8 Tips to Maximize the Results of Nonprofit Fundraising and Supporter Engagement through Pinterest

In my last Social Media Summer Series post, I wrote about the 5 Benefits for Nonprofit Supporter Engagement on Pinterest, an online pinboard that has become incredibly popular in social networking. Previous to that I wrote 5 Tips to Effectively Use Pinterest for Nonprofit Fundraising and Engagement and Mashable has also compiled additional helpful tips and statistics.

Today’s post will help with developing a strategy to maximize the results from incorporating Pinterest in social media marketing plans. There are several things to consider when establishing and maintaining the brand presence of your nonprofit. The platform is very user friendly, interactive, addictive and popular and the following 8 tips will help optimize your efforts:

1. Research When deciding on what content to share and how to use Pinterest, research how your competitors are using it to help represent your brand at the same level as other like-minded organizations. Simply search by your keywords to see what pin board themes are being used and the type of content they are sharing and interaction that is taking place.
2. Create & Organize. It’s important to create themes or categories for your Pinterest boards that define your cause while engaging your visitors. A Pinterest user (Pinner) should be able to navigate through your board’s themes to easily find content to get a complete picture of your organization’s mission and the overall message. Ultimately, you want to visually tell the story of your organization and all it represents and values.
3. Originality. Using stock photos defeats the purpose of the platform. Users are more likely to respond to and prefer original content that they can ‘like’ and share. Successful Pinterest initiatives often include a mix of original and existing content. Tell a story – there needs to be a connection from the content being shared to the message or values that your organization holds. Before pinning, ask yourself: “How does the content fit in with my organization’s image and or the story I want to tell?”
4. Interact. Pinning and then sitting back waiting for others to re-pin or ‘like’ your content is not going to generate your desired results. It’s important to interact with other Pinners by re-pinning, ‘liking’ and mentioning their content. By re-pinning other’s contents, you are engaging other users and bringing their attention to your pin boards and also helping your SEO results. Follow your followers back and you have an opportunity to see what content is popular with other Pinners.
5. Integrate. The beauty of Pinterest is that it can be integrated with the other two social media platform giants Facebook and Twitter. Pinners can automatically share their pins to their Twitter account, further expanding your reach and increasing your Twitter activity. Currently there is no integration of Pinterest to Facebook Business Pages and Pinterest links have to be copied on to your organization’s page directly. Also adding the ‘Pin It’ button to your website and blog pages gives your site visitors an easy opportunity to share and pin your content to their personal boards.
6. Promote. The platform is a great way to promote your organization’s cause, appeals, and events. However, it is important to understand that a presence on this platform should not be too self-promotional, as it can turn off Pinners from following and sharing your content. Similar to other platforms it’s important to diversify the content that is shared.
7. Market Research. One unique and innovative way to use Pinterest is to post potential marketing content, images or appeals and test which are the most effective and engaging to Pinners. This can easily be assessed by what draws the most attention through users ‘likes’ and re-pinning of your content. As Pinterest continues to evolve more robust reporting may become available but you can currently use Pinterly or PinReach to check the impact of your Pins.
8. Share Regularly. Throughout this social media summer series, a common theme and tip throughout the various social media platforms is to share content daily. Social media is fast paced and requires ongoing attention and Pinterest is no different. Those who are socially connected want access to new and fresh content, therefore sharing on a regular basis will ensure that you are actively engaging current and new Pinners and will strengthen the results of your Pinterest initiatives.

Keeping these tips in mind will definitely put you on track to a successful Pinterest marketing campaign. You may experience a slow start but if you persevere, begin interacting with other Pinners and sharing worthwhile content, you will see your presence grow and your use evolve.

You can browse through all the previous posts I’ve written in my Social Media Summer Series for nonprofits which includes a series on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin along with other related topics. Happy Pinning!

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.