Assignment - Pinterest

What do you think of examples of Pinterest?

People like visual images. Something that catches the eye and it's easy to share, and leads you to other similar pages/pictures of interest. That is part of their name "Interest".  The site answers what are you interested in? Food? Fashion? Music? Dance?..just search and see.

The site keeps you entertained and educated visually - there is always something to see and PIN to keep as a memento to look back later. You can even store the pins in categories you are interested in. How organized is that. Plus, you can even comment on the pin or share it with followers or on other forms of social media, such as Facebook.

If you find something you like, just click on it and it'll take you to the site to learn more. Pinterest keeps the person engaged/entertained - but takes you to the source. Like this picture? Want to see more of who or what it can do - click here. Great for organizations or individuals to get people to their website.

For a brand, this could be wonderful - since you hooked them with a visual lede and now they have clicked onto your website to learn more.

Also, somewhat of a search engine - if you are looking for a particular item and you see it, you wonder how to make it, get it or learn from it. You can find sites that are similar to your interests you can follow outside of Pinterest.

Pinterest can keep you captive (trust me) for a while if you let it. Some people, me included considers it slight obsession. You can spend a long time looking, scrolling and pining items. 

Another bonus - Pinterest is easy to use.

Not a stranger to pins, I have 30 of boards and 4,8 K of pins. Yeah, slightly obsessive. 

Who do you follow on Pinterest?

I follow my friends, family and various food bloggers such as: 101 cookbooks and Julie Van Rosendaal, Various organizations/nonprofits (animal advocates mostly). The Sparkle and many others. 

Can you share with us a board of an NGO/Nonprofit that exemplifies good use of Pinterest?

Edmonton Humane Society.

They have 13 boards that range from: 

• Adoptable animals, 
• staff/volunteer recognition, 
• treats/toys DIY, videos, 
• educational 
• and funnies to give more reach and engage  people with their pins.

The boards for adoptive animals can get a large reach, since there is the cute picture and information about the dog and cat. When you click on the PIN, it takes you to their site to get more info.  Or, if you want to share the adoptable animal with a quote from you - you can.

Entertainment value - everyone loves humour. Adding a board with funny animal pictures gets people laugh. Works on their demographic of individuals that like animals. We always love getting a few funny pictures from our friends to cheer us up or wind us down.

The human factor. Their slogan is 'Completing families one life at a time' touches the human emotion. They are not selling, they are reaching heart strings.  

This also resonates with recognizing the staff/volunteers they have working for them and the donors that support them. EHS is saying Thank you and we appreciate these people. 

Inspirational quotes - more heartstrings. Getting their message out there to have people adopt rather than shop.

Education - Videos, treats, toys and helpful tips for potential adopters and current animal lovers. These boards educate people on what they can do or get for their animals to look after them. The images goes to other sites that help people learn more. Information sharing.

They are also following other animal rescues, which they can share and engage together with images/links.

I think EHS does a pretty good job on engaging and getting people interested in their organization and what we can do to help their main clients - families.

With Pinterest it keeps the person captive and engaged with pictures and its educational.

Did I tell you how much I like Pinterest? D Rhodes