How Pinterest Can Help Image Driven Brands

Image-based brands such as fashion, beauty, photographers, and artists will love Pinterest, a new social sharing platform dedicated to “connecting everyone in the world through shared tastes and the ‘things’ they find interesting.” Users create image boards on topics ranging from home, to travel, food, fitness, beauty, etc. They then find, follow, and share with friends who have similar interests.

Think of Pinterest as your virtual tack board. Remember the cork board you used to have over your desk? Instead of clipping and tacking physical inspiration, Pinterest allows you to keep track of all those virtual bits of inspiration you come across online everyday. Pinterest comes complete with a browser extension that makes pinning a snap. Simply click on the “Pin It” tool when viewing any standard web page and every image or video on that page can be added to your profile with two clicks. Users are encouraged to add a note to the image, and anyone can add a comment to it at any time. More importantly, the image is saved with a link to the URL of the original source. Goodbye long, scrolling lists of “Bookmarked” pages you can’t remember why you saved in the first place, Hello, Pinterest.

Image-driven brands will find this platform perfect for their social media outreach. No need to feel pressure to have a lot of content; beautiful images are once again worth a thousand words. Pinterest users are searching for inspiration for their hair, for their homes, for their lives. Users are encouraged to pick up inspiration from people they follow and “re-pin” it. Creative groups like MSLK can even create shared boards that allow multiple users to post to the same board. We are currently using Pinterest to gather inspiration for an upcoming project.

If you maintain a personal Facebook profile, you can login to Pinterest with your Facebook account. (Note: you’ll have to request an invitation to join, as Pinterest is currently operating with a waiting list for new members.) The benefit of using the Facebook connect is that your “Pins” will automatically feed to your Facebook profile, and although this feature currently needs a bit more development, the potential looks promising.

Speaking of future potential, Pinterest currently works best when you are pinning images already uploaded/hosted online. For brands, this is a great way to drive traffic back to your own website or blog where the images are already hosted. However, we found this a bit annoying for individuals looking to upload new content. You can upload photos from your computer, but the interface is cumbersome and slow. For those with iPhones, there is currently a Pinterest mobile App which makes shooting and uploading a bit easier.

Happy Pinning! Follow us at pinterest.com/sherikoetting and pinterest.com/marclevitt.