Originally presented at NCTech4Good conference, June 2012.

1. Pinterest
Not just another social media channel
Monday, May 7, 12

2. Who Am I?
• Good morning – I’m Karin Tracy.
• VP of Creative Services for Confluence
• Over 90% of our clients are nonprofits, member organizations
and foundations.
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Monday, May 7, 12

3. We are hard-wired to respond to
visual stimuli
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Monday, May 7, 12

4. So, what is Pinterest?
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Monday, May 7, 12

5. Pinterest is...
• a visual bulletin board
• a shared and collaborative bookmark repository
• a community building tool
• a source of traffic for your website
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Monday, May 7, 12

6. A members-only site
• All users must request an invitation
• Fret not! Users receive invitations within a day or two
• Once invited, you can create an account with email address
and password or log in using either Facebook or Twitter
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Monday, May 7, 12

7. Explosive User Growth!
• May 2011: 418,000 users
• July 2011: 1,030,000 users
• September 2011: 2,023,000 users
• November 2011: 4,855,000 users
• January 2012: 11,716,000 users – 2,802% growth in 8 months!
The fastest standalone site in history to cross the
10 million mark
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Monday, May 7, 12
Source: Mashable/Comscore

8. Female
Male
20%
80%
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Monday, May 7, 12
Who is the average
Pinterest user?
Source: Experian Hitwise December 2011

9. 0-17
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
5% 2% 5%
16%
25%
17%
30%
And, age range?
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Monday, May 7, 12
Source: Experian Hitwise December 2011
65 and older

10. $0-$25k
$25-50k
$50-$75k
$75-$100k
5%
16%
$100-$150k
$150k or more
5%
17%
26%
31%
Annual Household Income
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Monday, May 7, 12
Source: Experian Hitwise December 2011

11. Facebook
Pinterest
Tumblr
Twitter
LinkedIn
0%
3% 3%
14%
89
14%
65%
405
Duration/engagement
minutes per month
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12
Source: JeffBullas.com March 2012
Google+

12. “Do you trust the information
and advice you get from...”
• BLOGS: Yes – 81%
• PINTEREST: Yes – 81%
• TWITTER: Yes – 73%
• FACEBOOK: Yes – 67%
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12
Source: BlogHer/SocialMediaToday March 2012

13. So what does that mean?
• Women account for 85% of all consumer purchases
• Represent a $2.4 trillion market
• Donations and gifts to charities and nonprofits are made more
often by women
• Pinterest is a trusted source of information and advice for
women
• Users are spending more time on Pinterest than any other
social network besides Facebook
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Monday, May 7, 12

14. Let’s dive in!
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Monday, May 7, 12

15. Dashboard
• View by
– Everything
– Videos
– Popular
– Gifts
•Gray banner with price is
automatically added if you
enter the cost
•Friends to follow
– Auto suggested
•Recent Activity
– Shows new followers,
repins and likes
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Monday, May 7, 12

16. Boards and Pins
• Boards are categories (category names are freeform – not a
set list)
• Pins are individual photos or videos that are assigned to a
board
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Monday, May 7, 12

17. Boards
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Monday, May 7, 12

18. Pin
• A pin is one image or video
• Clicking on the image or video
opens a new browser window
and redirects the user to the
referring website
• The pug picture was pinned
from CuteOverload.com and a
click takes user to that page on
CuteOverload.com
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12

19. 3 Ways to Pin
• Upload a photo from your computer
• Add Pinmarklet to your browser and pin from any webpage. If
there are multiple pictures on a webpage, you will be prompted
to choose one for Pinterest
• Use the Pin it sharing button on participating sites
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12

20. Keywords and Prices
• When you pin a photo/video, choose descriptive keywords in
the text area
• If you are pinning an item with a cost associated (product,
donation level, registration) include the cost in the description
• Pins with cost banners automatically appear on dashboards
AND within the Gifts menu
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Monday, May 7, 12

21. Repinning & Liking
• Other users repin pins of interest
• Repins are immediately loaded onto
followers landing page AND the
Pinterest home page
• Likes are saved to the users profile
but are not loaded onto pages as
described above
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Monday, May 7, 12

22. Nonprofits on Pinterest
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Monday, May 7, 12

23. Amnesty International
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Monday, May 7, 12

24. Amnesty International
• Amnesty International
has 14 boards with 176
pins
• This board, Facts, has
5805 followers on only
22 pins
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Monday, May 7, 12

25. Amnesty International
• Fair Trade board offers
prices and direct links
back to Amnesty
International’s Fair
Trade shop
• Note hashtag –
#fairtrade – in the
board description
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Monday, May 7, 12

26. NRDC Save BioGems
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Monday, May 7, 12

27. NRDC Save BioGems
• National World Penguin Day
board has only 8 pins, but is
followed by 1,877 users
• Have fun with your boards –
even a serious topic like
conservation can be presented
in a friendly and engaging
manner
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12

28. Unicef
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Monday, May 7, 12

29. Unicef
• Unicef TV board has
75 pinned video
reports from Unicef
campaigns and efforts
around the world
• 6,116 followers
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Monday, May 7, 12

30. AARP
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Monday, May 7, 12

31. AARP
• AARP’s core audience does not
fit into the main Pinterest
userbase
• However, they have 686
followers of the main account
• And the Quotes to Live By board
has 1671 followers
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Monday, May 7, 12

32. PETA
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Monday, May 7, 12

33. PETA
• You can allow other Pinterest
users to post to your boards.
Encourage collaboration
amongst your staff
• The Vegan Products board
allows PETA to drive traffic to
companies and supporters of
their mission
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Monday, May 7, 12

34. Ideas for Nonprofits
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Monday, May 7, 12

35. Environmental Organization
• Recycling or reuse projects in
your city or community
• Parks and local green areas
• Outdoor activities for people of
all ages
• Endangered species
• Community cleanups
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Monday, May 7, 12
• Earth Day
• Gardening, responsible
watering, plants, community
tree plant-a-thons
• DIY green – rain barrels,
composting, small solar projects

36. Animal Shelter/Rescue
• Adoptable pets
• Quality pet food, pet products,
toys
• Rescue success stories
• Topical news about animals
• Animal events occurring within
the community
• Donate now
• Pet food recipes/treats
• Wishlist
• Funny animal pics/videos
• Sponsors/supporters
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12

37. School*
• Student projects
• Favorite books by grade/year
• Art from art class
• Musical instruments offered by
band department
• Video of different teachers –
thirty seconds each
• Activities for kids/pre-teens/
teens to download
• Classroom decorating ideas/
contest
• Curricula/syllabi
• Amazon wishlist
*Be aware of your school’s regulations about including children's recognizable faces
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Monday, May 7, 12

38. Women’s Organization
• Influential women in history
• Issues around discrimination in
the workplace
• Women in politics or positions of
prominence
• Women’s health
• Local ‘Superwomen’ –
collaborative community board
• Reproductive rights (if
applicable)
• Mom of the Year
• Mothering-related (if applicable)
• Local girl or young women’s
groups/events
• Healthy diet and lifestyle
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12

39. Hospital/Health-Related
• Medical research stories related
to your mission/area of
expertise
• Positive images/video of healthy
people who have benefitted
from your service or care
• Wishlist, toys, cheer items
• Fundraising
• Infographics about specific
health issues
• Healthy lifestyle - exercise,
balanced meals, stress
reducers
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12

40. Veteran’s Organization
• Soldiers returning from
overseas or active duty
• Important events or dates in
military history
• Armed Services historical
photos
• Family support
• Military awards and medals
• Acclimating to civilian life or
return to the States
• Uniforms from different
branches
• Medical/mental information
specific to vets
• Working animals in the military
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Monday, May 7, 12

41. Member Organization
• Member pictures/stories
• Upcoming events
• Brag board for ‘above-andbeyond’ member
accomplishment
• How-to videos
• Images/videos related to
organization’s mission
• Bookstore, swag, ongoing
education/certification
• Toolkits – resources, apps,
websites relevant to your
members
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Monday, May 7, 12
• Benefits offered to members

42. 5 Reasons to Join
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Monday, May 7, 12

43. Reason #1 - Huge Community
• Pinterest is a rapidly growing community, composed of users
who are hungry for a different kind of social media experience
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Monday, May 7, 12

44. Reason #2 - Engaged Audience
• Pinterest has an engaged audience that closely matches the
target audience for many nonprofits
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12

45. Reason #3 - Gifts
• The Gifts section is widely visited and provides exposure for
your nonprofit fundraising efforts
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Monday, May 7, 12

46. Reason #4 - Analytics
• You can easily track referral traffic through Google Analytics
and ShareThis/AddThis
• See which images from your site have been pinned by going to:
http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.org/
• Use third-party tools like Pinreach.com (analytics only),
Pinerly.com (analytics, pin scheduler, management tool)
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Monday, May 7, 12

47. Reason #5 - Referral Traffic
• Pins back to your website count as referring traffic / incoming
links and can help improve your search engine ranking
• Pinterest generates more referral traffic to websites than
YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn COMBINED
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12
Source: JeffBullas.com/Shareaholic

48. Questions? Comments?
@ConfluenceCorp
Monday, May 7, 12