1. Does Pinterest Have a Place for Nonprofits?

    by @pppaige1

    With the boom of Pinterest occurring as we speak, I can’t help but wonder how it can help businesses and organizations succeed. All people I know with a Pinterest use it for personal use. The clean and simplistic layout, easy navigation, and inspirational do-it-yourself attitude has really caught the world’s attention.

    I’m not as experienced with the platform since I just started, but my boards consist of possible crafts, interior design ideas, and my favorite styles. I can see why it has attracted mostly women. It’s every girl’s dream to have an easy way of organizing all of their favorite things. 

    Since Pinterest is free, it only makes sense that companies and businesses would eventually seep into all of the action. Whether they use it to put together a consumer profile, or even to make their own Pinterest profile for promotion, there’s no doubt that it could provide powerful insights into the strengths and weaknesses of a company.

    Though it’s inevitable, I would love for Pinterest to stay free of businesses. When money is needed to keep the platform going, I think it would lose it’s inspirational and DIY identity.

    So what about nonprofits? If large mainstream companies are going to start taking over Pinterest, maybe nonprofits can balance the content out a bit. I am interning at a local nonprofit this semester and I’ve been thinking a lot about how the organization would use Pinterest. Is there a place for nonprofits within Pinterest?

    John Haydon has a blog specifically dedicated to helping nonprofits succeed in a for-profit world. A post from guest blogger Noland Hoshino caught my attention. The following are tips he gives to all nonprofits looking to build an identity and image on Pinterest. I’m anxious to see how nonprofits do end up doing in the Pinterest world. Check it out!

     

    1. “Create Pinterest boards with a specific purpose in mind. Example:Humane Society of New York Woof – Adopt A Dog.
    2. Follow Pinterest users with similar interests with quality pins on their boards, like, Nonprofit Organizations, National Wildlife Federation,Water.org, Jokolna Foundation.  You can follow all boards or specific boards, such as Jennifer Windrum’s SMAC! Sock Monkeys Against Cancer, Sylwia Presley’s Nonprofits and Social Media, Miranda Carter’sCause, Jenn Howard’s Sayings or Sevenly’s Get Inspired.
    3. Follow back influential people who follow you. The trick is to click “Follow All” on the individual’s profile, then unfollow specific boards that aren’t of interests to you.
    4. “Like” pins or repin items that appeals to you. This action will show up on the user’s sidebar. It will also send an email notification to the user (if turned on).
    5. Use the pin comments section to engage in conversation and leave your mark.
    6. Collaborate with co-workers or team members to help build your Pinterest board by using the board edit feature “Me + Contributors.” Let’s say your organization has a project to build a house. You can call the board “The House That Love Built” and invite team leaders to post photos of tools needed, progress of the build, and volunteers.
    7. Use eye-catching images to get people’s attention and repins. The more repins, the more chances you’ll have people clicking to the source website.
    8. Create an online fundraising catalog. Add “$” symbol and the amount of an item in the pin description, i.e., $7.95 or $5.00. A grey banner with the price will be displayed on the upper left corner. Your pin will automatically go into the gifts tab located at the top of the homepage.
    9. Use the search box by typing in topics, people’s names, businesses, etc. Then filter search by clicking pins, boards, or people.
    10. Use the @ feature in the comment box to tag specific people (like other social networks).
    11. Use keywords to name your Pinterest boards, board descriptions, and pin descriptions for search engine optimization (SEO).
    12. Add a Pinterest share button to your website and URL on your business cards.”

    2. Comments
    blog comments powered by Disqus