Pinterest Social Media Chefs Share Recipe for Success with SMCDallas

What’s the recipe for a zesty panel on the social scrapbooking application Pinterest?

Take Michaels Stores, the bread and butter of the crafts world
Add Kendra Scott, a jewelry maker with impressive growth
Blend with Tenthwave, a branding agency with demonstrable Pinterest ROI
Sprinkle with that rarest of ingredients, a MAN with a million followers on Pinterest (Michael Stancil)

Stir carefully with analytics expert and host Robert P Maloney from Pinleague and questions from the SMCDallas audience, and you have a memorable result.

Q: No social media presentation is complete without the dreaded question “How to you demonstrate ROI?” So let’s get that out of the way first.

Michaels Stores sees enough benefit to have 1/3 of their three-person social media team dedicated to Pinterest full time. According to Robert Freeman, Pinterest is well-suited to help customers get ideas for DIY craft projects.

Pinterest helps to create a fun, sharing culture for Kendra Scott. Lauren Vandiver says they leverage just an hour a day on the application to drive 6% of their overall web site traffic.

Within the last 6 months, corporate brands have started to see real ROI, according to Lisa Lantz of Tenthwave. One Kings Lane, an ecommerce site featuring curated design and décor sales promoted a sweepstakes. Contestants built pin boards around the theme using at least one item from the ecommerce site. The winning contestant received a $1000 gift card and the chance to curate their own sale. The brand grew 800k fans in just 9 days. Plus, the fan-created theme boards served as a priceless focus group on complementary products for possible future sales.

Q: Is Pinterest appropriate for all brands, B-to-B or not for profit?

Panelists see great potential for charities, such as Habitat for Humanity, with heart-warming pictures of completed homes. On the other hand, industrial-oriented businesses like Joe’s Plumbing may not have great visuals. Despite lacking visuals, service industries can pin interesting content related to their industries, including infographics. Just ask yourself, “would I find the content worth pinning?” to determine if it’s suited to Pinterest.

Q: What’s the point with secret boards and group boards?

Kendra Scott uses secret boards to “stage” new products and promotions as they are preparing materials prior to a blast customer email. And Stancil finds that group boards are good to follow, since they provide a rich source of content for his fashion-themed boards.

Q: What are Pinterest’s biggest weaknesses?

It needs an API! Brands can’t adequately measure their results or obtain follower data. There are relatively few management or analytics tools compared to Facebook or Twitter. Pingraphy can be used for scheduling, which is a needed function for businesses since Saturday morning is the best time for pins and re-pins. And Pinleague, headed by CEO Robert P Maloney, provides a free analytics dashboard and a for fee audience building engine.

Q: Is Pinterest here for the long term?

Vandiver believes that many are gravitating away from Twitter and toward Pinterest and Instagram because of the rich graphic appeal. In addition to its scrapbooking uses, it can also be used for bookmarking. There are concerns that the application is vulnerable to copyright issues, since many users re-pin copyrighted art and illustrations, often without attribution.

A key to long term viability for Pinterest is “if it pivots to mobile, it’s here to stay,” says Stancil. And, if it nails search within its platform, it has staying power. “I don’t see any reason it will go away, short of a massive copyright takedown.”

Thanks to our sponsors Zoe’s Kitchen and Allen Tsai Photography. Props to our longer term sponsors Pocketstop, Websynthesis, and Net Social Education.