesting and informative. Pinterest is becoming a very common household social media site and I think that it would be very wise for businesses to try and promote through it. I like how the different parts to promoting companies through Pinterest were very straight forward. I found this part to be extremely informative. I think Pinterest is a great way for any type of company to show off their products and become creative with advertising and promoting because there are so many ways with Pinterest. The different boards that are able to be created can show consumers all the aspects of the business and the product which is a great way for companies to expand and branch out to many different age groups of consumers.
This post really left me with a lot to think about. I honestly never even thought about how Pinterest could be used in PR. I have been hearing recently about how more and more companies are beginning to use social media excessively, including Pinterest. I think it is a great idea, however, I don’t believe every single company could benefit from it. If there are people who don’t know how to use it well or effectively, it could be bad. I think because social media is emerging in almost every field, not just PR, and the more you use it, the more popular it will become. For example, on Pinterest, the visuals and videos really help you to sell your ideas or products. It also helps you communicate in an easy and interactive way. Since more younger audiences use social media on an almost daily basis, it will be easy to communicate with them. I believe that social media will be used for companies when they advertise a specific product a lot more in the future.