Review case studies and interviews with successful Pinterest market
Table of Contents
Introduction xxvii
Chapter 1 Understanding Pinterest 1
What is Pinterest? 2
Visual Bookmarking 2
Visual Idea Searching 4
The History of Pinterest 5
Pinterest’s Quietly Explosive Growth 6
An Organically Formed Community 6
Demographics 6
How Pinterest Makes Money 7
Affiliate Links 8
Ad Platform Potential 8
Premium Account Potential 9
Pinterest’s Long-Term Potential 9
Early-to-Market Advantage 9
Third-Party Integration 10
Sustainability for Users 11
Chapter 2 Who Uses Pinterest for Marketing and Why? 13
Why Are Companies Using Pinterest? 14
To Drive Traffic 14
To Generate (and Track) Loyalty 16
To Demonstrate Product Potential 18
To Better Understand Consumers 20
To Establish Brand Personality 22
What Types of Companies Can Benefit from Using Pinterest? 24
Bloggers 24
Retail Stores 26
Online Publications 30
Big Brands 32
Small Business 34
Nonprofits 36
Chapter 3 What Makes Pinterest Valuable? 39
Pinterest Plays Off the Impact of Imagery 40
Visual Bookmarking 42
Saved Images for Later Exploration 43
Driven by Impulse Clicks 44
Pinterest Has a Low Barrier to Entry 45
Easy Account Setup 45
Minimal Account Management 46
Freedom from Publishing Schedules 46
Pinterest Provides an Outlet for Content Curators 47
Users and Businesses Can Share without Flooding Streams 47
Provides Businesses with Freedom to Share More Content 48
Pinterest Offers Content Segmentation to Users 49
Pinterest Serves as a Gateway Rather Than a Destination 50
Better Than Bookmarks for Users and Businesses 51
Pinterest Works Off Latent Click Conversions 52
Increased Opportunity for Traffic 53
Pinterest Puts All Users on an Equal Playing Field 53
Both Big and Small Companies Have Equal Leverage Potential 53
How Pins Get Fed into the Stream 54
Potential Benefit of More Traffic with Followers 55
Equality in Ultimate Pins Based on Size of Posting Account 55
Chapter 4 Week 1—Set Up a Pinterest Account 57
Monday: Create an Account 58
Registering for an Account 58
Setting Up Your Profile 61
Personal Name vs Company Name 63
Setting up a Business Account 63
Tuesday: Understand the Category System 66
What Are the Pinterest Categories? 67
Why Do You Need to Use Pinterest’s Categories? 68
Browsing Categories 68
Wednesday: Understand the Search System 69
Searching for Pins 70
Searching for People 71
Searching for Boards 72
Thursday: Create and Organize Your Boards 72
How to Create a Pinboard 72
Naming and Categorizing Pinboards 75
Organizing Pinboard Display 76
Friday: Start Pinning! 78
Chapter 5 Week 2—Curating Content with Pinterest 79
Monday: Repinning Content from Pinterest 80
How to Repin Content 80
Repinning Content from Your Friend’s Feeds 80
Repinning Content from Category Feeds 81
Tuesday: Pinning New Content with the Pin It Button and Bookmarklet 82
Spotting the Pin It Button on Websites 82
Installing and Using the Pinterest Bookmarklet 84
Using the Pin It Pop-Up Window 85
Wednesday: Uploading Original Pins to Pinterest 86
Why Upload an Original Pin? 86
Editing an Original Pin to Include a URL 87
Thursday: Pinning Products 88
How to Trigger a Product Listing 88
How Pinterest Displays and Categorizes Products 89
Friday: Pinning Content Using a Smartphone 90
Using the iPhone App 90
Using the Mobile Version of Pinterest 91
Chapter 6 Week 3—Find and Attract Followers 93
Monday: Understand Followers and Following 94
Why Following Users is Important 94
Why Gaining Followers is Important 95
Understanding the Exponential Reach of Pinterest 95
Tuesday: Find People to Follow 96
Finding People You Know 96
People by Association 98
People by Category 98
Wednesday: Selectively Follow Users’ Boards 99
The Problem with Following a User 99
Follow One (or Many) Boards 101
Refi ne Your Follow Strategy over Time 102
Thursday: Understand Commenting and Liking 102
Liking a Pin 102
Commenting on a Pin 104
Friday: Recategorize Pins over Time 105
Creating Multiple Boards for the Same Topic 106
The Value in Recategorizing 107
Deleting Pins 108
Chapter 7 Week 4—Purposely Propagating Pins on Pinterest 111
Monday: Getting Your Pins into the Stream 112
How Pins Enter the Topical Stream 112
The “Popular” Stream 114
Getting into the Product Stream 115
Tuesday: Building Momentum by Timing Pins 115
Testing the Impact of Pins by Time of Day 116
Giving Pins a Boost 116
The Cycle of Popular Pins 117
Wednesday: Controlling How Pins Are Posted 117
Influencing the Images a Pinner Shares 117
Influencing the Description of a Pin 118
Disallowing Pinning from Your Site 119
Thursday: Understanding the Impact of a Good Image 120
Pins vs Repins: The Difference is in the Drive 120
Types of Images That Capture Interest 121
Why Teaser Images Work So Well 122
The Question of Watermarks 123
Friday: Creating Pinterest-Specific Image Collages 123
Using Step-by-Step Collages 124
Using Before-and-After Images 125
Using a Magazine-Style Captioned Image 125
Chapter 8 Week 5—Track and Monitor Pinterest Traffic 127
Monday: Finding Out What Content Has Been Pinned from Your Site 128
Searching Pinterest for Pins from a Specific Website 128
Quick-Click Access to Other Pinned Images 129
What to Look for in the Listings 131
Tuesday: Understanding the Value of Pins vs Repins 132
What Does a High Number of Pins Mean? 132
What Do Pins Mean for Your Marketing Efforts? 133
What Does a High Number of Repins Mean? 133
What Do Repins Mean to Your Marketing Efforts? 134
Wednesday: Tracking the Traffic Generated by Pins 135
Checking Your Analytics for Traffic Increases 135
Measuring Pinterest Traffic 136
Identifying Traffic from Individual Pins 137
Which Pins Create the Most Value 138
Thursday: Understanding Why Pinterest Traffic Arrives over Time 139
The Pinterest Wave 140
Impulse Pins and Latent Click-Throughs 140
Why Traffic Doesn’t Always Match Pin Numbers 141
Friday: Using Third-Party Tools for Pinterest Analytics 142
PinAlerts 143
Curalate 144
Repinly 145
Chapter 9 Week 6—Developing a Successful Pinterest Strategy 149
Monday: Learning How Your Target Market Uses Pinterest 150
Mining Pinterest Search for Consumer Insight 150
Identifying Potentially Influential Pinners 153
Tuesday: Discovering Patterns in Topical Pins 155
What Concepts or Ideas Are Pinned Repeatedly 155
What Images Are Being Selected 155
What Are the Board Names Being Used for Pins? 156
Wednesday: Recruiting Evangelists and Fans for the Effort 157
Letting Influencers and Evangelists Curate Your Boards 158
A Warning Regarding Group Boards 160
Pinning and Featuring Fan Content 161
Thursday: Finding Tie-ins to Other Social Media Channels 162
Promoting Involvement on Facebook 162
The Twitter Connection 164
Video Sites (YouTube and Vimeo) 164
Friday: Understanding Your Staffing Availability 165
Determining Staff Needs 165
How Much Time to Spend on Pinterest 165
Regular Hours or Scattered Hours 166
Chapter 10 Week 7—Leveraging Boards for Better Reach 167
Monday: Creating a Strategic Pinboard Structure 168
What Are Your Goals for Pinterest? 168
Tuesday: Categorizing Boards 174
When to Add New Boards 174
Determining Board Names 176
Wednesday: Organizing and Reorganizing Boards 178
Moving and Removing Pins Over Time 178
The Value of Reordering Board Displays 181
Thursday: Creating Boards with Multiple Curators 183
The Value of Multiple Curators 183
Finding and Adding Curators 184
Friday: Creating Short-Term Boards for Marketing Purposes 185
Seasonal Boards 185
Event-Driven Boards 186
Campaign-Driven Boards 187
Chapter 11 Week 8—Using Pinterest to Attract Traffic 189
Monday: Promoting Your Own Content 190
When to Pin Your Own Content 190
Joining or Creating a Cooperative 192
Tuesday: Creating Pinterest-Focused Content 192
The Most Popular Topics on Pinterest 193
The Most Popular Types of Pins on Pinterest 194
Wednesday: Leverage Your Team 198
Taking Stock of Team Interests 198
Focused vs General Staff Involvement 201
One Account or Multiple Accounts? 201
When Your Team Consists of a Single Person 203
Thursday: Developing a Resource Board 204
Pinning Content That Educates Your Audience 204
Pinning Content That Inspires Your Audience 205
Pinning Content That Supports Your Brand 206
Pinning Content That Displays Your Brand in Use 207
Friday: Pinterest Best Practices 208
Individual Pin Best Practices 208
Pinboard Best Practices 209
Pinterest Marketing Best Practices 210
Chapter 12 Week 9—Using Pinterest to Engage with Fans 211
Monday: Play to the Interests of Your Audience 212
Look for Natural Brand Tie-ins 212
Offer Activity-Inspired Discounts 214
Measure Response to Test Boards 215
Tuesday: Featuring Content That Highlights Your Brand 216
Inspirational Content and Quotes 216
Educational Content and How-tos 217
Your Products in Action 219
Wednesday: Promoting Other Sites’ Content 220
The Value of Promoting Third-Party Content 220
Pin the Content of Evangelists 221
Promote Other Pinners and Bloggers 222
Thursday: Creating Crowd-Sourced Boards 223
Curating from Hashtags and Mentions 224
Leveraging Content from Other Channels 225
Leveraging Third-Party Pinners 227
Friday: The Value of Cross-Channel Integration 229
Highlighting a Featured Pinner 229
Promoting Pinterest Content on Other Channels 230
Chapter 13 Week 10—Pinterest Marketing Through Contests 233
Monday: Understanding Pinterest Contests 234
Pinterest TOS 234
Why Run Contests Through Pinterest? 235
Tuesday: Exploring Contest Examples 236
bmi Pinterest Lottery 236
Homes.com Spring into the Dream Contest 238
Wednesday: “Pin It to Win It” and Board Curation Contests 239
How It Works 239
Why It Benefits Your Brand 239
Measuring Value 240
Thursday: Pinterest Scavenger Hunts 241
How It Works 241
Why It Benefits Your Brand 242
Measuring Value 242
Friday: Pinterest Product Feature Contests 242
How It Works 242
Why It Benefits Your Brand 243
Measuring Value 244
Chapter 14 Week 11—Measure and Refine Your Strategy 247
Monday: Setting Pinterest-Related Goals 248
Setting a Business Goal 248
Letting Your Goals Define Your Tactics 249
Putting It All Together 250
Tuesday: Analyzing Your Campaigns 251
Matching Metrics to Campaigns 251
Analyzing Campaign Details for Consumer Insight 253
Wednesday: Understanding Common Pinterest Problems and Their Solutions 254
Lack of Repins 254
Lack of Followers 256
Lack of Traffic 258
Thursday: Continually Testing Your Approach 258
Test Topics and Concepts 259
Test Descriptions and Calls to Action 260
Test the Best Time to Pin 261
Friday: Learning from a Pinterest Case Study 261
Chapter 15 The Future of Pinterest Marketing 267
Pinterest Will Change the Web 268
Beyond Browsing: Content Curation 268
Potential for Buyouts or Partnerships 269
The Archival System: Changing the Way We Engage with Content 270
Pinterest’s Effect on Search 271
A Future Pinterest API 272
The Potential of a Pinterest API 272
Speculation on the API Delay 273
API Discussions for Developers 273
Understanding the Pinterest Effect 274
The Impact of Social Channels Over Time 274
Pinterest and the Future of Social Media Marketing 275
Appendix A: Pinterest Marketing Resources 277
Pinterest Marketing: An Hour a Day Pinboard 278
97th Floor Blog 278
Pinboard from PinnableBusiness.com 278
Marketing Land 278
Pinboard from Team MarketingProfs 278
Social Media Examiner 278
Pinterest Marketing Articles Pinboard 279
Entrepreneur 279
Pinterest for Marketing Pinboard 279
Mashable 279
Appendix B: Appendix: Pinterest Tips from Top Marketers 281
Ryan Sammy 282
Prafull Sharma 282
Matt Siltala 283
Carrie Hill 283
Amanda Nelson 284
Katie Laird 284
Dirk Singer 285
Megan Rivas 286
Jamie Grove 286
Glossary 287
Index 289
