1. Pinterest
Running Head: PINTEREST
An In-Depth Look at Pinterest
Katie Shuford
Kennesaw State University

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Pinterest
There is a lot of buzz surrounding the newest social media platform, known as Pinterest.
What exactly is Pinterest? Creators describe the site as a virtual pinboard, where people share
and collect the things they love. Users collect images known as “pins” and place them onto their
virtual bulletin boards know as “pinboards.” To become a member, an individual has to be
invited; he or she can request an invite directly from the site or a friend can invite him or her.
Once an individual becomes a member, Pinterest will ask the user to find friends from his or her
Facebook and Twitter accounts to follow and ask the user to create his or her boards. Boards are
used to categorize pins. Users can choose to use the default boards provided such as My Style,
Books Worth Reading, For The Home, etc. or they can personalize their boards by creating their
own. Users can have as many boards as they want and can pin as many things as they like. Users
can tag their followers in pins by typing the at sign and a follower‟s name in the description of a
pin i.e. @Katie Shuford.
The characteristic that makes Pinterest so unique is that the original source of a pin is
always attached. If I pinned a recipe I found on the internet, the website I found it on would be
embedded into the pin which could be located by simply clicking on it. For instance, if my sister
wanted to know how to make the Blow Pop Martini I pinned last week, all she has to do is click
on that pin which would take her to the site that hosts the recipe, a website called
tablespoon.com. Pinning can happen in two ways: users can repin others‟ pins through the site or
add new pins from outside sources on the internet. The pin-it button is a tool that allows for easy
pinning which a user can add to his or her toolbar. Once the pin-it button is installed, a user can
pin an image directly from a website he or she has pulled up. Like other social media sites, users
receive notifications when someone repins, comments, or likes their pins. In this way, users get
connected to one another.

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Pinterest
The site was created in 2008, but only gained popularity within the last few months. In fact, the
popularity of Pinterest is impressive. An article from Mashable Business states:
“Pinterest‟s user base grew from 1.6 million visitors in September 2011 to 11.1 million
visitors in February 2012. It became the fastest site to reach 10 million users. In February,
it was announced that Pinterest drives more traffic to retail sites than Google+, YouTube
and LinkedIn combined, and Pinterest drives more traffic to blogs than Twitter. When it
comes to engagement, Pinterest is second only to Facebook — its users spend, on
average, 89 minutes per month on the social network” (Drell, 2012).
With statistics like these, it‟s hard not to agree that businesses should get onboard and activate a
Pinterest account. Before any brand makes that decision, there are three questions they should
ask themselves, says Taylor Valentine, VP of social media and relationship marketing at Horizon
Media: Is your audience there? Is the conversation that‟s happening one that you want to
participate in? Are you equipped to participate, when it comes to content, resources and people
to keep the presence active? If the answer is yes to all three, Valentine says it‟s a no brainer
(Drell, 2012).
Furthermore, there is a list of 13 verticals that can leverage a brand on Pinterest according
to an article from socialmediaexaminer.com. These include Apparel—men‟s, women‟s and
children‟s, Food/beverages, especially recipe-driven, Architecture, Interior design, Wedding
themed, Technology, Sports, Health care, Personal care, Home improvement/DIY accessories,
Pets, Kids products/toys and Travel (Hemley, 2012). The next step then, is deciding how to best
utilize Pinterest for your brand.

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Pinterest
One important rule for businesses to remember is to embrace Pinterest etiquette: Sell
your culture and people, not just your products. Getting creative on the virtual pinboard is the
goal. You can share photos of your business art gallery, employee of the month, outside
company events, conference photos, etc. Thinking beyond your product line and sharing your
culture is key.
It‟s important for brands to remember the demographic of users on the site. The majority
of users are women. Therefore, Pinterest is most useful to brands that offer a tangible product for
women. Crafting your pinning strategy around that idea is smart for brands‟ success. According
to a Washington Post article, “Ritani is a jewelry company who specializes in engagement rings,
so the brand pins its products along with wedding-related content. So even if a Pinterest user is
looking at cakes instead of wedding rings, Ritani can still drive traffic toward its boards”
(Khazan, 2012). As you can see, pinning for businesses is more than pinning its own products, as
the idea is to strategically pin a culture that is also catered toward the demographic.
One important way for companies to let clients and prospects know about its presence on
Pinterest is to add a Pinterest button to its websites. When you add a Pin It button, you encourage
your customers and visitors to pin your products and photos. Pinterest is way to connect with
others on a more personal level, and brands can use this to their advantage. People share
interests, passions, dreams and sense of humor in a more natural way on Pinterest than on other
social media platforms. Therefore, a company can use Pinterest to gain insights about its target
consumers by looking at the pinners who follow their brand, what these people are pinning and
who else these people are following (Hemley, 2012).

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Pinterest
Companies can use Pinterest to crowdsource which can be very effective for brands. A
way to do this is asking fans of your brand to take pictures of themselves with your product and
tag you. You can then repin those pictures into a VIP board. It‟s a free way to get advertising
from real customers and show potential customers that current customers really like using your
product. A company who is doing this successfully, according to an article from socialnomics.net
is Gap (Samhota, 2012). Gap has 3,177 followers and 12 boards with two of the boards dedicated
to real fans. One board, Everybody in Gap, has the description “Gap outfits as worn and styled
by you.” There are 55 pins on this board, which showcase fans wearing Gap clothing. Each
description highlights the item of clothing and the person‟s name, i.e. “Emily of the blog
Cupcakes and Cashmere wears a Gap leather dress.”
Pins and boards may be used as opportunities to converse with users on Pinterest, as
welcoming and encouraging comments builds brand engagement. Popular pins on Pinterest have
three things going for them: likes, comments and repins. A way to get users to leave a comment
is by asking a question or asking them to tell you what they think of your new products line, etc.
Brands can use keywords and hashtags in their pins to generate the likelihood of
receiving more views. When creating a description for a new pin, you can optimize the pin by
adding keywords that users may be more likely to use if they‟re searching for specific content on
Pinterest. Adding #home, #decorative, #remodel, #DIY, etc., would be smart for a home and
building brand. Companies can also add specific website links into their descriptions to bring
users to a certain page. Lastly, adding your website link on your Pinterest profile assures people
will find your website online.

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Pinterest
An example of a home and building company active on Pinterest is Masonite Doors.
Because the brand is a door manufacturer, boards were created that reflect the company culture.
One such board is titled, Famous Doors of the World, which shows images of iconic doors such
as Number 10 Downing Street, Gates of Paradise, and even Shakespeare‟s first home. Another
board is titled Quotes & Sayings, which displays sweet quotes related to the home such as
“Home is where the heart is” and “Lessons learned in the home last the longest.” A board titled
Cool Door Culture hosts unique images of doors in beautiful landscapes and vibrant colors.
Some of the most popular brands on Pinterest include Gap, Nordstrom, West Elm, Etsy
Whole Food and the Travel Channel. Pinterest gave a shout out to The Travel Channel for
making use of the interplay between Pinterest and other social media sites. The Travel Channel
reached out to its Facebook Fans by asking them what pinboards it should create. Bergdorf
Goodman also earned a mention from Pinterest. The department store asked Facebook followers
to complete the sentence "In the morning I never forget…" and then displayed the responses on a
company pinboard, according to an article in USA Today (Tansey, 2012). Each of these brands
have embraced the culture and best practices to succeed on the image-sharing site.
Measuring ROI for Pinterest is very difficult at this point. A service called PinPuff
measures a user‟s pinfluence. PinPuff defines pinfluence as, “a relative measure of your
popularity, influence, activity, reach (& celebrity levels if applicable) on Pinterest on the scale of
100. It also decides monetary value of your pins & traffic your pins generate” (PinPuff, 2012).
In an article from socialmediatoday.net, Laura Edwards says of PinPuff, “the algorithm created
comes off wooly at present” (Soar, 2012). PinPuff is still in beta testing, so as the service grows
and perfects its algorithm, pinfluence for users will hopefully become more accurate.

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Pinterest
Another source for Pinterest analytics is PinReach. PinReach says on its homepage, “We
are working to empower people and brands with the tools necessary to monitor trends,
understand activity, and gauge impact, easily” (PinReach, 2012). Edwards also says of PinReach,
“They have hopes of becoming more than just a scoring devise, something that Klout has never
managed. PinClout (updated name, PinReach) has plans to offer analytics and data on Pinterest
trends - this could prove useful to monitor ROI on your Pinterest campaign or to help plan one”
(Soar, 2012).
Pinterest is no doubt on the radar of many public relations professionals and many key
influencers are talking about the site. The parallel that Pinterest has to public relations is
reputation management. In the traditional sense, public relations professionals own the reputation
of the client they represent. PR folks are advocates for the company and try to bring attention to
their positive aspects. On Pinterest, doing that is easier than ever, and one simple board dedicated
to the companies‟ philanthropy and corporate responsibility is a way to accomplish this.
Public relations professionals engage in two-way communication with target audiences
and publics. Pinterest allows for easy two-way communication between a brand and its users and
fans. As mentioned earlier, brands communicate with their audience through comments, as well
as likes and repins. Users on Pinterest have the ability to talk to brands and vice versa, a perfect
example of two-way communication.
Public relations professionals are responsible for predicting trends and staying up to date
on current issues. PR professionals can become aware of trends online by using Pinterest. There
is a thread dedicated to the most popular pins on Pinterest. A PR pro could see what images
resonate with the most people and use this information to craft similar pins for their brand.

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Pinterest
The biggest con for public relations professionals to consider is Pinterest‟s terms of use.
A lot of agencies are uncomfortable recommending Pinterest to its clients. According to Neil
Kleiner, head of social media for AIS, “there are huge potential copyright issues that I wouldn‟t
want to expose our clients to” (Drell, 2012). In fact, there is a campaign on Pinterest with the
message, “Dear Pinterest, please change your terms or I‟m leaving.” The current terms of use
were brought into light when a lawyer named Kristen Kowalski deleted her account, after
carefully reading them (Danzig, 2012). The problem is when you pin anything, you are agreeing
that you own whatever you‟re pinning or you have permission to do so from the original source,
you‟re also agreeing to let Pinterest sell anything you pin, you agree to pay legal fees, and you
agree that the entire risk remains with you (Kyle, 2012). Pinterest‟s founder, Ben Silbermann,
actually responded to Kowalski, saying he‟s just “a guy with a computer who had a vision to
create this site where everyone can share stuff”(Danzig, 2012). Pinterest spokespeople responded
to the campaign and said they are working on it (Kyle, 2012).
In this paper I‟ve discussed the background of Pinterest, its popularity, best practices for
businesses with examples, ways to measure ROI, how it helps public relations efforts and its
biggest con. After thorough research, my assessment of Pinterest is that it is a successful social
media platform and it is innovative in design and sharing capabilities. Pinterest is a great tool for
businesses to employ and I‟m a loyal user myself. However, I feel as though it is in the best
interest for Pinterest to change its terms of use to ensure happy users and to avoid major
backlash.

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References
Danzig, C. (2012, March 12). Pinterest‟s Terms of Service Screws Its Users…Or Maybe It‟s Just
Like Every Other Social Networking Site. Above The Law. Retrieved March 12, 2012,
from http://abovethelaw.com/2012/03/pinterests-terms-of-service-screws-its-users-or-
maybe-its-just-like-every-other-social-networking-site/
Drell, L. (2012, March 8). Why Big Consumer Brands Have Yet to Tap Pinterest‟s Potential. Mashable
Business. Retrieved March 9, 2012, from http://mashable.com/2012/03/08/pinterest-roi- brands/
Hemley, D. (2012, February 27). 26 Tips for Using Pinterest for Businesses. Social Media Examiner.
Retrieved March 5, 2012, from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-tips-for-using-
pinterest-for-business/
Khazan, O. (2012, March 11). Pinterest: What‟s the role for businesses? The Washington Post. Retrieved
March 12, 2012, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/pinterest-
whats-the-role-for-businesses/2012/03/09/gIQAsvdu5R_story.html
Kyle. (2012, March 7. Pinterest: Change Your Terms or We‟re Leaving. Posted to company blog at
http://www.knoed.com/thewindowseat/pinterest-change-your-terms-or-were-
leaving/?fb_ref=.T1-Jp0j62ic.like&fb_source=home_multiline
Pinpuff. (2012). What is Pinfluence? Retrieved March 13, 2012 from http://pinpuff.com/pinfluence.php
PinReach. (2012).Pinterest Influence & Analytics. Retrieved March 13, 2012 from, www.pinreach.com
Tansey, B. (2012, March 11). Small businesses use fast-growing Pinterest to boost sales. USA Today.
Retrieved March 12, 2012, from http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/story/2012-
03-11/cnbc-pinterest/53443230/1

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References Continued
Samhota, P. (2012, February 14). Five Brands Engaging Like Pros on Pinterest. Social Nomics. Retrieved
March 5, 2012, from http://www.socialnomics.net/2012/01/22/five-brands-engaging-like-pros-
on-pinterest/.
Soar, D. (2012, March 1). Which Brands Are „Winning‟ Pinterest? Social Media Today. Retrieved March
5, 2012, from http://socialmediatoday.com/node/458277