One of the areas of interest both in teaching, research, and consulting for me has been the issue of online reputation management. While I think that it is key to make sure that you have a sound foundation of where you want the primary information to be coming in from about you (the ultimate digital hub should be either your own personal website or blog), but you also want to make sure that you are present on the various extensions and social media platforms that are relevant to your own personal brand.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have been viewed as traditional and established social media platform extensions to market and manage your own personal reputation – but what about Pinterest? Pinterest has been gaining traffic by leaps and bounds over just the last several months – more than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined according to one study. This is pretty amazing – and this does open an opportunity to use this particular platform to market yourself and your online reputation proactively.
Here are some ways you can manage your online reputation proactively on Pinterest:
- Share your knowledge and expertise through info graphics and images in area of expertise: Create boards for your particular interests and areas of expertise. One of the things that I tried to do on Pinterest was to set up several boards based on my research interests and pin images or info graphics that would be good to share with the community. I set up a board for social media, crisis communications, and public relations as a starting point.
- Create a visual portfolio of work: I have mentioned this to my students that Pinterest is a great way to showcase your advertising and graphic design skills as a young professional with samples of print ads, fliers, and info graphics to show potential future employers. It is a great place for brands and others to be inspired by the work emerging in this particular area, and a great opportunity for young professionals to get attention and recognition for their work. Make sure to organize the boards based on area (ex. advertising or PR or Strategic Communications) or based on the work you are creating (ex. Print Ads, Video clips and commercials, info graphics, fliers, etc).
- Upload information about your self with images and videos: What is great about Pinterest is the fact that you can also share videos, so what a great way to show who you are as a person by sharing pictures of you at various events but also in interviews. It would be a good idea to have a board dedicated for yourself so others will get a sense of who you are as a person and professional.
- Master the balance between uploading new content and curating information: You want to make sure that you are uploading and sharing insights and images that you have created – but you also want to make sure you are actively sharing information you may find interesting and useful for your followers on Pinterest.
- Extension links from Pinterest back to blog / website: Make sure to direct followers to where they can read more about your insights and commentary on your personal website or blog. This will help drive traffic back to the digital hub of information for yourself.
- Think before you pin and how this could impact reputation: This is consistent with all other digital platforms out there in regards to reputation– and Pinterest is another one to take into consideration and be aware of.
These are just a few ideas to think about in terms of how to manage your online reputation on Pinterest. We are still seeing a lot of development and conversation regarding this visual storyboard social network – but there are many great and wonderful opportunities for businesses and professionals to establish their personal brand on this site.
In addition, what we have found in both Strategic Communications and PR is that we have to be looking at some of these emerging technologies and determine 1) whether or not it is going to be something that our brand / client would benefit from 2) how we are going to measure the metrics and evaluate whether or not this new site or extension was beneficial for our reputation and 3) how we can strategically position our personal reputation / client on this site.
Pinterest does provide great opportunities for PR professionals to extend their own reputation positively and in a way that is unique compared to other social media platform extensions.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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