How can charities use Pinterest?

As the PR and marketing media continues its frenzied coverage of Pinterest, one of this year’s biggest social media success stories, we consider how the charity sector can make best use of the site to engage with their supporters. After all, surely a social media site that grew by 4,000% in its first six months shouldn’t be ignored.

Add to this the fact that UK users are using the site in quite a different way to their US counterparts, with top interests including web analytics, SEO and marketing (versus crafts, gifts and interior design in the US), and the story of Pinterest really begins to pique the interest of the marketing community.

The site, a social network whose 10.4m members display or ‘pin’ images of interest relating to specific themes, is now driving more traffic to major brands than Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace combined. Users are typically spending a good deal of time perusing and pinning images, providing brands and charities alike with an exciting opportunity to launch dynamic, visually-led marketing campaigns.

There are a number of creative ways that charities can use Pinterest. The site already features a series of popular pinboards with titles such as Causes I love, Charities I love and Charities I support, where users share images of the causes closest to their hearts. Charities can seek to involve and engage with their supporters by posting images of success stories, linking facts about their organisation and goals to pictures, uploading images of wider, related themes and of course showing gratitude to their followers. The site is also a good place to share recommendations for publications, forthcoming events and blog posts.

However, the real call to action for charities is the reminder provided by this latest social media sensation of the importance of search engine optimisation (SEO). Savvy marketers are using Pinterest to drive high quality traffic to their websites by creating multiple links back to their sites, using cleverly chosen keywords and selecting relevant, interesting images that appeal to their target audiences. These are of course the three guiding principles of successful SEO: creating ‘back links’, optimising keywords and delivery fresh, timely content.

Charities can improve their search rankings by adopting a proactive approach to SEO and reviewing the most practical and appropriate means of ‘joining in the visual conversation’. In addition to a well managed Twitter feed or Facebook page, this could also include regular blogs, a fresh e-newsletter, a new look website or even an interactive microsite, with relevant, engaging images included throughout.

Images provide a highly effective means of telling a story, and are absorbed far more quickly by the reader than the written word. All that’s needed is the time and creativity to identify the image that fits best with the news or ‘story’ in hand. We look forward to seeing what the latest craze in image-sharing will produce among the country’s many charitable organisations. The CJAM team is happy to offer advice on Pinterest campaigns or simply help find the best digital marketing option for your organisation.