The latest buzz word in the social media world is Pinterest. According to the Pinterest video by L2 Think Tank posted on vimeo.com*, this two-year-old site is the fastest-growing social media site on the Web, with nearly 11 million total visits in the week that ended December 17, 2011, which was nearly 40 times more than six months before. Pinterest’s users are 70% women, 60% college-educated, and generally between the ages of 25-44. These users could be your alumni, your school’s parents, and potential donors.
Pinterest is set up like a cyber-bulletin board. It provides a new way for users to save and view ideas and photos they run across on the Web. They collect what they find in one place. Christina Dowers, in her article “Pinterest: Not Just for Stay-at-Home Moms and Aspiring Wedding Planners” on MarketingProfs.com, says that “Pinterest is an online communications tool just like Facebook…but this social network is strictly a way for users to save and organize their favorite things from the Internet on virtual boards.”
Working with Twitter and Facebook, Pinterest is generating more referrals than Google Plus, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined. Alone, Pinterest has sped past Twitter in referral generation (L2 Think Tank).
How can your school use Pinterest? Dowers lists three ways you can maximize the Pinterest potential as a private-independent school.
First, simply creating an account and posting some of your images you could get “likes” and “repins” on other users’ boards—it’s another opportunity for viral sharing. Like “shares” on Facebook and “retweets” on Twitter, people who like what you post will spread the word.
Plus, according to Dowers, you get more control over comments. With an account, you can monitor comments posted just like you do on Facebook and Twitter.
Second, make sure you post interesting items—and that means interesting images since Pinterest is image-focused. Then you drive users back to your Web site through links.
Third, Dowers suggests, you can send the Pinterested to your blog or other “live” area of your Web site, an area that is continually updated. Consider directly users to your case for support area or annual giving campaign, for example.
Check out the Pinterest.com site for a tour and learn how to get started. Then you'll need to request an invitation to join. Sit tight…there is a wait for the invitation. But don’t worry, be patient. It looks like Pinterest won’t be going away soon.
Here’s another Pinterest resource to check out: “This Is Everything You Need to Know About Pinterest” by Jordan Crook.
* If you have a vimeo account, or create one, you can view this video here.
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM's Monthly Update for Admission Officers Vol. 10 No. 3 Pinterest—A Visual Solution To Social Sharing
Best Practices of Social Media for Today’s Private-School—ISM Recorded Webinar
Online Marketing for Schools: Prospects, Constituents, and the Social Web—ISM Summer Institute
Additional ISM resources for Consortium Gold Members
To The Point Vol. 16 No. 4 Building Your School’s Social Media Campaign
To The Point Vol. 15 No. 9 Social Media: Take an If-Then Approach
