Pinterest has been a site where people have gotten their inspirations and ideas for a variety of events and celebrations. From weddings to parties to fashion/home decor/food creations – this site has it all! However, when you look at these possibilities for social and personal interests, the question arises on how Pinterest can be used for professional reasons. I have used Pinterst for both personal and professional interests.
I have items for travel,athletics, and food (of course) ideas, but mainly I have used it as a visual bookmarking platform to save and share info graphics related to various topics. Kristin just wrote a great post on how to use infographics for engineers – these are a great way to communicate visually your data and insights related to your campaign or research study. It is a great platform for visual thinkers – so this is something to keep in mind.
Gini Dietrich also had a great post for PR pros on how they can use the site for their PR efforts, ranging from incorporating this into the employee social media policy to steps to measure the impact of Pinterest pins for your client and brand. Here is a list of some of the tools you can use to measure the impact of Pinterest for your brand from Social Media Today. Understanding the size of the image that will be displayed on Pinterest will also be good to know as well.
With all of these in mind, here are some things to remember when you are using Pinterest for professional reasons:
- Think before you pin: People not only follow just one board, but all of your boards on Pinterest. Keep this in mind in regards to your online reputation.
- Show personality as well as professional interests: People want not only information you can use themselves, but they want to see who you are as a person as well. Have boards for travel adventures, cooking recipes, fashion and shopping, athletics, hobbies, etc.
- Share insights with followers you know will be interested in your content: Use Twitter or Facebook to share videos, infographics, or other useful visual content that may be helpful to others. I have done this with Twitter, and people have been very grateful for these resources for their own classes and even practice.
- Like all social media platforms, you have to be consistent with content: If people are expecting you to have content on a regular basis, you need to make sure to provide it.
- Use the Pinterest Mobile App: This is what I primarily use – and look for various categories that may be interest you and search for content. I have found the technology category to be very useful for social media infographics.
Here are a list of people I follow on Pinterest who have been very generous with sharing their content and insights about various topics of interest (ex. social media, public relations, etc):
- PR News: Great information related to their articles and updates – plus they share updates for their events and tips for inspiration for PR professionals.
- Social@Oglivy: Fabulous infographics and what I really like is the fact they have organized their boards very well – extremely helpful!
- Tom Kelleher: PR professor at the University of Hawaii – has done a great job in using Pinterest to share not only infographics, but also use the platform to share stories and visuals from his Communication department at the University of Hawaii.
- Patrice Cloutier: If you want the latest developments of crisis communications with new media and mobile technologies, Patrice always has the latest developments on Pinterest. Ranging from articles, infographics, and videos – Patrice is a must follow for crisis communication professionals on Pinterest.
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