Another social media giant has emerged and cemented a spot among the Internet hall of famers—Pinterest. For the past two years, we’ve watched as Pinterest evolved from the rumors of fame to climb popularity rungs. As of March 2012, Pinterest became the third largest social network, surpassing LinkedIn and Tagged. This once invitation-only-community has been open to the public for a little over a year, and open to businesses since October 2012. And, its openness has only accelerated its popularity. So, if you haven’t given a second thought to adding another social community to your school’s social media plan, this summer might be the perfect opportunity to investigate a little further.
Just what is Pinterest? It’s a social bookmarking system that allows users to save images they wander upon as they surf the net and categorize them on different topic boards. These boards can be anything from recipes to favorite books to ridiculous cat images. If you spend a little time on the site, there isn’t much you won’t find. (Pinterest enforces anti-nudity rules much like Facebook and Twitter to help preserve the community’s family-friendly users.) In a Fast Company article that outlines Pinterest’s history it says that what has made the site as popular as it is, is that Pinterest solves the problem of discovery on the Web. Unlike a typical Google or other search engine search, Pinterest delivers results visually. The example the article uses is this: Let’s say you’re looking for a present for Mother’s Day—nothing in particular, just something different, something nice. You type into Google “nice Mother Day gifts.” Chances are that search isn’t going to be of much assistance in finding what you’re looking for, or in finding inspiration on that perfect gift. Pinterest, however, is designed to deliver a different user experience. It’s able to offer a smaller sampling of results, more targeted to your search.
Who’s using it? According to Adweek, women are five times more likely to use Pinterest than men. The majority of users are female mothers—28% have a household income of 100K+. Besides Twitter, women are more likely than men to use any social platform, so this statistic is not surprising. However, unlike other social networks, Pinterest’s most popular age group is 30–49. Most social sites are more popular with 18–29 year-olds, with numbers declining gradually with older groups. Also unique to Pinterest is its appeal to suburban and rural communities over other social networks (excluding Facebook).
What does this mean to your school? The simple answer to the question is your school should take advantage of any free social platform your target audience uses. But, perhaps a more in-depth answer is Pinterest has higher referral traffic than YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn combined. If it’s traffic to your school Web site you’re seeking, then Pinterest is your best option. This is not saying Web traffic should be your social media plan’s ultimate goal, because it shouldn’t be. However, it would be foolish to say it’s not part of your overall plan since your Web site most likely houses your school’s upcoming events, news, and important contacts.
How does Pinterest work for schools? Educators and schools are among the most active groups using the social site to network with like-minded users, sharing interesting finds, news, and ideas. But, let’s not just talk about it. Here are some great examples of private-independent schools already pinning.
Discovery Mill Private School
The Quaker School at Horsham
The Duluth Montessori School
Montessori School of Bucharest
Grace Lutheran Private School
Seascape Private School
Dallas Independent School District
Voyage Montessori School
Additional ISM articles of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Business Managers Vol. 10 No. 7 Should Your School Invest Time and Resources in Pinterest?
ISM Monthly Update for Admission Officers Vol. 10 No. 3 Pinterest—A Visual Solution To Social Sharing
ISM Monthly Update for Development Directors Vol. 10 No. 7 Pinterested?
Private School News Vol. 11 No. 5 Start Off The New School Year With a Stellar Social Media Plan
