It’s hard to believe that it has been three months since we wrote our first blog about Pinterest. Around the same time we launched our own GFM Pinterest page – and with more than 300 pins under our belt, we’re experiencing firsthand the social media craze that shows no signs of slowing down.
Although Pinterest is now the No. 3 social media platform (behind Facebook and Twitter), in the past few months there has been quite a bit of chatter about the potential intellectual property (IP) issues around pinners pinning content that is not their own – which is the basic purpose of Pinterest. This Washington Post interview with an IP attorney helps to cover the basics and offers some good insight.
In addition to potential legal issues, we’ve seen a number of articles discussing whether Pinterest is right for your business. In particular, this blog post from American Express OPEN Forum raises a great question for small businesses: with 27 percent of business owners struggling to keep their business afloat, is Pinterest worth their time?
While we do have a soft spot for Pinterest – which has inspired our staff on everything from dinner menus to travel plans and fashion trends – when it comes to Pinterest for brands it is important to think through the potential pitfalls before diving in head first. Some of our takeaways:
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| Better Homes and Gardens offers a "Pin It" icon right above photos on its website: www.bhg.com. Find them on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/bhg/ |
- When pinning – whenever you can, link to the original source and give credit in the pin if possible. For example, if you see a fabulous dress on a fashion blog you follow, try to click through to the actual source of the dress (like BananaRepublic.Gap.com) and pin from the retailer website, not the blog you saw it on first.
- Many websites and blogs are adding “Pin It” share icons to posts, images and articles to make it easier to share their content. You can be relatively assured that if they’re making it easy to share their content, such as the example here from the Better Homes and Gardens website, they’re happy to share and hopeful you’ll pin it.
- Pinterest isn’t for everyone, but some brands and industries are finding creative ways to put it to use. Mashable, for one, has been reporting on a series of interesting uses including:
- For recruiting
- To share a fashion show “live” by pinning photos in real time
- As a crowdsourcing tool
- To raise public awareness about a real safety issue
- Finally, maintaining Pinterest – just like maintaining any social media platform – can be time consuming. Consider enlisting Pinerly or set aside time to carefully review your website’s Google Analytics, as an example, to help you determine if the time spent is worth the return. There are also studies about the best time of day to pin, which are helpful for allocating team bandwidth accordingly.
- Carissa
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