The surprise smash-hit social networking site of 2011 wasn’t Twitter, Tumblr or Google+. Pinterest has skyrocketed into the top ten most visited social networks of the past year and continues to gain traction and popularity.

What is Pinterest?• Pinterest is photo sharing website and app where users create and

manage theme-based image collections or “Boards”

• Users create “Boards” like Places I’d Like to Visit, Pretty Dresses, My Cookie Creations, etc. and post relevant photos on them

• A “Pin It” bookmark is necessary to grab an image and source-link from a website to add it to your board.

• Users can view and follow collections others have created.

• Users may also “Repin” items from other people’s boards.

• Like twitter, there are "followers."

• Like Facebook, users can "like" images

• http://www.wtvr.com/news/wtvr-the-sticking-interest-in-pinterest-20120122,0,7043561.story

History• Work began in December 2009 after raising $10 million in its Series A

funding

• Achieved closed beta status in March 2010.

• Proceeded to operate in invitation-only open beta but eventually made registration possible after an email request.

• On August 16, 2011, Time Magazine published Pinterest in its "50 Best Websites of 2011" column.

• In October 2011, the company secured $27 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, which valued the company at $200 million.

• In December 2011, the site entered the top 10 social networks according to Hitwise data with 11 million total visits

Pinterest Traffic Surpasses Flickr

According to Google trends, Pinterest has now surpassed other popular image-sharing sites like Flickr

Pinterest Demographics

• Users are approximately 59% women • Typical ages range between 25 and 44 • Appeals more to educated Caucasians under the

age of 35 who have incomes between $30,000-100,000 (Alexa).

• Approximately 77% of visitors are in the United States, particularly the NE and SW

• http://mashable.com/2011/12/22/pinterest-video/

Using Pinterest for Marketing

• Wedding themed• Technology• Sports• Healthcare• Personal Care• Home Improvement/DIY

Accessories

• Apparel – men’s, women’s and children’s

• Food/beverages, especially recipe driven

• Architecture• Interior design• Pets• Kids products/toys• Travel

Visually oriented verticals are well suited

Best Practices for Brands

Best Practices – Pinning from various sources rather than one specific site.

– Repinning from within the site is how any user really builds his/her network of followers.

– Creating a few boards that cover a broad range of interests, rather than maintaining a single board devoted to one topic.

Top Brands– Pinterest has identified the following brands that it believes are

following the site’s “best practices” http://mashable.com/2012/01/09/the-top-brands-on-pinterest

Case Study

DRUGSTRE.COM- OUR PARENT COMPANY:DRUGSTORE.COM- OUR PARENT COMPANY:

Our Growth Strategy

• Largest assortment of any single retailer

• Organic growth through brand and assortment expansion.

• Leverage our knowledge of mass/clinical/spa/prestige.

.

WE HAVE CREATED A UNIQUE ONLINE BEAUTY BUSINESS.

WE HAVE DEEP DIRECT RELATIONSHIPS WITH PRESTIGUE BRANDS.

NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW!

WE ARE FOCUSED ON EDUCATIONAL AND EDITORIAL CONTENT

Personalized Beauty• Skin care Analysis• Hair care Consultation•Shop from Your List TM

Expert Advice:• CEW Award Winners•Latest Trends• Video library• Industry Insiders• Staff picks• Chat with a Beauty Advisor

Shop Beauty Best Buys: •Gifts with Purchase• Final Clearance• Value Sets

Beauty.com Demographic

• Our customer is an affluent, educated, career minded woman.– 96% female – Average age is 38– Average household income $100,000+ – 82% college educated– More than 65% work full time

Pinterest Plans for Beauty.com• 5 boards dedicated to primary categories (hair, skin-care, makeup,

accessories, nails)• 5-6 other boards with categories like

– how-to’s

– red carpet looks

– date night

– expert picks & celebrity picks

– new look Friday

– color trends

• As events like Fashion Week or Award Season comes around, create new boards for these events

How To’s

• How to’s can include:– wedding looks– date night looks,– hair tutorials– skin care regimens,– nail looks– sunglasses with face shapes

• Publish daily/weekly

Expert Picks

• Celebrity make-up artist Debra Macki http://pinterest.com/debramacki/

Fashion Week Strategy• Use Picframe to put

multiple photos into one (hair look, nail look, etc) for one photo that’s easy to repin

• Use Phonto to add text to the pictures for easy repining

• Shanti to attend show and pin live

http://pinterest.com/pinmydesk/new-york-fashion-week-picks/

Content Strategy• Repinning our followers’ images as well as brands/bloggers we

follow will be a strong part of community building

• Shanti, Sam, Andrea and Tanya in charge of finding content and posting regularly with products, blogs, press items, etc. that fit into targeted categories

• Besides posting product images to our page for commerce purposes, the following content-heavy pages are the types that we’ll also want to pin:– Trends pages– Expert picks– Staff picks– How to videos – Fashion week coverage– What’s in/what’s out

Fan Acquisition Strategy• Target current fan bases from Facebook, Twitter & Email by posting

links to the Beauty.com Pinterest profile• “Pinning” contests

– Tarte Cosmetics http://tartecosmetics.com/blog/2012/01/17/congratulations-to-our-pinning-on-the-glitz-with-tarte-sweepstakes-winners/)

– Lands’ End Pin It to Win It contest, participants were encouraged to browse the Lands’ End site, create pins of items they liked and the most creative and stylish entries won $250 of shopping vouchers.

• Build strong relationships in the Pinterest community through repining, “liking” and following

• Add a “Pin it” button to Beauty.com pages

Beauty.com Boards

http://pinterest.com/beautydotcom/

Benefits

• User Engagement• Traffic to Beauty.com• SEO?

SEO & Pinterest

• Currently, the links that are included when someone pins a page are “do-follow,”

• For each image you pin, add a description, containing key phrases in an authentic way.

• The more repins you get, the more links you will have, since a repin keeps the source link attribute with the image.

• Increased traffic

• Potentially valuable social media signals