The New Pinomenon: The Rise of Pinterest and what it means to your business

The Rise of Pinterest

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The New Pinomenon: The Rise of Pinterest What Pinterest Means to Your Business and How to Capitalize on It.

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Executive Summary

Pinterest, the new interest-‐based social network, has captured the imagination of Internet users to become a top 10 social network in a matter of months. With more than 12 million monthly unique visitors, Pinterest is now the seventh most popular social network, ahead of Google+, and just behind LinkedIn. Not only is the speed of its rise interesting; but also the audience make up and its ability to drive traffic to participating sites have made it an important new opportunity -‐-‐ particularly for lifestyle brands. Pinterest's audience is overwhelmingly female, and focused on lifestyle interests such as Design, Cooking and Food, Fashion, Wellness and other similar categories. Because items that are 'pinned' to the network contain the source links with the item, Pinterest refers high levels of traffic back to sites where the original content is housed. In fact Pinterest now refers more traffic to many sites than Twitter and Google+. Pinterest represents the rise of a new class of social networks called ‘niche networks’ that satisfies gaps left in the social experience by sites like Twitter and Facebook. Because Pinterest is based around interests instead of people, it connects people to things/brands/ideas/places in addition to one another. If you'd like help in developing your Pinterest strategy, creating or managing Pinterest promotions, or setting up your Pinterest presence please don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. Our Take Pinterest's meteoric rise has captured the imagination of brands looking to connect with highly sought after consumers (women) who are intentionally engaging with and sharing products and brands with their networks. The 12-‐million+ monthly unique visitors and heavy, repeat use (88.2 minutes/month) make it even more intriguing. Because of its highly visual interface, Pinterest is best suited to brands and companies who can depict their products and services through compelling photographs and imagery. Brands can use engaging imagery to capture the attention and affinity of Pinterest users, building engagement, sharing and referral traffic and sales. Brands that lack visual assets will find Pinterest a difficult network to leverage due to its interface and focus on visuals. To be successful, brands must go beyond simply promoting their own products and services, as Pinterest users expect brands to be actively involved in sharing (via 're-‐pinning') and curating images that fit the brand style. The social networks looks down on overly self-‐promotional content, so a balanced approach to sharing is required for success on Pinterest. We recommend that any client who meets the following criteria engage on Pinterest to leverage the audience, rapid sharing, referral traffic and visual branding opportunity:



Pinning Down Pinterest

• Has a brand, product or service that is in a lifestyle category such as: Art, Architecture, Home

Decor, Apparel and Fashion, Kids, Food and Drink and similar categories. • Is willing to share and curate products and images other than their own. • Have powerful images of its products or services that will fit with the visual sensibility of the

network. For clients who can meet these conditions, we believe Pinterest represents a new, fast-‐growth opportunity in the social web that can be more successful than generic channels such as Twitter and blogs. Pinterest can best be described as an online, social inspiration board that allows users to share, curate and connect with other users of the service around products, ideas and interests. Stats Pinterest received nearly 12 million monthly unique visitors in February, according to comScore. This places Pinterest seventh most popular social network. Pinterest now refers more traffic to sites than YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter. Pinterest users spend 88.2 min/month on the service, placing it third only behind Facebook (394 min/month) and Tumblr (141.7 min/month). More than 80% of pins are repins. Etsy is the leading contributor to new pins, accounting for 3% of all pins. Women make up 82% of Pinterest users. Top 10 Categories on Pinterest -‐ via RJ Metrics 1. Home (17.2%) 2. Arts and Crafts (12.4%) 3. Style/Fashion (11.7%) 4. Food (10.5%) 5. Inspiration/Education (9.0%) 6. Holidays/Seasonal (3.9%) 7. Humor (2.1%) 8. Products (2.1%) 9. Travel (1.9%) 10. Kids (1.8%)



How to Capitalize on Pinterest

10 Most Popular Board Names on Pinterest 1. For the Home (3.15%) 2. My Style (1.97%) 3. Products I Love (1.86%) 4. Books Worth Reading (1.68%) 5. Food (1.23%) 6. Favorite Places & Spaces (1.00%) 7. Recipes (0.75%) 8. Craft Ideas (0.74%) 9. Christmas (0.72%) 10. Crafts (0.65%)

Terminology Pin -‐-‐ A shared item on Pinterest. Typically an image, but video is also allowed. Also used as a verb. As a user you Pin items to one of your collections. Repin -‐-‐ A reshare of an existing item on Pinterest. Similar to a ReTweet on Twitter. Repins can be added to a user's collection. Like -‐-‐ Similar to a Facebook Like. A user can like an item without repinning it. Likes are not categorized into a collection. Pinboard -‐-‐ A collection of pins grouped by the user by theme or interest. For example: Products I love, Dream Wedding, Bucket List, Indoor Gardens, Healthy Recipes, etc. Successful brands on Pinterest all share the following attributes: 1. They consistently share interesting content with the Pinterest community both in terms of

new items added and repins of existing content. 2. They curate interesting pinboards that taken together represent the brand personality. 3. They avoid excessive self-‐promotion and maintain a balanced mix of their own product

promotion in the items they share. 4. They find, follow and engage with users on Pinterest. 5. They cross-‐promote Pinterest in their other marketing channels including social media,

email, website and via promotions (e.g. 'Pin it to Win it')



Sharing Interesting Content Sharing interesting content is the fastest way to gain an audience and build traffic from Pinterest. As a brand it’s tempting to see Pinterest as a new place to advertise your entire product line. Many brands make this mistake. They launch a Pinterest presence, pin all of their products into pinboards and then cease activity. This shows a lack of understanding of the dynamics and audience of the site. The site discourages excessive self-‐promotion. It's important that brands participate in the community by repinning other user's items. This creates awareness and good will for your brand on Pinterest, building your following. Brands shouldn't simply repin anything, however. Brands should focus on repinning items that align with their brand and products/services. For example a furniture retailer may choose to repin beautiful interior design shots, great pieces of furniture that aren't theirs and inspiring architecture. This content is relevant and helps define the brand personality; and shows that the brand 'gets it' when it comes to participating on Pinterest. Pinterest requires consistent, regular effort. Users view products in a stream of content that is continually added to and flows ceaselessly. Pinterest's relative lack of discovery tools and elementary search functionality mean that most users only see what's at the top of the feed at any one time. By participating regularly, brands are able to expose their content to a greater portion of the Pinterest audience.

Curating Interesting Pinboards Unlike Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, Pinterest lacks 'brand' pages. Brands use standard accounts and therefore are represented as a brand only by their user name, logo and the boards they curate. Users who find a brand via a pinned item will often review the brand's boards for interesting collections before making a determination to follow the brand. In addition, because users can follow a subset of the brand's pinboards in place of the entire account it's important that brands create and share items in each of their boards regularly. Pinboards should be sorted by category, theme or interest and contain a mix of brand products and curated products. Segregating brand products into separate boards runs the risk of followers abandoning those boards while following the curated ones. Avoiding Excessive Self-‐Promotion Brands must share their own content in order to reap the traffic benefits of Pinterest. There are no hard and fast rules around the optimum mix of brand content vs. repinned content; but the general rule of thumb is to find some balance in what is shared. A ratio of somewhere between 15-‐35% of brand content to reshared or non-‐brand content will help create an organic feel to the account while still ensuring a strong collection of brand content.



Finding and Following Users In order to build a following users must be aware of the brand presence on Pinterest. The easiest way to do this is to repin, like or comment on other user's items. In addition, brands should identify users and boards that are sharing items relevant to the brand and follow them. Repins, likes and follows generate email notifications to users, alerting them to your activity. This builds goodwill and also creates awareness of your brand account on Pinterest. Brands can also search and browse specific boards (e.g. Popular) to look for users to follow. Cross-‐Promoting Pinterest Like any other new marketing channel, it's incumbent upon the brand to cross-‐promote their Pinterest page to their customers and fans on other sites. Promotional activities can include:

• Posting about your Pinterest presence on other social networks. • Including a Pinterest button on your website. • Mentioning Pinterest in an email newsletter and/or including a call to action to follow your

brand there. • Running a sweepstakes based on Pinterest.



How Pinterest Works Browsing Pinterest Pinterest users visually surf the inbound feed of new and repinned items. They can choose to view pins by category (e.g. Art), relationship to the pinner (e.g. 'Everything' or 'Pinners you follow'), by type (e.g. Video) or activity (e.g. Popular).

Engaging with Pinterest There are three primary actions users take on content on Pinterest:

1. Repin -‐-‐ share it with their followers and categorize it to a pinboard. 2. Like -‐-‐ mark it as a favorite in their 'Likes'. 3. Comment -‐ leave a comment on the item.

As mentioned above, 80% of all pins are repins, which shows the viral potential of the network and users' desire to curate collections into inspiration boards rather than seek out new content to populate the network. Adding Content to Pinterest Users can add content to Pinterest in a variety of ways.



Tips for Getting Started

1. A bookmarklet in their browser allows them to grab and image from any website and submit

it to Pinterest.

2. Some sites have integrated a 'Pin It' button (similar to the Facebook Like button) that allows visitors the ability to Pin an item right from the page.

3. Users can link to or upload a pin directly from Pinterest using the manual submission process.

1. Set up your brand page and account. You'll need an invite to Pinterest to join; but your social media or marketing department team members likely have an account from which they can invite you to set up your brand account. If you need an invite, email us at [email protected] and we'll invite you to get set up.

2. Brand your account. Choose a user name that aligns with your brand. Upload your logo as

your profile picture and fill out your profile so that users know it's the brand account.



(Pinterest doesn't have 'official' or 'verified' accounts yet, so building out your brand profile will help establish your page as the 'official' page.)

3. Create your initial pinboards. Think of the different types of collections that are relevant to

your business and set up initial pinboards. Look at the featured accounts above for ideas on how to set up your first set of boards. Use appealing board names (e.g. Dream Kitchens) that entice users and appeal to the aspirational nature of the network. You can start with just a few boards and expand as your engagement on Pinterest grows.

4. Seed your initial pinboards. Seed your initial boards with items and images from your

websites and brands. These products will help establish what your brand presence is all about when users first visit your boards. Use images and products that are visually appealing and diverse.

5. Begin curating. Jump into the Pinterest stream, browsing the categories relevant to your

business and the 'everything' stream. Repin items relevant to your brand into your existing (or new) pinboards. Look for items that have already been repinned or items that have high visual appeal. Even if they aren't your products, having items repinned will increase awareness of your account and generate followers and views for subsequent shares.

6. Connect with Pinterest users. While you're curating be sure to follow users who share

interesting and relevant content and comment on their pins where appropriate. This will help build awareness of your brand online and generate reciprocal follows.

7. Be consistent. Try to repin and add new content to your boards daily. The Pinterest stream

moves quickly, so focused bursts will only been seen by a fraction of the people using the service. Dripping out content over time, on a more frequent basis, will result in greater visibility.

8. Cross-‐promote your accounts. Jump-‐start your Pinterest following by announcing and

sharing your new account with your followers on other social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, and via email.

9. Have fun! People share inspirational and aspirational items. People look ahead to what they

dream about and share their passions. As a user of the site, you should jump into this well of positivity with fun and an uplifting spirit. Share things that resonate with the largely female audience and appeal to those aspirational longings.

10. Get your employees involved. There's a good chance your employees are already on

Pinterest. Ask them to contribute to your pinboards and ask their feedback on how to make your brand account one worth following. By getting them involved they'll help repin and share your content with their followers, as well as surface great content for you to repin and share.



Advanced Pinterest Tactics

Successful Brands on Pinterest

1. Contest time! Come up with a 'Pin It to Win It' contest of your own. Challenge Pinterest users to create interesting pinboards or share content from your site on Pinterest and award prizes for the best boards. Contests are a great way to generate a large amount of your content in the Pinterest feed along with plenty of links back to your site and product pages.

2. Guest curators. Ask a Pinterest power user to play guest curator for a week. Come up with a

schedule of celebrity curators to take over control of your pinboards and curate collections for a set period of time. By reaching out to Pinterest users with large followings already, you can leverage their popularity by creating awareness for your account. If you have access to a celebrity from the lifestyle space, you can work with them to do guest curate as well for added awareness. For example a recipe pinboard curated by Bobby Flay would be well received.

3. Fan-‐curated boards. You can make any pinboard open to contributors. Invite your brand

fans and followers to curate some of your boards for you. This is a great way to invite brand-‐loyalists to participate, creating a deeper connection between you and the customers who already care the most about you.

4. Add a Pin It button to your website. If you have a product-‐oriented website with lots of

great visuals, you can add Pinterest's 'Pin It' button to your website. It works just like a Facebook Like button and allows users to quickly share your content across the network by adding it from your site to one of their pinboards. You can set content parameters like the default description as well to help with keyword search visibility and branding.

Pinterest has seen rapid brand adoption and marketing innovation in the past few months. Below are several best practice brands on Pinterest and the strategies they employ to leverage Pinterest. Better Homes and Gardens http://pinterest.com/bhg/ Better Homes and Gardens is all about inspiration at home. Beautiful collections of all things home make their pinboards irresistible to Pinterest users. Their pinboards are right on brand: Fun Front Doors, Kitchens We Want to Cook In, Welcome Home! and DIY Ideas for Your Home. For companies that have a home lifestyle audience, BH&G is a best practice example worth learning from and emulating. Design Public http://pinterest.com/designpublic/ Design Public is a modern furniture e-‐tailer that has created a powerful brand presence through the sharing of interesting modern furniture design as well as curating collections of lifestyle-‐related



items. Their boards: The Perfect Bedroom, Bold Design, Modern Nursery, and Light It Up are full of design inspiration. Design Public is also one of several brands to implement Pinterest on their website -‐-‐ adding a Pin It button to each product page -‐-‐ and a Pinterest contest where users can win prizes by creating pinboards of their favorite Design Public merchandise. Land's End http://pinterest.com/landsendcanvas/ Pinterest contests have become a popular way for brands to engage with users. Land's End was one of the first brands to leverage contests to drive awareness, engagement and traffic from the site. Their "Pin It to Win It" contest has become a model for Pinterest contests. Users were asked to find items they liked on Land's End's website and create pinboards on Pinterest of the items. The most creative and stylish pinboards were rewarded with prizes. Nordstrom http://pinterest.com/nordstrom/ Nordstrom breaks up its pinboards by collections (e.g. 'Prom ideas' and 'Spring Trends') as well as featured brands and events like New York Fashion week and TOMS sunglasses. Whole Foods http://pinterest.com/wholefoods/ Whole Foods has pinboards around food-‐types (e.g. Veggies), events (e.g. Happy New Year's), recipes (e.g. Great Garden Recipes), and brand-‐relevant collections like Kitchen Gadgets and favorite books. More Pinterest Accounts Worth Watching

• Martha Stewart http://pinterest.com/marthastewart/ • West Elm http://pinterest.com/westelm/ • Real Simple http://pinterest.com/realsimple/ • Bergdorf Goodman http://pinterest.com/bergdorfs/ • Travel Channel http://pinterest.com/travelchannel/



Pinterest and Copyright

Conclusion

It is important to note that there are some pointed debates about the legality of sharing copyright-‐protected images on Pinterest. Some copyright holders are actively working to keep their content from appearing on the network, and it's important that you understand the legal risks of sharing content via repins or shares from other websites. We highly recommend that your legal team review Pinterest's Terms of Use and develop a strategy to leverage Pinterest in a way that works for your business within the comfort zone of risk for your legal department. Pinterest is the fastest-‐growing social network ever. Its highly visual interface is a new, engaging way for users to view, engage and share content. The brand and product focus, highly-‐valuable female user-‐base, aspirational nature of the content, and ability to drive real traffic to websites make it an attractive network for companies that have visual assets that will appeal to this audience. We recommend that brands that have products and imagery that work with the format leverage Pinterest to reach consumers on this network. While it may seem like yet-‐another-‐social-‐network, Pinterest's unique properties make it a worthwhile investment and experiment area for brands in the social space. If you'd like help in developing your Pinterest strategy, creating or managing Pinterest promotions, or setting up your Pinterest presence please don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

The New Pinomenon: The Rise of Pinterest and what it means to your business

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