Unless you’ve been under a rock lately, you’ve probably heard the word “Pinterest” being used in all sorts of media and marketing conversations. However, you aren’t alone if you don’t quite know how to use it for your center. Pinterest is a great tool for highlighting brands, items and even featured events. Anything that has an image on your website or your retailers’ sites, can be pinned by someone; which translates to instant social sharing of your images and merchandise.
The Basics
Pinterest is a platform for Pinning your Interests onto a “virtual pinboard” where you can keep track of your favorites recipes, fashions, or crafty ideas all in one spot on cyberspace. The format mirrors how one might read a fashion magazine and either dog-ear a page to come back to (aka Like) or tear out a page and add it to a collage or scrapbook (aka Pin to a Board). For this reason, Pinterest is a very visual medium and makes sharing and tracking items simple. The audience is also primarily women and similar to that of a typical Shopping Center’s target demographic.
Is it worth the effort?
Pinterest is now ranked number three most-popular social media network in the U.S., behind Facebook and Twitter, according to Experian Hitwise (click here for the full article ). That means, since March 2010 when it launched with an Invitation-Only membership, Pinterest has already overtaken networks like LinkedIn and Instagram and had 104 million visits last month alone! Not to mention, Pinterest users are by nature an active audience and are interacting with multiple other sites and users through the Pinterest network.
We think that’s a compelling reason to get involved!
Getting Started
If you haven’t already, begin by signing up for an account.
Once you have been invited to participate you can set up your profile with your center logo, contact information, etc. Now you’re ready to create some Boards! We suggest starting Boards around center events, seasonal trends, fashion categories, and much more. You can have as many boards as you like so be creative.
Click here for a great article by HubSpot that highlights how to use Pinterest for Business
Add it to your Facebook Page
There’s also a pretty nifty App out there called Pinvolve which has been featured on Techcrunch recently and allows for instant “Pinability” when it comes to your Facebook posts. Since most consumers use Pinterest through their Facebook accounts, it only makes sense to keep the conversation in one spot. Pinvolve is a third-party app that creates a Pinterest tab on your Facebook Page and houses your posts as Pins; making it that much easier for your Facebook content to get shared on either platform.
Get your app here!
How one center is mastering Pinterest:
Sunrise MarketPlace was an early adopter of Pinterest and has been seeing great results since they decided to join the network. Jamie McDaniels, their Marketing Director, has been using it to keep in touch with their consumers on a more creative and personal level than ever before.
“Our goal of using Pinterest is to spark an interest and drive traffic to the businesses; whether they are buying that pinned product or not, they are inspired to visit Sunrise MarketPlace. We strive to stay human with our strategy and will always work diligently to connect on a personal level.”
On their account, pinterest.com/sunrisemrktplce, you can find boards such as “Rainy Day at SMP” or “SMP Crafts” and everything in between. 
McDaniels pins products from her retailers’ websites as well as other urls to come up with unique boards that still relate to the center’s overall branding and feel. Giving consumers a forum to express their style and offer fashion tips can be a very addictive experience and ultimately, draw them to the center to fulfill their new inspirations.
“Pinterest has helped us reach consumers on a personal and creative level by identifying products found within the shopping district that they can specifically go buy today. Pinterest allows us to be creative with ideas to post by just relating to something taking place that day, like forecast, trends or holidays.”
The key is to stay true to your center’s identity but keep your boards fun and interesting. So go ahead, join in the Pin frenzy!
