How PR pros can use Pinterest

With 175 million monthly active users, there’s no denying the popularity of Pinterest.

Not only does it have one of the most active followings among the big social media networks, it’s also unique in its purpose.

Rather than connecting with friends and family, Pinterest users are actively searching for communications from brands. They’re looking for ideas and products—everything from recipes to home decor to pet grooming tips to travel itineraries—and bookmarking them on their personal Pinterest boards.

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This “pinning” behavior also gives content on the platform a much longer shelf life. The average life of a pin is seven months or more, compared to Twitter’sseven minutes.

So how do you use Pinterest for your PR efforts? Here six ways:

1. Share your story visually.

Pinterest, like Instagram, is a visual storytelling platform, and PR pros, at their core, are storytellers.

Through photos, infographics and videos, you can visually share your story, allowing you to better connect with your audience and further your reach as other users pin your content.

2. Share the stories of others.

Not only are you able to put out your own messages on Pinterest, it also offers you the opportunity to see what your audience is talking about, as it relates to your industry.

Research brand and industry keywords on the platform and “re-pin” user-generated content to your own Pinterest boards.

You never know where your next story may come from, and Pinterest is full of new ideas.

3. Pin industry news.

Pinterest provides a great outlet for sharing information about events and trends happening in your industry.

You can even invite others to contribute to your board, providing a great way to crowdsource content and get access to resources you may need later without having to do all of the research yourself.

4. Pin media clips.

In Muck Rack’s 2018 journalist survey, 63 percent of journalists in the U.S. and 68 percent of journalists worldwide track how many times their stories are shared on social media.

Pinning news articles, blog posts and TV clips about your business or client is a great way to increase the reach of the story, which serves the dual purpose of highlighting the great things other outlets are saying about you, while also helping out the journalist who wrote or recorded it.

5. Add the “Pin It” button to your website.

You’re doing a great job of sharing content from your website and news articles on Pinterest, but don’t let your efforts stop there.

Make it simple for other users and journalists to pin your content by adding the “Pin It” button to your website or blog. This tool allows users to quickly add your content to their own Pinterest boards with just the click of a button.

6. Create an idea board.

Did you just attend a conference and hear lots of great advice from industry leaders? Or maybe you read an article that gave you a great story idea for your client or company to use in the future.

Pinterest offers a great way to track, save and refer back to these ideas so you can use them at a later date.

Pin that article or take a photo of that presentation and save it to a Pinterest board with your own notes attached and never forget another stroke of brilliance again just because it hit you at an inopportune time.

As Pinterest usership continues to grow and an even greater number of online searches take place on the platform, it will continue to be an important tactic in any well-rounded PR strategy.

How do you use Pinterest, PR Daily readers?

Jessica Lawlor is the features editor for the Muck Rack blog and handles PR and social media for Muck Rack. A version of this article originally appeared on Muck Rack, a service that enables you to find journalists to pitch, build media lists, get press alerts and create coverage reports with social media data.

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