The May meeting of The College at Brockport's Social Media User Group Looked at Pinterest and how schools are using it.

1. SMUG
Pinterest: New hotness or just one
more bleeping thing to worry about?
May 3, 2012

2. What is Pinterest?
• Actually founded in 2008 as a company called Tote
• It’s an online “pinboard.”
• One of the fastest growing websites ever
– 500K users in May 2011, 11.7 million users in Jan. 2012
– Owe a lot of that to a deal w/ Facebook
– Audience could be as much as 83% female
• 2.3 billion page views in March – making it 3rd most
popular social site.

3. OOOOOH SHINY!
Media cannot stop gushing about it

4. So how do I use it?
• You pin stuff, just like you’d tack it to a bulletin
board.
• Organize your pins into boards
• Follow others and reshare their pins
• Good first timers guide

6. So what can you do with it?
• Show off products or
locations
• Share video
• Share inspirational quotes
visually
• Get ideas for your own
projects
• Links directly to your own
or other content

7. So what are the drawbacks?
• Copyright
• Metrics are hard to come by
• Tough to tell if “repins” really mean anything.

8. So what should colleges be doing with
it?
• Up for debate
• Tough to tell exactly how much our audience
is using it.
• Vast majority of Pinterest users are 25-54.
• But…..

9. Many Schools are Doing Some Cool
Stuff
• Purdue—Using it to follow their basketball
team
• Drake: Dorm Room Decor
• Penn Career Services

11. Other Cool Stuff
• Minnesota is using to promote campus events.
• Oberachievements at Oberlin College
• Concordia “From the Archives”

12. The Upshot?
• Be strategic.
• Be creative
• Be prepared for people to say huh?
• Let’s talk if you have ideas, because I’d love to
hear ‘em.

13. Questions? Comments? Complaints?
• @dtyler321
• I’ll post these slides on Slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/Dtyler321/
• Yes, we’re on Pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/collegeatbport/