Three Adfero staffers, Erin Smith, Norah Heintz and Jenn Fedor, spoke at the first Get PR Smart event of the year to a standing room only crowd at the National Press Club last Friday. The subject was Pinterest, an increasingly popular social media site that’s been sweeping the nation. This event taught us the basics of Pinterest, as we learned best practices for organizations trying to reach their target audiences and brand their causes on this image-based site.
The top five tips to ensure that you are using Pinterest to the best of its ability when branding your cause are:
1. Keywords, keywords, keywords
One of the most important steps a brand can take when creating and using a Pinterest profile is to always include appropriate keywords. There should be as many keywords as possible on your profile page and in the captions of your images to increase your potential audience reach. Captions and profile descriptions are important because they give your brand personality, which helps people understand your organization’s culture and mission. Keep in mind that captions should be succinct. Your image should be able to tell the story on its own. Since Pinterest is so visual and what a user sees depends largely on who they follow, sometimes individual pins can get lost in the shuffle. Including keywords can lead users back to your page and back to your message.
2. Content matters
One of the reasons Pinterest is interesting is because it focuses on connections and shares through interest rather than the back and forth banter from traditional social media sites. Users continue going back for recipes, photos, wedding ideas, projects, art and so on. What matters on Pinterest is content, not friends or followers, so make sure your brand’s pins link back to interesting content on your own website.
3. Stay involved
Pinterest can be distracting because there is so much activity and always something new to find. Stay engaged with the users that follow your brand’s pins by returning comments, liking and repining fellow content. This may have been one of the biggest takeaways from this event. As important as it is to have your images speak for themselves with the voice of the brand, it is equally, if not more, important to interact and engage with others. Also, make sure links to your other social media pages, including Facebook and Twitter, are placed on your profile so users know where they can go to find other types of content.
4. Check your sources
One big worry that many have about using Pinterest is copyright infringement. For brands and organizations, this shouldn’t be a problem as long as you check your source. Make sure your link is taking users back to where you intend for them to go. One suggested best practice is for a brand’s pins to always come from the home site. If you have any doubt as to the original source, don’t pin the image! Protect your brand, always.
5. Keep your boards consistent, but try to have fun with the platform and be creative.
Pinterest can be used to establish relationships with people around the world and increase engagement for a brand, so it’s important to remember that people return to the site for specific reasons, including finding content that they like and will actually use. Consistent boards will keep specific messages clear while creative boards allow organizations to spread messages in a more interesting way. A variety of boards with these characteristics can brand an organization.
Take these five tips and make your organization “Pinteresting!”